Idled jets worldwide require extra care

[Old Farang]

Idledjets worldwide require extra care


From finding parkingspaces to keeping nesting birds out of engines, airlines have long to-do lists

[FONT="Times New Roman",serif]

Idled jets worldwide require extra care


More than 16,000passenger jets are grounded worldwide, according to the industry researcherCirium, as the coronavirus obliterates travel and puts unprecedented strain onairline finances. Finding the right space and conditions for 62% of the world’splanes and keeping them airworthy have suddenly become priorities for 2020.



[/FONT]

[Homestar]

There’s going to be quite a few retired early now I think. I doubt demand will increase for quite some time even as things get back to ‘normal’.

[JDNSW]

There’s going to be quite a few retired early now I think. I doubt demand will increase for quite some time even as things get back to ‘normal’.

I think this is absolutely correct. For a start, travel always drops a lot during major recessions, but as well, a lot of businesses will have found that a lot of those face to face meetings are not really necessary, so I expect a substantial permanent reduction in business travel. And many ordinary people will have had their finances wrecked by this pandemic, and their attitude to discretionary spending will have been permanently changed - and frequent overseas holidays etc will be off the agenda.

On the other hand, with oil a lot cheaper, one of the major input costs for airlines will be lower, and the ready availability of modern airliners at firesale prices will help keep costs down.

[INter674]

Mmm if Virgin goes down Quaintass will jack up the prices domestically meaning few cept Pollies will be able to afford to travel. Remember when Ansett went bust. It was cheaper almost to fly Syd to Ldn than Hbt to Syd.

[Homestar]

Well obviously prices have been too cheap for too long or they wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place would they? Maybe it’s more of a correction in the market. Think we’ll see this a lot in other industries too.

Cant afford it, then don’t fly. Pretty simple.

I prefer to drive anyway, get to see more of the Country along the way. Work flies me where I need to be so I don’t care if that costs more going forward.

[Hugh Jars]

I disagree. It's not a correction, it's ripping the people who pay your wages. Qantas is well known for gouging in markets in which they have a monopoly. I've worked for both majors in the almost 30 years I've been an airline pilot, and have seen this in action first-hand.

Further, airlines are not in a mess because of their air fare structure. They are in this situation because the governments around the world have cut off airlines' revenue by stopping airlines from flying. Most forward-thinking governments realise this and acknowledge this responsibility by offering the airlines support through the situation which they have caused.

Regrettably, Australia is not one of them.

[JDNSW]

As I have pointed out elsewhere, the airline industry as a whole is, and always has been, a loss making business. As such, shareholders have on average been subsidising passengers. The fact that Virgin has only ever made a profit in two years indicates the situation precipitated by this shutdown.

[Hugh Jars]

Idledjets worldwide require extra care


From finding parkingspaces to keeping nesting birds out of engines, airlines have long to-do lists

[FONT="Times New Roman",serif]

Idled jets worldwide require extra care


More than 16,000passenger jets are grounded worldwide, according to the industry researcherCirium, as the coronavirus obliterates travel and puts unprecedented strain onairline finances. Finding the right space and conditions for 62% of the world’splanes and keeping them airworthy have suddenly become priorities for 2020.



[/FONT]

Airlines' revenues have effectively all but dried up by this crisis. I did a series of recovery flights yesterday (the first I've done in a month), and when we arrived in Melbourne I had to get an engineer to attend the aircraft.
While we were chatting I asked him how many guys were working on the engineering team. He said "almost all", as they have to keep working on the aircraft while they're short-term stored. Things like doing engine runs a couple of times per week, and other tasks that need to be carried out as per Boeing and Airbus' requirements. This is to enable them to be rapidly redeployed into service.
So they are being kept quite busy on the stored aircraft, even though they aren't moving.