<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by og:
Strange to think that at the "magic" age or number of cycles, a perfectly good aircraft (all be it looking like crap inside) suddenly has only scrap value.</font>
I think it has more to do with operating economics than anything else - with the A330's coming on line to provide greater capacity on the monorail, at a much lower cost/seat-mile (I forget what the TLA is, might be ASM) a point is reached where it is more economical to operate newer aircraft compared to the cost of an extensive interior refit and higher running costs.
Dave