as said earlier i think BA had to cash in on the a/c due to the high number of cycles the a/c were having more than anything else – for example

0600-0700 LHR-GLA
0800-0900 GLA-LHR
1000-1045 LHR-MAN
1130-1215 MAN-LHR
1330-1430 LHR-AMS
1540-1640 AMS-LHR
1800-1900 LHR-EDI
2000-2100 EDI-LHR

Just for a roughg example if an a/c did this type of 8 sector flight a day – the schedule may not be realistic but for arguements sake, the a/c will have an 8 sector day – a high number of cycles

say it only flies for example 6 sectors a day
6 x 6 (we’ll discount a quieter sat) = 36
36×50 (2 weeks offline maintenance) = 1800 cycles p/a
1800 x 20 (no of years the early a/c will have been in serv) = 36,000 cycles

If the a/c are only really fliying night mail runs they may only fly 4 sectors e.g. Keflavic-East Mids-Cologne-Keflavic – approx 5 hours flight time a day

Does that seem a reasonable explanation of why the likes of DHL on UPS are taking them?