What is the average age of an average Passenger Jumbo jet, and what is the average number of flights it will..

Question

....make in a lifetime?

Answer 1

I would not go on an aircraft over 25 years old. These days the big companies such as Virgin and BA only keep planes  around 20 years, they then get passed on to countries like Thiland and Russia....etc...

One Two Go Airlines in Thiland keep 5th hand aircraft from the 1970's......On of their MD-90's crashed killing all on board last year.

The more you pay, the safer you are!

Answer 2

In 1993 I travel the Atlantic in a Lockheed Tristar L1011, it was then about 20 years old and a bit of a wreck, it went on doing the same job with refits until 2002 when it was converted to a freight carrier, its probably still flying today somewhere in the world.

Answer 3

A lot of them are about 30 years old!  They fly all the time but they are tested and mechanics check them out all the time... they are worth a lot of money! - you cannot just write them off like an old car...

Answer 4

Its true that an airliner can fly for 30+ years, however most of them in service in the US are less than 20 years old.  In fact the majority are less than 10 years old.

All of the life-limited parts of airplanes are replaced regularly, meaning that although the aircraft itself might be 20 years old most of the stuff on it has been replaced far more recently than that.

A typical airliner will fly something like 4 or 5 legs per day (depending on where it goes...Trans-Pacific flights really cant do more than 1 leg per day simply because that leg might be 14 hours long) and fly nearly every day.  I have flown aircraft that are 10 years old and have 20,000 takeoffs and landings on them,

Answer 5

Jet airliners are designed to serve for 20 to 40 years in regular service.

Small operators often continue to operate aircraft older than that.  I used to fly for a small cargo operator that uses Douglas C-54 and C-118 cargo planes and a variety of Convairs.  Most of these are still in use and are irreplaceable.  The oldest airplane we used was built in 1949.

The only replacement for a C-118 is another C-118.  Parts are hard to get, but there are still shops that will make any part you need.