Why are airlines not required by law to update their planes more often and use newer models? Many commercial planes being used today are older than most people on this website.

Question

Is there no safety issue there?

In: Other

Answer 1

The life-cycle of an airplane is simply really really long. They are built to last, with maintenance of course, for a looooong time. There really isn’t a need for “new” planes, if a plane works, then its good to go.

New planes are incredibly expensive, which means its worthwhile for anyone to have planes that last a very long time, so that the cost can be allocate over say 30 years– much like a house.

If you had to buy a new house every 5-10 years that would suck right? A plane works the same. You keep up maintenance, just like you would a home. You upgrade it, you fix it, you keep it working. And eventually maybe you sell it off to someone else, and buy a new and better home. A plane works the same.

As a side note, not just commercial planes, but many private and hobbiest aircraft (like Cessnas) that were built in 70s and 80s are really common to fly still for private pilots. They lack a lot of new features, but they fly just fine.