Old vs. new fleets

[jjfluk]

Please excuse if this has been asked before, but there seems to be 2 distinct strategies on fleet age by low costs airlines.

Easy and Ryanair buy brand new and have a young fleet.

Jet2 is at the other extreme.

Can both strategies be right? What makes an old fleet right for Jet2 and not for Easy?

[Torque Tonight]

What makes an old fleet right for Jet2 and not for Easy?

The fact that they can't afford the up front costs of a new fleet.

Most of us have explored this thought process buying our first cars, and most of us have ended up buying a 15 year old beater because we were skint. Think about purchase / lease costs, maintenance, running costs / fuel economy, resale value. With hindsight we'd have all spent less in the long run by buying a newer, more expensive car at the beginning, but we couldn't raise the finances at the time.

[jjfluk]

Thanks for the interesting car analogy. If you are correct, then Jet2 has a higher long-term cost base for its fleet, because of its inability to finance new ones, purchased outright.

However surely this does not stack up, given the existence of aircraft leasing companies, who do have access to capital. If the combination of operating costs and depreciation were lower for a 5 year lease on a new aircraft than a 15 year old lease, then Jet2 would lease new aircraft, as they would be cheaper.

I suspect the answer lies with the amount of maintenance hours available. If Jet2 get flown less hours per day than Easy, then they have the time in the schedule to conduct the higher-levels of maintenance required.