y, or on the economic fortunes of individual airlines, althought predictions of what the outcomes of deregulation would be ranged all over the lot from the high es level of optimism to the lowest level of pessimism.
Because of the economic uncertainties facing the air transportation industry in the fall of 1978, an assumption was made for the purposes of this research that the fleet expansion issue would be shelved for a year or two. What would proceed in the fall of 1978 was the fleet replacement program. Thus, in the remainder of this case analysis, the problem addressed is replacement of the airliners at Eastern which would reach the age of 20 years during the 1984 1989 time period.
Several assumptions were made in the defining of the fleet replacement problem at Eastern. First, it was assumed that the goal would be the replacement of the number of seats which would be lost through the retirement from service of aging air liners, as opposed to the replacement of a like number of air craft. Second, as the delivery of new aircraft ordered in the fall of 1978 could not begin before 1983, it was assumed that (1) aircraft already on order, supplemented (2) some aircraft on option in the fall of 1978 would be obtained to replace seats lost due to the retirement of aircraft during the 1979 1982 time period. This activity is summarized in Table 1, which may be found beginning below on this page.
Aircraft Retirement and Replacement: 1979 1982Net Effect on Seat Available Total
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Activity 1979 1980 1981 1982
5 aircraft @ 133 seats 665
9 aircraft @ 133 seats 1197
10 aircraft @ 133 seats 1330
8 aircraft @ 133 seats 1064
5 aircraft @ 137 seats 68...