How do you figure they are getting old? Average hours for the ERJ 35/45 is around 50,000 hours. I think we have a handful over 30 but below 35 while the majority of the others are all low to mid 20s. Sounds like we have plenty of years left on them.

Partly because its not the hours its the cycles.... But I dont know where they compare as far as that is concerned....

It seems to me in their sales website at one point that I read that the EMBs were designed for a 65,000 cycle life.

My observation is that the erj is/was a quick turbo prop conversion designed for a relatively short life span. At one point I recall a 20000 hour airframe limit. This has gone up as it has performed somewhat better and longer than designed. I don't think Embraer had two to three hour stage lengths in mind 12 years ago. That has saved a ton of cycles on the airframe. They still seem tired to me. The reliability of the older half of the fleet seems less to me. Twenty years for an airliner is a long time. Twenty years on a regional airliner is a very long time. Life limited parts, finishing parts, dispatch reliability all figure into operating costs. I dont claim to be an airline economist, but I surmise that at one point the cost of operating an older airframe crosses the line into a need to acquire new equipment due to pure economics. Eagle launched EMB 600 and 601 in May of 1998 in ORD, (I had a piece of cake and punch, there was some balloons too!) I believe both are back from TSA sabbatical putting them at 14 years this May. Time flies. I keep my opinion they are old. Albeit, some older then others.

You are correct, they are an older airplane and there is a variety of factors that comes into account when deciding to replace these airplanes. They are old by industry standards and there are more economical options out there the limiting factor is SCOPE in this case. But look at the 1900 that Gulfstream (now silver) and Great Lakes fly, these airplanes are old with high cycles but there isn't a better replacement for the type of operations they do!

A scrub told me they think all 135/140/145s parked by next year, and half the CRJ fleet after that. I might need to start polishing my resume after all cause this is sounding serious.

The preliminary Vacancy/Displacement bid has the most junior Captain in SJU with a hire date of Dec 06, a 5 year upgrade (for the time being)!

Sounds like someone has been playing "lets swallow the stuff under the sink".... Real reliable source...

Heard from a different source that all the 135/140s are removed from the maint paint schedule.

Sorry, maybe you didn't get the sarcasm in my post. The point was I see a lot of these "A check airman told me" or "A mx sup. said..." or "Danny the head scrub is of the opinion that..." and people should be cautious about rumors.