Commonality vs Upgrading

[Daemus]

I currently am running leased 727-200adv's with a new company that started flights in Oct 96 (it is mid-Dec 96 at the time of this posting). After running numbers on used craft that fit the route type I wanted to focus, I chose the the 727 despite their age, figuring I would just try to get what I could out of them. A combination of their fuel burn, capacity, and lease price made sense over other options for used craft that would suit my route type.

Now, planning ahead, the 727's aren't going to last forever as some are already over 20 yrs of age. I know the plane I want to upgrade to but I am not sure what type of maintenance fee hits I will take (different model, different engines, different company) for the same size class.

When I do make the choice to start acquiring the planes, I want to be sure I make the acquisition with the right number coming in right away, to reduce the impact of the added fees from the lack of commonality down to a reasonable level. Right now, I don't know if adding a single plane (or even a few to start) will cause that plane to run negative from the added fees.

I plan to keep running the 727's I have along with the new planes, until the 727's just aren't practical anymore, so I am not looking at replacement right now. I will have their income still while I make the change but without knowing the possible fees increase from a new plane line I don't know how much they need to be making to cover possible losses and still allow for continued expansion. The new plane type should be an improvement on overall efficiency

I hope someone who has experience with this is willing to provide some insight on how I should go about making the additions. I want to make a decision that gets me the planes as quickly as possible while still maintaining decent positive cash-flow so I don't drastically hinder further expansion. If you need more information, just let me know. Thank you for taking a look.

[Sami]

Short answer, if you change the fleet types you will take some losses since you cannot operate the best efficiency while "in transit" between a/c types. But this isn't and shouldn't be a major problem (unless your airline is already in troubles).