We are often bombarded with information of airlines buying new aircraft and the resulting boast about their young fleet, but not all airlines are in this position. Inuit Air, Iran Air and Mahan Air for example fly some of the oldest passenger aircraft on commercial routes still with planes aged well over 40 years old.
INUIT AIR
Boasting one of the oldest passenger aircraft is Canadian Air Inuit with four 737-200’s averaging an age of 44 years. The airline also has a 737-300 aged 32 years and 15 Dash-8’s at an average age of 29 years.
Three 737-800s aged just 11 years held bring the average fleet age for the airline down to 29.4 years.
MAHAN AIR
Iranian Mahan Air, like Air Inuit also has an average fleet age of 29.4 years. Until recently, Mahan Air was still flying the worlds oldest Boeing 747-300 which was then 35 years old.
The airline currently operates a fleet as follows
| Aircraft Type | Average Type Fleet Age |
| A310 | 33 |
| A340 | 25 |
| Fokker 50 | 28 |
| Avro RJ | 31 |
Iran Air
Iran Air’s fleet of A330s and ATR42/72’s helps brings the airlines average fleet age down to 18 years however within the airlines fleet are still some gems including a Boeing 747-200 aged 35 years. Admittedly the aircraft is primarily used for Cargo these days rather than commercial flying.
| Aircraft Type | Average Type Fleet Age |
| ATR42/72 | 6.2 |
| A300 | 32.3 |
| A310 | 30.8 |
| A319 | 22 |
| A320 | 31.8 |
| A330 | 9.3 |
| Fokker 70/100 | 32.1 |
Other Airlines To Note
Whilst the fallowing airlines boast a far more youthful fleet than the above they do still have some old aircraft flying commercial flights.
UK airline Jet2 still flies six 757-200s with an average age of almost 33 years!
Small Venezuelan Airline Venezolana operates just three aircraft but one of these is a 45.7 year old 737-200
