Originally Posted by
Robt760
AA 767-200 are likely the next aircraft to leave the fleet after MD 80s. The aircraft integrity is still pretty good, but the interiors need to have more consistent deep cleaning beyond whatever they are doing now. I give it 5 years before there starts to be major reliability issues with these or replacements come on line.
There's probably actual data on this, but in my experience the reliability problems you're describing are already here. Literally half of my 762 segments this year have gone mechanical, and although 2010 wasn't terrible, I see mechanical problems with my 762 segments probably an order of magnitude more often than with any other aircraft type.
(Note that it's possible that the 762s going mechanical are more problematic because there's not a lot of replacement aircraft. It's possible there's problems with MD 80s just as often, but AA does a better job of swapping in aircraft, and/or it's not as annoying when a whole lot of premium seats go missing as happens when a 762 turns into a 752 or 75L.)