US spares supplier The Memphis Group has begun the first large-scale scrapping of the Boeing 737 Classic, as it parts out some ex-US Airways aircraft.
The company has started breaking a 14-year-old 737-300 and a 15-year-old -400 and says it is expects to part out a total of around 10 aircraft. The 737s have been in desert storage since US Airways filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year. According to the Airclaims CASE database, around 80 of 1,970 737 Classics are idle, but only one aircraft has been broken up until now.
Memphis executive vice-president John Temple does not see the move as start of a major scrapping spree of 737-300/400s. "This batch of around nine or 10 aircraft that we expect to break were tied up in the US Airways bankruptcy filing, and the owners want to get their money out of them quickly," he says.
Source: Flight International
