What is the life span of these rockets? I havent seen that mentioned for any of the SpaceX vehicles. I would think a rockets life cycle is a lot lower then an aircrafts.
I was thinking this as well.
Perhaps the engine of the rocket needs to be replaced every X launches, but the rocket itself could even need less maintenance compared to a large plane.
When you consider that a Boeing 777 costs around $300M to build, and will probably fly for 30 years. During that time, it will fly the distance of about 2000 times the circumference of the earth. I'm curious how that translates to rockets. I can't imagine it takes the same amount of money to build a BFR somehow.
So for the BFR, doing trips from NY to Singapore all its life to do the same mileage, it would need to take 11.500 one-way trips. Let's say it could fly there, refuel and go back 4 times in 24-hours, it would take just 7.5 years to do that. Assuming that they will make about the same off a single transfer of passengers (fewer people, higher ticket price), but do it at a lower cost (no in-flight staff needed, no pilot needed) it could even be much more profitable in the long run compared to regular fights.
But I'm sure there's someone here with a much better understanding of how this all works.