pwalhx
Very true, whats the difference from a passengers point of view between a tech 2014 B787 & a tech 1990 B733, i suppose that you could argue that a brand new aeroplane should work!! and that a failure is in that case exceptional conversely a 20+ year old aircraft is unlikely to have the same reliability as a brand new aircraft and therefore a failure is not exceptional??
I have no idea what despatch reliability is between different airlines and in any event it is probably only one factor in a companies ability to preform on time.
If you have plenty of back up cover either in house or external then i guess a tech problem is less of an issue if you have zero back up, the likes of easy jet & Ryanair don't seem to have the bad press over delays that the second tier UK airlines have, whether that is down to fleet size or newer aircraft is more difficult to judge.......