It makes the issue move towards – older – more stringent checks higher premiums
Classics are Certified for 75000 cycles I believe, but since the Aloha incident additional detailed airframe inspections are required periodically after 48000 cycles. I guess that this number might come down if this incident proves to have similar causes.
This incident may prove that the older (Classics) will require more regular stringent checks, possibly less use on rapid turnarounds and review whether replacement is a more viable option (from many angles)
Southwest have been fined for maintenance violations and investigated by the Feds several times for maintenance irregularities in the last few years. I hope that this is not another case of oversight or omission. No point in criticising Southwest yet though, as it hasn’t been made clear whether Southwest has been doing all it should have been doing according to the maintenance schedule and the grounding of 79 737s is primarily out of concern that other members of the fleet might have similar undetected problems, or whether there has been another irregularity in the airline’s maintenance regime.
If Southwest do prove they have been keeping to maintenance schedules then this starts to move towards a much wider problem for all 737 fleet owners of the same Classics.
Overall it may seem that some of the European airlines including the LCCs are possibly doing the right thing in leasing new or buying new with short depreciation and write off periods.
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