Originally Posted by
cmf146
As you rightly state Cityflyer are already three aircraft down on the operational fleet of last December, and AW has also now left. It ferried to Exeter last Saturday for hand-back, and AX is due to follow next month with all this quite a few months ahead of the replacement Emb's coming on-line.
This is a poor practice which one can find elsewhere, eg on the railway, where assets start to be disposed, or at least withdrawn from service, before their replacements are delivered and commissioned, and leads inevitably to unreliability of service.
Regarding the aircraft handed back at end of lease, most leases make provision for the lease to be extended short-term on the same terms if both parties agree. As BAe appear to have no new customer in prospect for the aircraft (which may indeed be performing their last commercial services here) they wouldn't be averse, I'm sure, to maintaining fleet strength for a while, so it just seems parsimony on the part of BA. I can't believe the whole fleet is coming up for major and expensive checks all at once.