Spare aircraft

[jordanD]

Maybe someone who's actually done this can shed some insight. I've been thinking about getting a spare aircraft to put on routes who's usual aircraft is undergoing a C check, but would this actually keep me profitable while that aircraft is in C check or would it just waste money the other 90% of the time? I'm generally pretty profitable for a small airline (19 planes in operation) but just one or two aircraft going into C check is enough to put me in the red for the week. Would it be cheaper to just buy a spare outright and keep it sitting around or just lease one when the need arises and then dump it when no longer needed?

[Kontio]

I suppose the problem is that if you have a small airline and C checks are really a problem for you, you can't really afford to have spare aircraft. If you can afford it, you no longer really need it.

[Curse]

It's simply not possible.

Small example from my airline with only 270 aircraft (and there are times with much more checks at one time)... and think about you must have in backup aircraft with same MTOW, Runway requirement and if possible seating config.


[attachment expired]

[jordanD]

It's simply not possible.

Small example from my airline with only 270 aircraft (and there are times with much more checks at one time)... and think about you must have in backup aircraft with same MTOW, Runway requirement and if possible seating config.

Since I operate only one type of aircraft (MD-80) I can't really see that being too much of a problem.

[Curse]

Need the same screenshot of an airline with over 120 MD-90?

You can try to do this, but the possible profit is in no ratio to the time you must invest.

[Sigma]

Since I operate only one type of aircraft (MD-80) I can't really see that being too much of a problem.

Try it.  I bet you don't last more than about one real-life day

It's crazy to go through the trouble for a small increase in revenues.  You're looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of a 5% revenue boost (and that's IF you can manage to catch them all, which require a TON of managing their maintenance scheduling and enough planes to cover them all).  In real-life, that's huge -- and of course in real-life you get really p***ed customers when you don't fly a route for a couple weeks.  In AWS with margins in the 30-50% range, and pax that don't even notice or care when you're gone, it's not even remotely close to being worth the effort.

[munipandita]

Dude.. i posted a topic like this on the Air Travel Boom forum..

And, believe me.. it doesn't work 

I tried.. But, you have to login every time to switch the aircrafts.

If this process was automated, it would be great.. But since you have to do it manually.. It's a lot of hard work for nothing, because, if you put your mind to work, if you have.. lets say, 100 aircrafts, and, because of 5 or 6 aircrafts in maintenance it really affects your profits, then something is wrong with your company..

[munipandita]

The time you would spend managing this spare aircraft you can read a book or something