Airplane Graveyard: Home of the Grounded Planes
As cash-strapped airlines cut schedules they are sending planes to the desert.
April 27, 2009— -- Airlines are suffering through the recession as business and leisure travelers stay home. But one related industry is booming: the few companies that store and maintain grounded airplanes.
At the southern end of the Arizona desert, on the site of a former CIA base, sit hundreds of abandoned airplanes. It's an aviation graveyard and business is booming.
"Our company has experienced a 15-25 percent increase in storage over the past six months, and the current forecast would support another 15-20 percent inventory addition over the next quarter," said Steve Coffaro, vice president of sales of the Evergreen Maintenance Center in Marana, Ariz.
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As airlines find fewer and fewer passengers flying, they are deciding that the only way to stay in business is to ground planes, especially on money-losing routes.
The desert is an ideal place to store the planes. Without moisture, there is less risk of corrosion to the aluminum airframes. The deserts of Arizona, New Mexico and California are also practically immune to hurricanes, tornados, hail and other severe weather events that could damage the parked aircraft.
"Arrivals in the past year vary but two trends have been consistent and they include more international long-haul and next-generation aircraft," Coffaro said in an e-mail to ABC News.
Some of the planes that end up at Evergreen will never fly again. Others are refurbished and sold to airlines in developing countries in Africa and Latin America.
"The remarketing and transfer of ownership programs across the flight line continue to grow. We have also hired additional technical staff to support our expanded heavy maintenance requirements," Coffaro said.
This is not a good time for the airlines and they are doing everything possible to save a dime.
Last week, Continental Airlines said it lost $136 million in the first quarter and Delta posted a $794 million loss due to the weak economy and bad bets on fuel hedges. And earlier this month k American Airlines announced a $375 million loss.
