MAX KINGSLEY-JONES / LONDON
Data shows 2,100 airliners in storage, and younger types being withdrawn from service
With $15 billion worth of airline hardware sitting idle in the desert, the stored fleet is showing little sign of declining. In fact, it has increased slightly during the past 12 months to over 2,100 aircraft, with the number of newer-generation types in storage increasing significantly over the period.
Data compiled from the Airclaims CASE database for this year's Flight International world airliner census shows that more than 12% of the world's 17,500 Western-built jet airliners are idle. While the active fleet has increased over the past year by over 4% to around 15,300, the idle fleet has remained at a level of around 2,100 aircraft. UK consultancy Airclaims values the stored fleet at $15 billion - or $3 billion more than the world's entire turboprop fleet.
While the number of idle jets has not changed dramatically, "these flat figures hide a significant volume of aircraft going into and out of store," says Airclaims director of consultancy and information services Edward Pieniazek. "The fleet composition has changed in the past 12 months," he adds.
The changes in the idle fleet have been driven by several factors: older aircraft have been scrapped (and therefore are no longer counted), while newer generation aircraft (types introduced in the past 20 years) have been added to the idle inventory. Pieniazek attributes the latter to the actions of airlines such as Swiss International Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways who were forced to realign their capacity with the "realities of the market", which remained depressed due to various factors including the SARS virus and the Iraq war.
"Apart from the short-term impact of SARS, the stored fleet isn't yet moving back into service in any tangible way," says Pieniazek.
He adds that with many in-service aircraft being under-utilised there is additional capacity to be generated from the in-service fleet that will have to be eliminated before there is a need to reactivate stored aircraft.
However, Pieniazek is optimistic that the situation could be poised for improvement. "The inflection point won't be too far away if the industry is left to its own devices in dealing with the economic conditions and business restructuring," he says, adding that "unfortunately unplanned events are happening too frequently, and only serve to push the inflection point away for another year".
Source: Flight International
