Silver Lining for some

[newswatcher]

BBC reports that the Evergreen Air Centre in Arizona is taking on more staff to cope with the increased demand for storage space. They have received enquiries from at least 30 airlines or leasing companies, with a view to storing an extra 100-200 aircraft, to go with the 150 already there.

Worldwide, airlines have announced plans to "ground" over 1,000 planes. Some aircraft are arriving direct from manufacturer without livery.

It costs up to $10k/month to store a plane at Evergreen, and for this money engines are run up regularly, and systems subject to daily checking.

[Huck]

Or they can go to Mojave, California. They are sealed up with plastic and not run, but parking is ~$750 a month for a spot in the desert sand. I remember most of Eastern's fleet sitting there in the early nineties.

That airport was a sleepy general aviation facility until the airport manager devised the parking business. It has since exploded in growth....

[Wycombe]

I remember driving past Mojave whilst on holiday in the US in '92 - I think there were about 300 aircraft there then (ex-BA Tristars, ex-USAir 146's & an awful lot of 727's, DC9's etc).

On my next visit in '98, there didn't seem to be very many a/c at all (a few *new* MD11's is all I remember of note).

Guess it'll be filling-up again now - if you want to know about the state of the World airline industry, take a drive into the desert!

[ 05 October 2001: Message edited by: Wycombe ]