Truro Model Builder Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Listening to the news this morning there was a statement from Lufthansa saying that it would be grounding 700 of its 763-strong fleet due to the coronavirus issue. This led to the question as to where. Not just for Lufthansa, but for BA and easyJet and Ryanair and all the others. Bearing in mind that a large proportion of the world airliner population is in the sky at any time, will the likes of Kemble/Cotswolds Airport or Newquay start to become short term storage sights? There certainly will not be space to leave them all at convenient airport terminal gates. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 2 minutes ago, Truro Model Builder said: Listening to the news this morning there was a statement from Lufthansa saying that it would be grounding 700 of its 763-strong fleet due to the coronavirus issue. This led to the question as to where. Not just for Lufthansa, but for BA and easyJet and Ryanair and all the others. Bearing in mind that a large proportion of the world airliner population is in the sky at any time, will the likes of Kemble/Cotswolds Airport or Newquay start to become short term storage sights? There certainly will not be space to leave them all at convenient airport terminal gates. It's not just a matter of storing them, they'll all require regular anti-deterioration maintenance, it's fine if the appropriate personnel are available at the dispersed locations but if they're not what do you do then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coors54 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Apple Aviation have been plugging Newquay for storage for a few days, so yes any airfield with suitable runway/hard standing will be used and @Wez is right, they will all need to be put in parking maintenance which means all the storage covers will need to be in place and I bet most main line fleet aircraft have never had those fitted before! Short Term Planners in those airlines will be hard worked for a while putting the work packs together. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim R-T-C Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 Probably won't need the storage airfields, since most major airports will be 90% closed anyhow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EwenS Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 (edited) In the last couple of days I’ve heard of BA laying aircraft up at Glasgow and Virgin using Prestwick. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ayrshire/coronavirus-virgin-atlantic-plane-grounded-21707652 And Lufthansa at Berlin https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8114605/Scandinavian-Airlines-puts-operations-hold-non-existent-demand.html And Cityflyer Embraers at Southend and Norwich. Anywhere where the parking charges will be less than the main London airports. Edited March 19, 2020 by EwenS 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coors54 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, EwenS said: Anywhere where the parking charges will be less than the main London airports That's one of the main considerations. Dave Edited March 19, 2020 by Coors54 spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rickoshea52 Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 (edited) If the runways are not being used for take off and landing then use them as parking lots. https://www.flightglobal.com/air-transport/three-runways-to-close-at-main-paris-airports/137402.article https://www.flightglobal.com/air-transport/copenhagen-converts-two-runways-to-aircraft-parking-zones/137364.article Edited March 19, 2020 by Rickoshea52 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 2 hours ago, Rickoshea52 said: If the runways are not being used for take off and landing then use them as parking lots. https://www.flightglobal.com/air-transport/three-runways-to-close-at-main-paris-airports/137402.article https://www.flightglobal.com/air-transport/copenhagen-converts-two-runways-to-aircraft-parking-zones/137364.article This seems sensible as it keeps them where there are people to look after them rather than shipping people all over the country to maintain dispersed aircraft and possibly disperse the virus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eng Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 I believe Gatwick and Heathrow have waived parking charges during the current crisis. Glasgow has currently got a Virgin 747-400 (G- VXLG Ruby Tuesday), six BA A321's (G-EUXC, G, H, K, L, M) and an A320 (G-MIDT which is in early for a hangar maintenance input), and then there's 3 impounded FlyBe Q400's. And it looks like there's another 4 BA aircraft due in tomorrow. 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleeperService Posted March 20, 2020 Share Posted March 20, 2020 14 hours ago, Rickoshea52 said: If the runways are not being used for take off and landing then use them as parking lots. https://www.flightglobal.com/air-transport/three-runways-to-close-at-main-paris-airports/137402.article https://www.flightglobal.com/air-transport/copenhagen-converts-two-runways-to-aircraft-parking-zones/137364.article They'll need to get some of the US Navy guys who organise plane movements on carriers (with wooden models IIRC) to sort them out when this is over ... hopefully 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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