AIR - Air NZ.

[Snow Leopard]

... I can't help but wonder if people really understand the risk ?...would you buy your partner a 30 year old car with no ABS brakes or dynamic stability control or any of the other current safety devices and protections and tell them to use that to take the kids to school and back every day ?

The differences between an airplane and a car are subtle, so it is understandable if you can not tell them apart.

So provided the airframe has not done too many hours in the air (by the way I am talking about an airplane here, not your 1986 Porsche 911 Turbo) and it has not exceeded the prescribed number of take-off and landing cycles (airplane again, still not the Porsche) and it has a full maintenance history (could be either now) it is better than a new one (read on)

One of the well known engineering phenomenon is that new things are unreliable, there are a surprising number of early life failures.
Things then settle down and on the whole give you many years of fairly trouble free enjoyment.
Then after a certain point the unreliability starts to increase.

This holds true for airplanes, cars and even people.

Best Wishes
Paper Tiger

[Joshuatree]

PT Love your witty philosophy and its so true re new things esp people

I read awhile back re someone having their Morris Oxford circa 1965 retrofitted with airbags.Thats some relationship.

[winner69]

PT Love your witty philosophy and its so true re new things esp people

I read awhile back re someone having their Morris Oxford circa 1965 retrofitted with airbags.Thats some relationship.

Good one

Should prompt you to get your a into gear and actually install that update.

[Joshuatree]

No wit there sadly. Update is always followed by another

[winner69]

No wit there sadly. Update is always followed by another

Think I better leave the last word with you - only get into trouble if I say more

[Beagle]

Then after a certain point the unreliability starts to increase.

Paper Tiger

Ever wondered why AIR generally sell their aircraft at about the 18 year point ? Maybe they're interested in providing a reliable service ?

P.S. Is it a car, is it a plane, or is it a helicopter...the answer lies within...just for you PT, enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-1pXbW5wVg You see it is easy to be confused Wonder how they will be going at the 20 year point ?

[skid]

It is almost mind boggling how reliable these massive machines that go up in the air and transport people to far away places really are.
and there is no doubt that some may be better than others. But in todays world of mandatory maintenance just how many are actually dangerous?
And if they are ,is it from over use,or from some design glitch that has not been discovered yet?

All food for thought,,but the real question is just how many have decided not to fly with an airline because they think the planes are unsafe.
For the sake of argument--lets narrow that down to planes coming to NZ..(so we dont go wandering off to some local Indonesian airline)
If we look at stats ,is this a debate that is going to affect the bottom line?--(Talking strictly safety ,not fuel savings etc.)

[sb9]

Let's see how today goes as being the last day before it goes ex-div tomorrow.

[777]

Age of aircraft is not as important as the maintenance regime of an airline. Yes, as an aircraft gets older it requires more maintenance but that is just extra cost. Then the balance of this cost versus the purchase of a new aircraft becomes the equation that airlines have to deal with.

[mondograss]

There's also the efficiency of new aircraft, there's only so much you can do to improve that on an older aircraft.