Airliner lifecycle ?

[J4CKO]

How long do they last ?

Interested in what point they get retired, assuming no major damage is it cycles, hours, maintenance due, problems or a combination ?

Whats the average lifespan of a plane, who has the oldest fleet and is it true that when western carriers are finished with them they go and live out their days in Africa and parts of Asia ?

Any interesting stories ?

[J4CKO]

NM62 said:

Then they covered the end of life reclamation by the destruction of an MD80 ( sad to see any plane reduced to scrap ).

I know what you mean but I always think that if an airliner is being broken up, its carried millions, safely and it is a good outcome, choosing to reduce it to bits when there are those that end up in bits for other reasons, its done its job.

[J4CKO]

My son, the one who is doing the apprenticeship with Thomas cook is currently flying on G-TCCA, had a look on flightradar and it used to have a different reg, now 22 years old and a few years back had this happen from a hard landing in punta Cana.

http://www.7daysinparadise.com/smf/index.php?topic...

apparently a pilot in training came in a little hard, must have been a hell of a smack to wrinkle the fuselage !

Wonder how long they will keep that one on the fleet seeing as it is "Cat D"