C-Checks are the keypoint when buying aircrafts

[meiru]

It's a nightmare if you have to pay for a C-Check... I make only a little more than 100k per month and DC93 and pay 1.5 Mio per C-Check... so, I really don't see how you can make money with old Jets... ok, some maybe... but not many... and then you have to fly them so often, that they fall appart and you get the bad CI for delays... :-)

[Sami]

You are probavly reading some info wrong, or then have very very bad routes, since some 200k profit per WEEK is normal for that size planes.

[meiru]

ok, it's possible to make more money... but even then it's not really that much compared to the costs... that's my opinion... but... everyone can do what he wants...

[schro]

I did quite well with older jets in prior worlds. Its really a tradeoff - you chose between lower lease costs or lower maintenance costs when starting up.  Typically I"ll get started with older jets which lets me expand quicker (as I have a high profit early on), and by the time the first C checks roll around, its not that big of a deal to pay for them.  If you're an established airilne (i.e. over 9-12 game months old) and you're still worrying about c-check costs for planes under 20 years old, then you've got bigger problems on your hands than your plane's age....

[Sigma]

ok, it's possible to make more money... but even then it's not really that much compared to the costs... that's my opinion... but... everyone can do what he wants...

Even if an old plane cost, as you said, $1.5M, a new similar plane is still going to cost you about $500K.  That's a total difference, per year, of just $1M.  Sure it's money and it is a difference, but the plane should be making enough to cover that additional cost in just a few weeks.

But it's not as simple as simply saying "it costs more".  You also have to compare it to the cost of NOT having that plane.  What if you waited and got a new one -- that will take at least 3 months and as long as 3 years.  So even if you got a plane with absolutely no queue at all and just waited the 3-month minimum, it will still take 2-3 years worth of extra C-Check costs that you'd incur on the older plane, just to make up for the fact that you chose to not have any income coming in and wait.  Then there's also the fact that, by waiting, you may have (almost certainly did) give that route up to someone else -- now you're not going to make as much money with that new plane anyway because you're either going to have to put it on a lesser route or go head-to-head with someone.

In the end, there's a lot of benefit to just getting those planes, whatever their age, and putting them onto a route than there is waiting for "better" planes.  The real "keypoint" [sic] when buying aircraft is to buy absolutely every single last one you can afford and only worry about commonality.  You then use those planes to get the income coming in to replace them with better ones, and run them while you wait.  It's only D-Checks you should worry about.  Don't buy any plane that will have a D-Check due in the timespan of your lease.

[Jupiter]

I find the easiest thing to do it limit my purchases to planes that have the C-Check in ~11 months, then lease it for a year, and pay the fee to return the plane JUST before the C-Check happens, when I'll time it to be replaced by a new plane.

Generally the cost of dumping the plane is significantly less than it going through the C-check.

[ucfknightryan]

I find the easiest thing to do it limit my purchases to planes that have the C-Check in ~11 months, then lease it for a year, and pay the fee to return the plane JUST before the C-Check happens, when I'll time it to be replaced by a new plane.

Generally the cost of dumping the plane is significantly less than it going through the C-check.

What aircraft are you leasing that you can reliably count on finding a replacement 11 months later?  Also, wouldn't you make even more money by just expanding by an aircraft and performing a C-check?

[Jupiter]

What aircraft are you leasing that you can reliably count on finding a replacement 11 months later?  Also, wouldn't you make even more money by just expanding by an aircraft and performing a C-check?

I don't think so.

As long as you're using a plane that is fairly commonly available on the marketplace (generally older... doesn't matter too much if you're replacing it in a year or so). In ATB, for instance, I used 727-200ADV's, and after a year am replacing them with new 737-800's.

The C-checks on these cost something like 1.2 million. Sure, you could just use the new plane for new routes to make more money, but really then you're just delaying the problem. Eventually that ridiculous C-Check is going to come up again... plus, you'll want to phase these out for commonality and age reasons. By relying on them as part of a long term solution, it would get expensive.

I don't know... my strategy may be flawed... I'm certainly not the best airline in the sim but I'm doing pretty well for myself, and haven't had to worry about the crippling cost of C-checks on older planes, while still being able to use the older planes initially to expand routes.