Originally Posted by
narvik
Was just checking "Where's this aircraft coming from" on the UA website.
My flight leaves in a little over 24 hours.
The plane (Boeing 777-200ER) currently just departed AMS for EWR, and is still yet to fly EWR-SFO, and then back SFO-EWR before we board.
Was wondering now how much time a UA plane is actually in the air as a percentage over the course of its usable life, incl. re-painting, maintenance, retrofitting, etc.?
And whether UA does better, the same, or worse than other major airlines?
(P.S.: excluding Covid parking-up I guess...)
This article has some data on the oldest planes in various fleets. For UA, it notes a 767-300ER, registered N643UA, delivered in May 1991. Up through March 31 2024, it had accumulated 129,828 total flight hours, or an average of about 10.8 hours per day for its entire lifespan.
For a narrowbody, the same article calls out an A320 (N414UA - about to be scrapped, I think) with 90,464 flight hours between July 1994 and January 31, 2024, which totals to 8.4 hours per day.
Obviously, this is inclusive of Covid and time out for retrofits, maintenance, etc. and I believe (but am not sure) that the flight hours is only measuring the actual time the aircraft is in the air, not the total block time (including taxiing, etc.) which is a more complete picture of utilization.