It amazes me how a few folk who post here (not all by any means, of course), the “arm chair fleet planners” I call them, think they know more about aircraft selection than the airline staff who do this job on a regular basis and actually get paid to do it.
Airlines exist for one reason, and one reason alone – to make money; to make money for their owners or share holders. Now I accept that not all airlines are particularly good at that at the moment, but if the professionals in an airline believe and can justify that an A321 can make them more money than a 757, then I assure you they’ll take some A321s. And that’s whether or not they’ll take off from Gibralter or Zakinthos with a full load – all such factors are taken into consideration (except in a failry widely rumoured case of a UK airline that bought a couple of A300s – I’ll say no more!) before the make money / won’t make money decisions over a specific type are finally taken.
Anything else is mere sentimentality – we may prefer to see tricked up 737-200s or 757s over Airbus narrow bodies or next-gen 737s, but if the bottom line says that the latter make more money than the former, I assure you that emotions will play no part in it.
Andy
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