[blackwasp]

Delta Air Lines has instigated a 70% system-wide pullback, parking at least half of its fleet -- more than 600 aircraft. "We also will be accelerating retirements of older aircraft like our MD-88/90s and some of our 767s," the airline's chief, Ed Bastian, said in a memo to Delta employees.

Australia's Qantas is temporarily grounding 150 airplanes, a mix of A380s, 747s and B787-9s. The carrier says discussions are progressing with airports and the government about parking for these aircraft.

In Germany, Lufthansa Group is reducing seating capacity on long-haul routes by up to 90%. And for its 29 March to 24 April timetable it announced that a total of 23,000 short, medium and long haul flights were being canceled.

Europe's low-cost carrier Ryanair expects to reduce seat capacity by up to 80% over April and May, and admitted in a company statement that "a full grounding of the fleet cannot be ruled out."

Just north of the Catalina Foothills of Arizona lies Pinal County Airpark, originally set up as a facility in the 1940s for training military pilots. Today the airpark provides a range of storage and heavy maintenance services for wide-body commercial jets.

The airpark has 500 acres suitable for airplane storage, the cost of which depends on a matrix of factors -- how big the plane is, and then what additional "extras" the owner/operator wants.

Over the border in New Mexico, the Roswell International Air Center is in the process of adding 300 more acres of asphalt parking space to its existing 4,000-acre footprint -- enough space to accommodate up to 800 airliners.

Article source

Aircrafts parked at Atlanta (source):

At Copenhagen Airport in Denmark they've come up with a different solution for generating new parking capacity.

Two of the airport's three runways have temporarily been decommissioned and are being used to accommodate airplanes, leaving runway 22L/04R active for all takeoffs and landings.

Copenhagen Airport image, thanks to Lauren ONeil:


Cathay Pacific is expected to cut 96% of its passenger capacity in the months of April and May. Parked aircraft at its hub in Hong Kong (Credit to ANTHONY WALLACEAFP via Getty Images):


Korean Air's grounded fleet at Seoul Incheon (Credit to SeongJoon ChoBloomberg via Getty Images):


22 Aircraft Out of 25 Srilankan Airlines fleet grounded at Bandaranaike International Airport (Source):




Grounded planes at Vienna Airport, Austria (Source):

A staggering 205 aircraft across airlines are parked at the New Delhi airport. IndiGo – India’s largest carrier by domestic market share and fleet — has over 60 aircraft parked at Delhi. That is one-fourth of its fleet. National carrier Air India, which has its hub at Delhi, has nearly 50 percent of its fleet parked there.

Mumbai is seeing nearly 100 aircraft across airlines being parked, followed by Bengaluru, which has 71 aircraft, and Hyderabad with 61. The Airports Authority of India controlled Kolkata and Chennai airports come in next with 54 and 53 aircraft, respectively.

Source

Closer home, even the Runway 27 of the Delhi airport is being used as a parking lot (Source):


Aircraft experts and AvGeeks, do chip in your thoughts on the same. I'm sure its not as easy as the parking for our cars that we are discussing in this thread (Long-term Parking : Do's and Don'ts).

[Abby92]

As per this report from moneycontrol , Airlines have to pay a hefty amount to airport authorities towards parking charges.
http://https//www.moneycontrol.com/n...e-5074931.html

[ArjunPadmakumar]

Its an extremely hard time for an already struggling industry plagued by various issues right from struggling full service airlines and issues from narrow bodied 737max and a320neo.Short parking is what is seen this week in major airports worldwide.However long term parking wont be possible in coastal airports like Singapore and Mumbai due to corrosion and other issues.Dry dessert airports like those the middle east and Australia might be options other than parking them in traditional Desert storage facilities in deserts of USA where retired jets are stored.

Some parts of empty closed expressways can be used to park the smaller private jets and Embraers.The Yamuna Expressway and East Coast Parkway in Singapore has some stretch of expressway that was designed to land planes.The toughest to park are the Quadjets like the b747 and a380s which occupy a lot of space and cant land in a lot of the smaller airports.Unfortunately the Coronavirus will hasten the departure of the older lot of quadjets which obviously will be even more difficult to fill up,and have more value for their parts rather the jet itself.

Long term storage is not an easy process.Fuel is drained when a jet enters storage. The engines are covered to prevent entry of dust, birds and foreign materials.The windshield and windows are also covered in protective aluminium film.Boeing was already struggling parking their 737max in and around their factory,they probably might park brand new jets in the desert till demand picks up.

As for airport owners,parked planes will provide them some extend of revenue to compensate the lockdown.The crisis will be most for private full service carriers followed by government backed airlines and low cost carriers(which operate primarily on narrow body jets).Really hope the situation improves by mid April and slowly the skies open up otherwise airlines and airplane owners will have to look at their options and many will close down.

[Na_sh]

Originally Posted by Abby92

As per this report from moneycontrol , Airlines have to pay a hefty amount to airport authorities towards parking charges.

Parking charges would vary based on airports, right? Would parking aircraft in tier 2 cities near metro like Nashik, Jaipur, Agra make financial sense, considering the fact that they would be parked for more than half a month?

[TSIboy]

Pictures of aircraft in storage at Chennai & Banglore airports.

Originally Posted by Na_sh

Parking charges would vary based on airports, right? Would parking aircraft in tier 2 cities near metro like Nashik, Jaipur, Agra make financial sense, considering the fact that they would be parked for more than half a month?

Ovbiously the cheaper the better. But again, most of them would be in storage at their respective bases itself instead of operating ferry flights to these other airports.


Probably the best time for Indigo to get those P&W engines replaced.

[sumeethaldankar]

A bit what do these guys do to protect against rats? I am sure there must be some rodents in the greenery bushes etc.

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by Abby92

As per this report from moneycontrol , Airlines have to pay a hefty amount to airport authorities towards parking charges.
http://https//www.moneycontrol.com/n...e-5074931.html

At scale, the numbers look big. But 31k per aircraft per day is what it is on the average.



How much would you pay for using as much space for cars? The land is prime!
A typical car costs 700 bucks per day and takes WAY less space.
Similar perspectives elsewhere:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/n...ne-than-a-car/