How reliable are the over 20s?

[Thunderball 2]

There are quite a few jet aircraft on the UK register and in use by charter carriers - especially B757s - that are now more than 20 years old.

Obviously each aircraft needs to be taken on its merits depending upon the operator and the history of the airframe, but overall how are these aircraft standing up in operation?

[Please note: This is a serious question, and relates to a fleet planning issue facing a start-up. I'm very specifically NOT looking for anecdotal "horror stories" of ANY kind! UK air transport operators are stunningly safe and exceptional professional, so let's just not go there. I'm sure you'll also appreciate that any suggestions about this post being written by a journalist will be equally inappropriate. Thank you! :ok: ]

[Young Paul]

I would suggest it depends more on the factors you mentioned. If you want to evaluate an aircraft, you would want to see whether all airworthiness and maintenance directives from the manufacturer have been complied with; whether it has been maintained according to the published maintenance schedule; how much it is carrying by way of deferred defects (if in service) and reported damage. The point is that as an aicraft gets older, the cost of maintaining it to manufacturer's standard increases - but as long as it has been maintained to that standard, there's no reason that it shouldn't be fundamentally as reliable as one straight from the manufacturer.