Langtidslagring av fly - En grei gjennomgang sett fra New Zealand - Curt Lewis

 Den største lagringplassen for fly er ved Davis-Monthan AFB ved Tucson, Arizona. Her er kun militære fly. De fleste står lagret for å kunne fly igjen, andre destrueres.

What packed plane 'boneyards' mean for the future of air travel

 

When the Covid-19 pandemic brought international travel to a near-standstill in 2020, commercial airlines parked unneeded planes in some of the most remote locations on Earth.

 

Air New Zealand sent 12 of its 15 Boeing 777s to long-term desert storage facilities in California and New Mexico, grounding three remaining widebody aircraft in Auckland.

 

Four 777-300 aircraft were parked up in Victorville in the western Mojave Desert, while the 777-200s were divided between there and Roswell, New Mexico.

 

Facilities of this type are known as commonly called boneyards – or aircraft graveyards where planes are left to slowly rust into metallic skeletons or are pulled apart for scrap.

 

So what now for those planes? Will they return to service, or will our flying experiences change forever?

 

Why do planes get sent to deserts?

There are three main reasons: Deserts make planes less susceptible to corrosion, there’s plenty of space, and it saves them a lot of money.

 

Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for flight tracking website Flightradar24, says moisture damages planes in storage.

 

“The drier the climate, the easier it is to keep aircraft components in proper working order and stave off corrosion. And deserts offer a large amount of space for a low price.”

 

Airports, by contrast, are often close to the sea, which means corrosion and slows down a return to service.

 

Most busy, working airports don’t have the space to store large numbers of aircraft. Frankfurt Airport, for one, closed its newest runway twice in 2020 for Lufthansa to park its planes on.

 

Aviation expert Irene King says airports tend to charge “prohibitive parking fees”. Airlines pay about US$5000 (NZ$7000) a month to store a plane at a desert facility, she says, noting that this is “much, much cheaper” than it would cost to store one in New Zealand.

 

Are planes looked after in storage or left to rust?

That depends on whether it’s due to fly again. If it is to be recalled, facility technicians ensure all entrances to the aircraft are sealed to keep out dirt, dust and wildlife. They run the engines and other systems periodically to ensure they keep ticking over.

 

“The interior of the aircraft is also prepared for storage,” Petchenik says. “For instance, Qantas’ stored A380s at Victorville are loaded with over 100kg of silica to prevent moisture from affecting the cabin fixtures.”

 

“If planes have to be parked up with a view that they should retain a value or be able to return to service at a cost that is acceptable, then the dryer the park-up facility the better.”

 

How many planes are in boneyards?

The pandemic has forced more planes into boneyards than any other event in recent history.

 

Last year was the worst on record for the aviation industry, with traffic only about a third of 2019 levels, International Air Transport Association (IATA) figures show.

 

International traffic in 2020 was 75.6 per cent lower than in 2019.

 

“Last year was a catastrophe,” IATA CEO Alexandre de Juniac says. “There is no other way to describe it. What recovery there was over the Northern Hemisphere summer season stalled in autumn and the situation turned dramatically worse over the year-end holiday season, as more severe travel restrictions were imposed in the face of new outbreaks and new strains of Covid-19.”

 

The association has predicted there will be twice as much traffic in 2021 as there was in 2020, but with the new Covid-19 strains all bets are off.

 

London-based aviation data and analytics company Cirium said in February that 32 per cent of the world’s passenger jets were in storage, and many may remain there for some time.

 

Long-haul aircraft are likely to remain grounded for longer than domestic planes.

 

“Yes there are domestic 737s and A320s parked up, but the expectation is that at least 80 per cent of these will be flying by the Northern Hemisphere summer,” King said. “For the long-haul aircraft, the situation is not so rosy with predictions that less than 40 per cent of the pre-Covid fleet is flying.”

 

Petchenik says most aircraft sent to storage during the pandemic will eventually return to service, but the end is nigh for certain large wide-body planes.

 

The future looks particularly dire for four-engine wide-bodies as they are less fuel efficient and more expensive to run than twin-engine models such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350.

 

“Large aircraft, particularly those with four engines, are the clear losers as far as ever flying again is concerned,” he said.

 

Airlines are hanging on to A330 and B777-300 wide-bodies, however, thanks to their ability to carry cargo efficiently, King said.

 

Will Air NZ’s stored wide-bodies return to service?

Air New Zealand said in September that its 777s wouldn’t come out of storage for a year at least, and an airline spokesperson told Stuff that is still the case.

 

The airline has indicated that the older 777-200s are no longer needed. They could be sold or scrapped.

 

The 777 – the largest twin-engine aircraft in the world – is also the largest aircraft in the national carrier’s fleet and has operated most of its long-haul routes for the past 15 years.

 

Patterson said it is “an unfortunate reality” that many of Air New Zealand’s aircraft in long-term storage will not be recommissioned.

 

“Demand for long-haul international travel following the pandemic will be relatively sluggish and so Air New Zealand will not need such a large fleet initially.

 

“It is likely that some of its older Boeing 777 may never return to active service for the airline and instead will be sold to other airlines or for scrap. There will be a significant glut of such older aircraft being sold by other airlines so the value of them will be very low.”

 

Air New Zealand said its international schedule will be operated by more fuel-efficient Boeing 787 Dreamliners, while A320s and A320neo and A321neo aircraft would fly trans-Tasman and Pacific Island routes.

 

“These aircraft will offer the airline better prospects of returning to a cash operating surplus in a world where long-haul travel demand may only sluggishly return,” Patterson says.

 

What about the other airlines?

A lot had already begun replacing long-range wide-bodies with higher-tech, more fuel-efficient models before the virus struck.

 

British Airways announced in July that it would retire its 31-strong fleet of Boeing 747s four years earlier than planned because of the pandemic.

 

The UK carrier says it would operate more flights on Airbus A350s and 787 Dreamliners, expecting them to help it achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

 

That same month, Qantas put its last 747 into early retirement in the Mojave Desert, six months ahead of schedule. Air France, Dutch carrier KLM and US carrier Delta are among the other airlines to have retired their 747 fleets.

 

Delta has also sent its 777 fleet to desert storage facilities, saying it would replace them with Airbus A350s which burn 21 per cent less fuel.

 

Japan Airlines and rival All Nippon Airways are among the other carriers to have recently announced plans to retire 777s, while Germany’s Lufthansa said it would retire the last of its 747-400s and that eight A380 superjumbos would only be reactivated in the event of a sharp market recovery.

 

The A380 was on the way out before the pandemic struck – Airbus announced in February 2019 that it would stop making the world’s largest superjumbo passenger jet after Emirates, its largest customer, reduced an order from 53 planes to 14.

 

The UAE-based airline opted for 70 smaller, more efficient, A330 and A350 aircraft.

 

Some carriers had orders for newer wide-bodies before the pandemic but, with the future of international travel still so uncertain, many have sought to delay deliveries, swap them for smaller models, or cancel their orders entirely.

 

The silver lining of all this is that the pandemic is helping pave the way for a more environmentally-friendly aviation sector. Cirium says new, fuel-efficient aircraft will dominate skies as airlines seek to lower their carbon footprints.

 

“This year has seen more narrow-body aircraft fly, mainly as domestic flights are recovering versus international. The popularity of the Airbus A321neo is evident. The Boeing 737 Max is now making a return to the skies. Each of these aircraft have the latest technology and excellent range, are the furthest away from the next maintenance check, and are the most fuel efficient.”

 

How will this change the international flight experience?

When international travel resumes en masse, we’re likely to see smaller aircraft, including more narrow-bodied models, on overseas routes previously flown by wide-bodies.

 

Unlike wide-bodies, with their twin aisles and rows of up to 10 seats, narrow-bodies have single aisles, six seats per row and generally less space.

 

Next-generation narrow-bodies equipped with the latest engines include the Airbus A220, the Boeing 737-Max, and the Airbus 321XLR. Capable of flying up to 8700 kilometres, or for around 10 hours, the latter has been earmarked as a potential game changer.

 

Ten hours in the air isn't always enough for flights from New Zealand though. Hence, Air New Zealand using its Dreamliners on longer routes. Some Dreamliners are capable of ultra-long-haul flights – such as Auckland to New York – but carry fewer passengers than wide-bodies, depending on configuration.

 

While smaller than its 777 aircraft, Air New Zealand’s 787s still offer plenty of space. There are two aisles and nine seats per row in economy, compared with the 777’s 10 seats. Business class passengers are able to lie down in flat beds in both models.

 

The Airbus A320, A320neo and A321neo aircraft on trans-Tasman and Pacific routes are all single-aisle, narrow-bodies with six seats per row.

 

Going forward, King says passengers are going to have to accept that wide-bodied models will be available less often, at least in the medium term.

 

However, with modern fit-outs, that doesn’t necessarily translate to a more uncomfortable experience.

 

“It’s just different. There are two engines rather than four (and) fewer passengers per aircraft, but perhaps a more modern ambiance as manufacturers are always striving to improve the experience.”

 

Flights on narrow-bodies aren’t any slower either.

 

“All aircraft of the modern generation fly more or less at the same speeds irrespective of size,” she says.

 

As for whether we will have to pay more for international flights in future, King says it will depend on the demand. On highly competitive routes, passengers probably won’t have to pay more, she said.

 

“However some passengers are prepared to pay a premium for a nonstop flight – for example from London to Perth – so it’s hard to say, because it comes down to what the passenger is prepared to pay. There are also some days when passenger loads are lighter and so airfares are lower. It’s simply a supply-demand equation.”

 

Pandemic or no pandemic, some things never change it seems.