Originally Posted by
BlrGuy
My own non-expert view would be that the concern isn't their age, but the number of cycles. The regional route aircraft will accumulate many more cycles than the 74As/77Ws largely dedicated to long transcon/transpacs, and would amount to much more wear and tear to the airframe. Seats and interiors would be a minor issue in comparison.
I'm sure this is why CX and SQ seem to retire their planes so frequently on regional routes, they realized the cycles they've amassed is huge. Especially CX with the TPE-HKG golden route, and now you throw in PVG/SHA-HKG and that's a lot of cycles on a few regional planes.