Originally Posted by
AtlanticX
Whenever I check out the American Airlines fleet and subtypes (
https://www.planespotters.net/airline/American-Airlines), I almost always get a headache just thinking about the logistics of handling such a diverse fleet.
As a server administrator, I know how much overhead this kind of complexity of the operation costs, while the increased profitability of having "the exact right tool for the job" is usually only marginal vs. 'adequate tool for the job'.
LCC's like Ryanair and Southwest know what they're doing with their single-type operations.
American will want to standardize and simplify their fleet line-up too.
IT Data center operations don't have the unique inventory management or scalability issues that Airlines do. Operating costs for a data center are such that unused cycles/storage/rackspace have negligible cost, but each unused airline seat represents a fairly large hit to the flight's profitability.
There is a fair bit of fleet/configuration rationalization under way/on the way, but the benefits of minimizing fleet types/configs is a bit overblown, especially for the Big 3 carriers. LCCs that only serve larger cities with 1-2000 mile stage lengths can get away with fewer types because 1) they aren't flying across the oceans and 2) they largely operate single-class service.
Circa 2006, AA had M80/737/757/767/777, each with one configuration. The upside was they could swap tails without any change in seat counts. The downside was that they were losing a ton of money flying the wrong plane for a given route- the LAA 777-200 config is a prime example- good for premium-heavy LHR, NRT, and S. America routes, but terrible to anywhere else.