Fleet utilisation numbers...
A friend was recently bemoaning the current 737 fleet utilisation numbers: twenty years ago the fleet average was around 10 hours/day...and a lease cost around $323,000/month for a -400
Today our resident math genius has driiven the daily use down to circa 6 hours while paying slightly more per diem for a lease.
The idea that 738 hulls are being freed up for more profitable routes is true in theory, but does not appear to have a basis in fact.
As an aside, it does cost QF a lot less for an overnight crewed by cabin crew on 33K/year (717, as revealed by one of their crew): 1/3 the mainliine cost approximately.
Can someone here reveal what meal payments the 717 "enjoy"?