Where do you find the cycle and hours data for a given airframe ? If you feel uncomfortable posting the answer, a private message is fine.
b) Given that the low cost airlines will automatically end up with high cycles and relatively high hours on short haul aircraft how do the different airframe retention concepts of SW v. the 2 major european players affect safety and incident statistics ? (run forever to get as big a bang for your investment buck v. replace while still in prime of life and optimise on second hand value at times when new airframes are at a premium due to short supply).
I may be missing the crux of your question so feel free to accept other's responses.
The airframe hours and cycles are part of the required record keeping and of course one of the first things the NTSB will publized after they are vetted.
Fleet management has many considerations, commonality, market fit, repair and maintenance, etc. regardless of new or old safety management is a task shared by the operator, the manufacturer and the regulator. So in my mind there is no intent to see how far you can run an airplane to see if it will break catstrophicaly. Anywhere along the line, human error and/or ignorance (surprise factor) is present. No way would I predict anything else. I await some more specific investigative facts before delving more deeply into anything more.