I’m currently dabbling in a bit of old vs new aircraft and the operators who get newer or even new aircraft win all the time in my line of business. If everyone shelled out and started investing in newer turbine equipment, even if it was with only one older machine, aka less than 10 years old and then put their rates up accordingly it would slowly bring the standard of aircraft up.
As far as the punters in the NT remote areas go, doesn’t matter what the charter costs are as the taxpayer in most cases will be paying for it anyway.