Would an A310 go good together with my A300 fleet?

[stevenf]

Would an A310 go good together with my A300 fleet?

[Sigma]

They do share commonality, so it wouldn't impact your total fleet numbers, so that's very good.

However, the A310 is a bit of a difficult plane to operate.  It has all the expenses of operating an A300 but carries far fewer passengers and is used to carry them farther -- which means a lot less ticket revenue per flight and less flights too.  On a per-passenger bases, the A310 sucks down fuel.

That makes an A310 a difficult plane to make good money with.  When fuel prices are low, it does fairly good provided you can keep it full.  When fuel prices are high, it'll be one of your first planes to lose money.  If competition is high, it doesn't do well because it needs a high LF to maintain profitability due to its high operating costs.  If competition is high AND fuel prices are high, give it up, it'll hemorrhage cash.

If you've only got a relative handful of narrow, long-range flights that you want to fly and you already operate the A300, the A310 is a good choice.  It won't make you as much money as some alternatives, but there's no reason to "waste" a fleet group on some plane you don't plan on operating that much.  But if you plan on operating any more than maybe 20 of them, you should consider simply using an alternative fleet group instead.

[stevenf]

Hi Thank you for the in depth explanation! I think I will leave it and save up for some other aircraft. Thanks again.