Please Help

[simplair]

I am a top ten airline in a private world with 7 hubs. 4 at Asia(HKG, TPE, HND and KIX), and one at HEL,DXB and JFK. I operate a fleet of 737-300, with some A320-200 and A319 for short haul. I use 767-300ER for long haul and 747-400 for some extreme long one.

Everything seems very good and i have got a steady growth. However the plane maintance cost increase every month. It was just 12000000 2 years ago and it became 27000000 this year.

The cost is so high and my profit is decreasing. What should I do?

[skywaker9]

Simple, replace your aircraft.  Maintenance costs go up the older your planes get.  Example, in one world I dumped 3 2  year old F-200s for 3 new HS-48Es and my maintenance bill dropped $3m a month (which at the time was a lot of $ to me)...

[simplair]

But one problem is that i tried to replace some of my 7 years 737-200 Adv with A319, I scrap them and the cost did not decrease.

That's the problem i have.

[blue25]

Maybe you can try doing so with the rest of your fleet. You could also consider the cost of fuel per month. That's all have to say.

[Hal]

Sell the B747's, B747 is airline killer.

[pseudoswede]

So is the 763.

[trimotor43]

The big widebody planes like the 747's, 767's and such shouldn't kill your airline if used properly. In other words, used on routes between large cities at half the distance or more of their range, especially with no or minimal competition. Anything closer and you'll get killed by competing short and medium range aircraft.

[Obmit]

And to keep your mx fees down, try to replace all aircraft about every 3 years.

[Cheung Airlines]

Wide bodies wont work, nomatter its on short hops or long routes.

Short hop means more competition which drives the ticket price very low.
Longer route means less income, which is basically the same as Short hops.

However, early DC-10 and L-1011 should give you a more decent DOC as theyve less pax when compared to 747s or their descendants.

In my opinion, the only decent-profit making mordern wide bodies would be 762ER on super-long hauls.

So, sell (or at least lease them to others) as soon as you can.

[laurus]

I have 28 A320s and they are 6.5 years old. Do you think I should replace them ?

[pilotguy121a]

actually i find long hual flights to be profitable. Take JFK to Rome and JFK to Paris both can be accomplished by any big plane, i have various 767s and 777s, then only do a .5 frequency. I make at least 150K off those routes so about 300K per plane your going to do this with.

my current maintenance bill is 25m daily or 603m monthly. my fleet is on average 1 year old and i have 160 737-700HGWs and at least 30 long haul planes and some old CRJs.

[blue25]

I have 28 A320s and they are 6.5 years old. Do you think I should replace them ?

Yes you should - the MX costs are probably astronomical! Maybe you could try the A330 or Boeing 757-200/300.

[laurus]

I have 28 A320s and they are 6.5 years old. Do you think I should replace them ?

Yes you should - the MX costs are probably astronomical! Maybe you could try the A330 or Boeing 757-200/300.

I think I'll just chose the A321. I operate the A320s from small bases in wich the A321 will fit perfectley.

[Cheung Airlines]

actually i find long hual flights to be profitable. Take JFK to Rome and JFK to Paris both can be accomplished by any big plane, i have various 767s and 777s, then only do a .5 frequency. I make at least 150K off those routes so about 300K per plane your going to do this with.

But after the whole month, the extra MX cost brought by those giants will actually loose money (This is AM, not RL). The larger the plane is, the more you loose. In case you really want to do Long Hauls in 90s or later, use only 767-200ER. 777s are way too big for any routes, same goes for 747s and later models of DC-10/MD-11/L-1011. I'ld say the few profitable LH planes are:
1. Boeing B-767-200ER, 290 seater (GE CF6-80C2B7F engine will get you a range of 7658nm)
2. Convair CV-990, 120 seater (A bit expensive when comapred to 3,4 and 5)
3. Ilyushin IL-62, 198 seater 
4. Lockheed L-1649A Starliner, 92 seater  <-Slow, indeed, very slow
5. Tupolev Tu-114D, 120 seater <- Best LH plane ever

[convair0990]

I'm in dec-1969 in my world. My maintenance costs are: 47,934,883 and my fleet average age is: 2,2 years.
But, these costs are from an 550 aircraft fleet.
I have: 160 Bac 1-11-200(those are the bigest aircraft type in my fleet with the oldest reaching 4.5 years - soon will be retired), 110 DC-9-30, 120- DC-8-62(wich are more profitable than the IL-62), 20 Fokker F-28(i"m using this for my less-demand base, St. Louis and 90 HS-121 Trident 1E-104(a good aircraft, less fuel and price than 727-100 with more seat capacity) and 50 Ilyushin IL-62 .
So, in 1970 i thank the comments about 747, because i'm afraid about their really profit, because they have more than 400 seat, and my biggest aircraft in fleet are the IL-62.