As many carriers carefully restart some of their scheduled flying programmes, Tom Batchelor explores the technical challenges facing firms who have been storing aircraft at various sites from Alabama to Bournemouth and beyond...
Airports around the world have been transformed from global hubs to parking lots by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has dealt a catastrophic blow to the aviation industry. Airlines, lessors and manufacturers have been left hunting for storage space, with almost two-thirds of the entire global aircraft fleet grounded at the peak of the disruption. Images of lined-up jets – from British Airways’ dormant short-haul fleet at Bournemouth to the Delta Air Lines jets standing idle at Birmingham/Shuttlesworth airport in Alabama – provided a dramatic warning of the scale of the crisis facing the sector. The challenge of finding suitable storage has been complicated further by the extended grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX, with hundreds of the type mothballed awaiting regulatory approval after two deadly crashes. With more aircraft on the ground than in the air, storage and maintenance suppliers have boomed.
At the height of coronavirus disruption in April and May, approximately 16,000 exa…
