Old planes

[alfkan]

I have planes nearly 20 yrs of age and still obtaining 80% LF. When will the passengers start to look somewhere else? Any experiences?

[Sami]

I could answer the same what I answered here yesterday .. https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,23695.msg117131.html#msg117131

In short: Company Image only is irrelevant when not knowing anything of the other variables affected. It's one of 10-20 things ...

ie. just the plane age alone is irrelevant, and there cannot be a direct answer or correlation to a plane and and load factor. It does have an effect but it is very small compared to other variables. The amount of seats sold (and the resulting load factor) are a combination of many things naturally. Generally speaking if the plane is in good condition you can keep flying with it even up to 30 years of age but that means your maintenance costs will go through the roof at somewhere after 20-25 years, resulting in lower profits.

But of course if speaking technically, if you'd have two completely identical routes (same times, same prices, same everything), with other flown by an airline with new planes while other has older ones, the new guy wins. But as said in practise it's not that simple and there's really no answer.