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Takes a deep breath: can anyone explain how costs of maintenaning a fleet like that on the ground, would way up against flying empty? At what point would it mak
by kbr2000 6y ago
Takes a deep breath: can anyone explain how costs of maintenaning a fleet like that on the ground, would way up against flying empty? At what point would it make sense to "mothball" airplanes for longer term storage?
- tyingq 6y agoDoesn't give the costs you're looking for, but this article does a good job of explaining that even the "mothball" protocol is fairly complicated: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2019/08/12/boeing-737-max-desert-storage/#11ca967b1e61 https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2019/08/12/boein...
- t0mas88 6y agoMothballing a plane is quite hard. For parking it a few months you would need to secure the engines and regularly run things like hydraulic systems etc. The batteries are really not designed to sit still, so it's best to take those out and connect ground power to operate systems once in a while. Maintenance costs are based on different schedules, there is usually a time limit (as in calendar time), a flight time limit and a cycles limit (a cycle is one take-off + landing). Which one is more limiting depends on the type of operation the plane was designed for, A long-haul plane is designed for more flight-time vs cycles, a regional jet is designed for a high cycle count. So maintenance costs will decrease if you keep them on the ground, but some components may then "time-out" which will still incur maintenance costs to bring them back to airworthy condition.