For what reasons will an airline retire an airplane?

And when airlines retire airplanes, what do they do with them?

Public Comments

1. Accounting! Once it is fully depreciated, it gets retired.
2. When an aircraft becomes too old or unsafe, the airlines retire it by selling it to some junk dealer. I saw a story on TV (don't remember whether it was National Geographic or Discovery) where they showed a big junk yard in US (somewhere in Arizona) where they brought aircrafts retired by the airlines or airforce. The whole process was very interesting to watch. How they remove the inner lining of an aircraft and then break it up into big pieces. Then those pieces are used to take out different parts. Those parts are then sold off as junk or melted.
3. When it costs too much to keep it airworthy, or newer planes come along that are more economical to operate. They MIGHT take a plane off one route, replace it with a more appropriate plane and put the first plane on a route where it makes more sense to use it. But eventually, it falls on accountants to make the desicion to retire an aircraft, usually some AD (airworthiness directive) will come along and be a big expense, and the accountants will decide "NO WAY we're spending that much on this old spam can".
4. There are many different reasons that airlines would retire an aircraft in their fleet, as they said before accounting reason (may just be too expensive to keep up) or maintenance reasons, maybe too many cycles or hours on the aircraft, etc..... If the aircraft is being completely retired they usually will go to a boneyard, there is a huge one in Arizona (Davis-Monthan AFB) in the desert. Its just a place where the aircraft go and are parted out.
5. for the owners not to be declared criminals or crew striking for increase on risk allowances before taking each flight !
6. Age, Damage, Cycles, Efficiency, Decreasing Loads... ect.
7. The two major factors are maintenance costs and fuel consumption. Once an aircraft reaches a point where it becomes very expensive to repair it, the airline will retire it. These costs are usually associated with repairing the structure, and the extended down time to make the repairs (every day out of service is revenue lost). The engines also begin to cost more to operate as the performance deteriorates over time. There are life-limited parts in the engines that have to be replaced. Once the engines are so bad that they are typically far short of time on wing of what is normally expected from the same type engines, this gets thrown into the mix for consideration. Fuel consumption is a consideration when a newer aircraft is released that has more fuel efficient engines, and the maintenance costs are lower on the overall aircraft and engines. Sometimes the airline gets a better deal to bring in newer aircraft into the fleet, and that leads to a decision to retire older aircraft. Once the decision is made to dispose of the aircraft, it depends on what condition the aircraft is in overall as to whether it is dismantled or sold wholsale. Often poorer countries airlines will purchase older aircraft sionce that is all they can afford. For those that are dismantled, they are sent to places like Victorville, CA where they are parteed out. All of the individual components are removed and sent out for repair/overhaul and sold. The fuselage and wings are cut up for scrap metal and sold to a recylcler.
8. Parts availability is the number one reason. Number two would be the expense to continue to repair and maintain. Third, how costly is it to fly, i.e., fuel efficiency, etc. The Navy, for instance, is retiring the F-14 Tomcat for all reasons stated.
9. Major air carriers keep their aircraft (ones they own or mortgage) for about 20 years. This keeps fuel and maintenance costs down, allows them to fly an insane amount of hours per year (about 2500-3000), and keeps the fleet looking new to the consumer. Some go as long as 25-30 years or a short as 10-15. Leased aircraft often have shorter lives with the company before new aircraft are leased or a long range fleet expansion is implemented. These aircraft go back to the leasing company to be sold or re-leased. But most of these aircraft are still very useful and in good condition. A company I used to work for bought 727s off of Continental and American that will continue to fly for many years as cargo planes. Some aircraft are stored in the desert during slow periods or while they are waiting to be sold. Some get cannibalized for parts and eventually scrapped. But except for very old aircraft (707s, 720s, high time 737-200s, Convair 880s, etc) most can still find a home at a second level carrier or a cargo company.
10. Old age and when it becomes uneconomical to maintain any more.
11. The real answer why airlines retire aircraft is quite simple the cost of a seat per mile. Airliner manufactured under part 25 are designed to last about 20-years. This takes into account pressure cycles and landing which are counted. Take a B-747 it may have high flight time with low cycles because it operates for long period across the ocean. Where the same aircraft would have high cycles operating from SFO to DEN as an example. The same principle is true for all makes and models of commercial aircraft. During the life of an aircraft there are certain items that are required to be inspected under the Structural Inspection Program or sometimes called SID. This is based on pressure cycles and landing, overweight conditions, lighting strikes, and many other required inspections. If an aircraft required lots of repairs or modification to keep it operational the seat per mile of the aircraft goes up. At some point the seat per mile is breach and the airline can retire or sell the aircraft. There are advantages for the airline in both cases one retiring is a tax benefit when all the time life items are timed out and the cost to replace them adds to the seat per mile. Selling the aircraft before many parts are timed out can bring added cash to purchase newer more fuel-efficient aircraft bringing down the seat per mile. If an aircraft is retired in the states it is usually sent to AZ where has dry air to preserve it. Right not there are way to many B-727 parked in AZ because of fuel costs and timed out parts. The airlines sell many older aircraft to South America or Africa who continue operate them way beyond the service life. Needless to say they have lots of problems and lose many in the mountains and jungles. The new aircraft weigh less, more aerodynamic and have more efficient engines that save as much as 30% on fuel which give the airline more money for seat mile, which makes since. So to answer your question money drives the industry and old aircraft are sold off or retired and stripped of any good parts and sold around the world.
12. - when the plane become too expensive to maintain - when the plane spends too much time in the maintenance or having to many unexpected repairs - when the new plane cost much less to operate - when the airlines want to change their fleet mix (different types of planes) - when the parts are too difficult to get Retired planes can be send to the airplane junk yard or sell to others who are interested in the plane (if it is still in good operating conditions).