The airline business is in a slump. Most carriers have too many planes in their inventory. They park excess aircrafts in dry, mountain desert spots in Arizona and California. Although most of the 500 currently stranded airplanes are still in perfect condition, many of them will never fly again. Highly specialized firms dismantle them; it's a lucrative business. In Marana, Arizona, for example, the global freight company Evergreen deals mostly in taking apart Boeing 747 planes. Everything is...
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The airline business is in a slump. Most carriers have too many planes in their inventory. They park excess aircrafts in dry, mountain desert spots in Arizona and California. Although most of the 500 currently stranded airplanes are still in perfect condition, many of them will never fly again. Highly specialized firms dismantle them; it's a lucrative business. In Marana, Arizona, for example, the global freight company Evergreen deals mostly in taking apart Boeing 747 planes. Everything is reused - seats, toilets, wings, data recorders, engines and wheels, as well as cockpits. Once stripped down to its bare bones, a huge crane slices the aluminum body into small pieces. It takes roughly 7 weeks to rip apart a 747. There is not much demand for spare parts in the United States so most of them are sold to airlines in the developing world.
These times are especially good for scrap dealers. They're being paid for the dismantling and can sell the metal on the free market. "We're booked for many years", says David Kramer. He works in the Mojave Desert in California and has taken more than eighty planes to pieces in the last three years.

The sight at the airport in Mojave is reminiscent of a beach full of stranded whales. No other place in the world houses more airplanes. Photographers are not welcome. "The airlines don't want pictures of their unused machines in the press", says Kramer. "It scares their passengers."

For full text, please contact writer Peter Hossli : peter@hossli.com
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