With nowhere to fly, aircraft wait out the crisis in boneyards
On March 23, 2020, exactly a year ago, the UAE announced all passenger flights were to be grounded to prevent the spread of the coronavirus via air travel. While flights have since resumed in the country, the year that followed was the most challenging in aviation history.
With travel restrictions and border closures in place around the world, a lack of demand for travel meant several airlines were forced to ground their jets and, sometimes, their entire fleet. Parking a 40-metre-long aircraft is no mean feat, and finding storage space for an entire squadron of them is a logistical nightmare.
Last year, Germany’s biggest airline, Lufthansa, relied on Frankfurt Airport shutting down operations on its newest runway twice, for it to park planes on the tarmac. In the UAE, Emirates Airlines was fortunate to have access to Dubai World Central Airport, but that’s something of a rarity. Most airlines do not have access to massive amounts of airport parking space. Instead, airlines have been increasingly turning to boneyards.
Aircraft boneyards or graveyards are sprawling outdoor storage spaces where jets are sent when they retire. Airlines have to pay a monthly fee to park at these sites, but it’s a lot less than what it would cost to park jets at an airport.
According to UK aviation data and analytics company Cirium, peak numbers of aircraft storage were recorded last March. At the time, the London company estimated an inactive inventory of a little below 17,000 wide-bodies, narrow-bodies and regional jets in storage. That’s more than 60 per cent of the world’s fleet. The International Air Transport Association (Iata) also confirmed that the pandemic is set to cause more commercial aircraft to retire earlier than they would have pre-Covid.
So where are airlines sending their unwanted fleet? British Airways, which announced it was retiring its Boeing 747 fleet last year, chose the Mojave Desert in the US as its resting place. Inside the Southern California Logistics Airport, also known as Victorville, there is about 97 hectares of land reserved to accommodate more than 500 jets.
The world’s largest operator of the “Queen of the Skies” had 31 of the 70-metre-long, four-engine aircraft, the majority of which have been sent to early retirement.
Australian national airline Qantas also retired its Boeing 747 fleet to the Mojave Desert. The airline has also sent 10 of its 12 A380 superjumbos for deep storage at the Victorville boneyard.
Ranging in age from 10 to 13 years, Qantas’s jumbos could have more than a decade of flying left in them. They have currently been “mothballed”, meaning there are plans to return the jets to service when demand for travel picks up again.
Dry weather in the desert works in the favour of airlines when it comes to storing their expensive jets. The arid climate means that precipitation can be as low as five inches year-round, and soaring daily temperatures can protect aircraft from rust.
Once an aircraft arrives at a storage facility, it’s only the start of the cycle. What happens there dictates each aircraft’s future, with options for resale, scrapping for parts or long-term storage for those that may be used again.
Iata says the average retirement age of a passenger aircraft is about 25 years. As many of the jets currently parked in the boneyards are a lot younger, they need to be carefully maintained in the hope of retaining their value.
If air travel remains low for many years, airlines may find that demand for parking facilities increases, and operators could find themselves scrambling for space. Should travel demand pick up, some of the jets that were retired or stored last year could increase in value as a source for much-needed parts. Other jets may go on to a new type of life altogether; an ex-Etihad Airbus is now a glamping spot in the Welsh countryside, for example.
At a time when so much of the world is in recession and industries are struggling to survive, aircraft boneyards, through storage or scrapping, appear to be facing a buoyant future.
UK data company Cirium says, about 60%, a peak figure, of the world’s aircraft, were in storage last March