Before anyone goes out and does this research supply of planes. Locked up for many years to come from Boeing and Airbus. CEO of American Airlines outlines this in details and suggests fairs will go up and stay up as a result. Not sure if he's right but he seems pretty sure of it.
Allegiant is a great example. They fly slightly less fuel efficient MD-80s which can be bought at bargain prices from the legacy carriers (MD-80's are those narrow body jets with the engines in the back and the 3-2 seating arrangement). They make it work by flying nonstop flights from smaller airports (without competing carriers on those routes), with low frequency. The low frequency also gives them longer until they have to do a heavy maintenance check -- which, for an older MD-80, usually costs more than the plane is worth. http://www.fastcompany.com/1325762/heard-allegiant-air-why-i... .
> The low frequency also gives them longer until they have to do a heavy maintenance check -- which, for an older MD-80, usually costs more than the plane is worth.
The point I was making is that many of the planes in the boneyards are in working condition (assuming you gas them up and do some other trivial un-mothballing work).
It's not like a car, where it can be driven until the wheels fall off. Planes are flown until they need an expensive scheduled maintenance check, even if they seem to work just fine.
(To be absolutely clear: I don't think this is a bad thing. Maintenance checks are good. Falling out of the sky is bad.)
I know absolutely zero about this industry but I'm not sure this fits the CC model. What's the plan to move up market? I just think there isn't any easy money, especially not in airlines. You gotta just be awesome at everything...
This is almost completely wrong, and more about AA wanting to be able to raise prices.
Boing and Airbus are the only viable suppliers of long-range commercial aircraft, and if you order a 787 or A380 you will need to wait[1].
But it's not "locked up" so much as it takes a fair while to build, and they do have order books. But they are desperate to sell as many as they can (stories of orders being cancelled aren't uncommon).
In the short and medium range market there are a number of other suppliers. Embraer and Bombardier both have planes that sell well. For the more adventurous there are the Irkut MS-21 and Sukhoi Superjet 100 (both pretty modern, but I think only in service with Aeroflot)
As noted elsewhere, there is a large market in second hand aircraft.
[1] There is actually http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-96, but I think that has only been sold to Aeroflot and other Russian airlines. Edit: turns out the passenger version of this is now out of production.
