Metropolitan Airport NewsMetropolitan Airport News
  • Airport News
    • Publisher’s Message
    • Fast Five
    • On Duty
    • Air Cargo
    • Airline News
    • Airport Community
    • Airport Employment News
    • Airport Safety & Security
    • Company Spotlight
    • Ground Services
    • Intermodal
    • New York Aviation History
    • Non-Rev Traveler
  • Airport & Aviation Events
  • Airport Employment
  • Latest Issue
  • Login

Subscribe for Updates

Get the latest local airport and aviation news delivered right into your inbox each week!

News Updates
Norse Atlantic Airways announces first flight from Paris to New York, JFK with daily service.

Norse Atlantic Airways Celebrates Inaugural Flight from Paris to New York

March 27, 2023
Michael Huerta, Former Administrator of the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Delta Air Lines Board Member

Joby Appoints Former FAA Administrator and Delta Board Member Michael Huerta to the Company’s Board of Directors

March 25, 2023
Elise Eberwein accepts the CF Foundation’s Jena Award on March 23.

American Airlines Donates $1.1 Million to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

March 24, 2023
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Metropolitan Airport NewsMetropolitan Airport News
  • Airport News
    • Publisher’s Message
    • Fast Five
    • On Duty
    • Air Cargo
    • Airline News
    • Airport Community
    • Airport Employment News
    • Airport Safety & Security
    • Company Spotlight
    • Ground Services
    • Intermodal
    • New York Aviation History
    • Non-Rev Traveler
  • Airport & Aviation Events
  • Airport Employment
  • Latest Issue
  • Login
Metropolitan Airport NewsMetropolitan Airport News
Home»Featured»MRO’s Adapt to Current COVID-19 Crisis to Maintain Parked Aircraft
Featured

MRO’s Adapt to Current COVID-19 Crisis to Maintain Parked Aircraft

When airplanes are not flying, where can you park them?
Metropolitan Airport NewsBy Metropolitan Airport NewsApril 23, 2020No Comments3 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
American Airlines planes parked In Mobile, Alabama
American Airlines planes parked In Mobile, Alabama

With thousands of commercial aircraft in idle condition or in short- or longer-term storage due to the COVID-19 crisis, airlines and MROs are being forced to adapt their workflows to keep aircraft in healthy condition indefinitely until operations can begin returning to normal.

Approximately 9,000 aircraft are now in short-term parked status and more than 3,000 aircraft have gone through the process of being put in storage. For American Airlines, which now has approximately 300 idled aircraft parked across its network in Mobile, Alabama; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Roswell, New Mexico, the situation builds on what the airline was already dealing concerning grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

“The MAX has provided kind of an unfortunate training ground for us on aircraft storage,” explains Erik Olund, MD of base maintenance at American Airlines. “Those aircraft have provided a basis for us to get good on how we maintain tasks across the fleet.”

Olund says American has focused heavily on tasks like time-driven inspections, minimum equipment list (MEL) items that need repairs and cleaning, and making sure aircraft are compliant and “ready to go at a moment’s notice” rather than moving forward on maintenance schedules since “now is not the time to go burn capital on things like that.”

“The OEMs are under a lot of pressure with our engineering teams to find the right mix of what is the right interval to do the right maintenance packages when,” Olund says. “It’s a difficult balancing act, but there’s a lot of great cooperation going on.” He adds that technicians who normally work inside the hangar are getting used to taking care of parked aircraft on runways and taxiways.

At HAECO Hong Kong, which is managing fleets for Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon, this limited space to park aircraft has become particularly challenging. According to Paul Longhurst, general manager of light maintenance at the MRO, the situation has become a bit of a “logistical nightmare.”

“There’s limited space in Hong Kong to park aircraft and we’ve ended up with aircraft on taxiways. Then we end up with the problem of aircraft blocking aircraft when we have to do periodic maintenance and engine runs,” he says. “We haven’t gotten to the stage yet where we’re parking aircraft for 60 days, but that will come, I think.”

HAECO Hong Kong has been working with OEMs through Cathay Pacific and Longhurst says some of the parking procedures have been ordered with temporary provisions to make them more workable. The MRO is now looking at 60-day parking procedures and how those can be handled, including periodic idle engine runs.

According to Olund, American Airlines has made decisions on certain aircraft to keep them in active ready status. The airline has built its reactivation plan around requiring three days of around-the-clock work to be able to put aircraft back into service. Which aircraft will be activated first will be driven by the carrier’s schedule planning-team.

Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
Metropolitan Airport News
  • Website
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Produced by a team of aviation professionals and enthusiasts, our mission is to inform and update the more than 68,000 employees who work on the metropolitan New York airport properties, as well as the many others that provide goods and services in the surrounding communities.

RELATED NEWS & UPDATES

Ferrovial and Eve Air Mobility Team Up On Urban Air Traffic In the U.S and Europe

March 23, 2023

American Airlines Leading the Way With Women in Aviation

March 16, 2023
Viridos' technology extracts algae oil from algae for potential future production of sustainable aviation fuel

United Invests $5 Million in Algae-based Fuel Producer Viridos

March 13, 2023
JFK Air Cargo

Women in Air Cargo

March 7, 2023
Universal Hydrogen Successfully Completes First Flight of Hydrogen Regional Airliner

Universal Hydrogen Successfully Completes First Flight of Hydrogen Regional Airliner

March 3, 2023
LUFTHANSA A350

Lufthansa Orders 10 Airbus A350-1000 and 5 more A350-900 Aircraft

March 2, 2023
Add A Comment

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

AIRPORT & AVIATION EVENTS
JFK Airport Chamber of Commerce at Topgolf
March 28, 2023
2:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Topgolf
Holbrook, New York
The Wings Club Annual Meeting
March 29, 2023
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
New York, New York
FDU Master of Public Administration Open House
March 30, 2023
11:00 AM to 4:00 PM
  • Newark Liberty International Airport-(EWR)
Newark, New Jersey
  • >> More Airport & Aviation Events

Subscribe for Weekly Email Updates

Get the latest local airport news, events, and jobs delivered right into your inbox each week.

Metropolitan Airport News provides timely news, information and updates for both Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ) employees and businesses that provide services at, and around the major New York airports (JFK, LGA, EWR).

John F. Kennedy International Airport
PO Box 300877
Jamaica, NY 11430 USA
Phone: (347) 396-0904
Email Us

Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Flickr
MARCH 2023 ISSUE
Metropolitan Airport News March 2023
LATEST COMMENTS
  • Julia Lauria-Blum on Larger Than Life
  • Robert lee on Jane Mrosko
  • Jerelyn Zontini on Larger Than Life
  • Tom Krpata on The Golden Age of Airline Employment
  • About Us
  • Advertising Options
  • Charitable Giving Program
  • Back Issue Archive
  • Contact Us
© 2023 Airport Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.