It comes as no surprise that the commercial airline industry has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. So far in 2020, there have been more than 7.5 million flights canceled, more than $419 Billion in lost revenue for the world’s airlines and overall demand is down 54%.The recovery timeline for the industry is still unknown as many external factors play a role.
Why do aircraft get parked?
In an effort to reduce costs and meet the lower demand for passenger flying, airlines have been forced to park or store aircraft. Some airlines are eliminating larger aircraft from their fleet altogether. Qantas is a great example having recently retired their last 747 after having flown this aircraft type for almost a half-century, it was kind of a big deal for aircraft nerds like me. They have also decided to park its fleet of A380 aircraft until at least 2023, for some this tells a story of little confidence in the full recovery for international travel.
In an earlier post, I wrote about parking aircraft, long term storage, and its effects on the aircraft and airline operations. This following is a continuation of those thoughts.