Mama:
I was aware of the class 1/2 requirements for different phases of flight and I acknowledge the payload/performance benefits in all phases of flight for the newer aircraft. Again I am not sure how often the additional performance is used, but it is of course always nice to have in the event that..... I just wondered if it all out weighed the bottom line in the eyes of those other than the crew of course.
I didn't realise that such age restirctions had been placed on aircraft entering the African market. That being the case, it throws the old vs new equation out of the window if correct (I'm not sure how or when Caverton placed the Dauphin - seems to go against the import restriction). On a competition basis I would argue that it is not as competitive as other markets eg Europe, but the point that two larger companies are competing is a point well taken.
Still all the new aircraft are extremely expensive and I am not sure yet that we have seen some of the tremendous profits for the oil companies filter down to the operators. It will be interesting to know what compettitive positions are taken at the next tenders given such high profits for oil companies, stagnant margins for operators and the significantly higher cost of new replacement aircraft.
Thanks for the input.