Oracle,
For one who speaks with such authority you dont seem to know all that much
Over half the
VB fleet is owned not leased.
A significant portion of the QF fleet is leased not owned
Airline economics 101 says that he who owns too many of his aeroplanes has too much capital tied up in airframes.
The trick is to get the balance right.
As for unit costs, a bigger aeroplane will almost always have a low seat mile cost that a smaller one, however that is only an advantage if you are selling all the seats.
If you are not selling all the seats, the airframe with the number of seats closest to what you are selling is the better choice.
Typically the smaller the aircraft the lower the block cost, so again it is a matter of getting the balance right.
QF run this balancing act by shifting 737-400's, -800's 767's etc onto various city pairs at various times - the 767 for peak operations and the 73's for times when demand is lower.
If they are going to only sell a 737 worth of seats, a 737 is cheaper to run than a 767 - so the advantage of the lower seat mile cost of the 767 is lost.
Yet again there is another balancing act, and that is the number of different aircraft types in your fleet. the more types the more complex and expensive it is to run your airline overall.
By standardising on one type, you save on the complexity cost, but you lose by having markets not available to you - because your aircraft is either too big or too small.
In most cases getting the mix of everything right is more good luck than good management.
As for
VB or anyone else going arse up, well there is a lot of water to go under the Australian aviation bridge before that happens. If fuel gets to 200 a barrel, there will be many more issues than just an airline or two going toes up.
Betsy, if you think canning a 3 times a week service is buckling then you need to get out more.