When airlines retire their aircraft — or simply decide to temporarily cutback capacity — they send their airplanes to hangars, or in some cases, to places like the Mojave desert in California. So-called ‘Airplane graveyards’ in the region look something like this:
And by all accounts they are growing, as carriers struggle to shed capacity amidst a global downturn. In fact, according to UBS aerospace analysts led by David Strauss there are 2,587 parked commercial aircraft in storage at the end of June. The breakdown by manufacturer is as follows:
There’s an important detail to note here however.
While Boeing planes may account for 72 per cent of parked aircraft at the end of June 2009, only 11 per cent of those Boeing planes are models still in production (i.e. reasonably new), according to UBS. In contrast about 60 per cent of parked Airbus aircraft are in-production ones. Ouch.
In fact, what looks to be distinguishing the current aerospace crisis is the record jump in parked in-production planes:
That’s painful news for aircraft manufacturers like Airbus and Boeing, but perhaps good news for the airlines themselves, who are currently engaged in a desperate bid to cut capacity amid massive aerospace oversupply. (Well, most of them anyway).
Related links:
Aerospace mothballs - FT Alphaville
On aerospace over-supply - FT Alphaville
Airlines park idle planes in the desert - CBS News
