Can anyone explain why it is financially beneficial for a LCC to turn over an aircraft every 10 years but not financially beneficial for a Full Service airline to do the same?
I would think it is a combination of factors:
- LCC aircraft tend to accumulate cycles very quickly.
- LCCs tend to want to avoid heavy maintenance "D" checks
Some of the other posters are probably correct that legacy airlines would love to turn over their aircraft quicker and some of the wealther ones (SQ/EK for example) do.
I'm not technical so can't contribute as to whether modern aircraft need less maintenance. My hunch is that they need different maintenance and that tends to be more of the pull out, throw away then replace rather than the older style reconditioning. I assume aircraft are part of the throw away age, just like everything else.