See one of the world's biggest aircraft 'graveyards' where planes go to die — and airlines can dissect them for parts

As the aviation industry hopes to reduce its carbon footprint, companies are coming up with new strategies to alleviate CO2 emissions.

in April, the Aviation Circularity Consortium, including Australian flag carrier Qantas and other groups, was created as a "joint mission to accelerate supply chain decarbonisation."

The plan is to use the 8,000 "end-of-life retired aircraft" that are sitting in deserts, jungles, and storage yards across the globe. Another 11,000 are expected to be available over the next 10 years.

According to the consortium, the thousands of decommissioned aircraft offer "a new source of valuable circular materials" and address the "significant waste pollution challenges to the shrinking legal boneyards around the world."

These "graveyards" started filling up during the pandemic when airlines had to make drastic cost-cutting changes, including furloughing pilots, cutting routes, and indefinitely storing hundreds of planes in the desert.

One of these facilities is Pinal Air Park in Marana, Arizona — a small town located about 90 miles southeast of Phoenix.

As airlines started to shrink in 2020, hundreds of planes from all over the world flew to the 2,080-acre airpark.

With the influx, Pinal had to take special precautions to ensure the aircraft was ready to fly once travel eventually rebounded.

Because of this, Ascent Aviation Services — the largest aircraft service provider on the airfield — had to beef up its staff to maintain the constant arrivals.

Company CCO Scott Butler told Business Insider last year that starting in March 2020, planes were coming in at about one per hour — requiring over 150 extra mechanics.

Additional parking lots were built to handle the hundreds of planes, which continued to be filled into 2021 and 2022 with jets coming from places like the US, South Korea, UK, Australia, and Canada.

I went inside one of the US' largest aircraft storage facilities and saw how it isn't emptying out despite the rise in air travel

Leasing companies were also filling the airfield after buying up inexpensive planes sold during COVID and storing them at Pinal.

Inside a remote Arizona aircraft boneyard storing nearly 300 planes grounded by the pandemic

However, with travel now roaring back and demand on track to surpass 2019 levels, AAS has gotten back to its roots — maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO).

Basic offerings include simple maintenance checks and on-demand repairs, like fixing the landing gear or inspecting the flight controls.

However, heavy maintenance is the most costly for airlines. This involves a full assessment of the aircraft and can take up to 60 days for widebody jets, Butler explained.

"A narrowbody will cost around $2 million," he told BI in May 2023. "With widebodies, you're easily looking at $3 million."

These projects take a lot of manpower. Butler said the company targets 400-500 hours per day for widebodies and 300 per day for narrowbodies.

Because the checks are so expensive, many carriers opt to sell the aircraft when it gets to that stage in its lifecycle, which is typically every six to 10 years.

Source: National Aviation Academy

Or, the operator will allow an aircraft lease to expire. This means if the lessor finds a new home for the plane, it will need to be fitted for its next contract.

For these conversions, AAS offers additional services, like re-painting liveries, switching out flight systems, and installing new cabins.

Sometimes, aircraft will transition from a passenger jet to a cargo plane — a service the company saw increased popularity during the pandemic, especially with older jets.

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For flight tests and deliveries, the operator will arrange pilots, who will land and depart on the designated runway stretching Pinal's airfield.

Overall, Butler said AAS can do nearly anything an airline would need from an MRO standpoint.

The main service it can't provide is engine overhauls, which are outsourced to other shops.

"A lot of our current projects are just waiting on engines," Butler told BI. "There's a backlog because no one did engine maintenance during COVID because of the expenses."

He explained this is adding to the already strained supply chain that has caused a slowdown in returning aircraft to service.

While AAS does a lot of work keeping airplanes flying, it also offers aircraft reclamation and end-of-life services — what the consortium wants to capitalize on.

This involves disassembling and disposing of unwanted parts, which make up about 10% of the airplane.

According to Butler, the other 90% is recyclable. These include things like engines and galley carts...

...and avionics and landing gear.

However, he said custom interiors do not have much value except to the original operator.

A plane can spend months being salvaged, with hundreds of collected parts being resold or repaired for future use.

The re-certified pieces can be sent back to airlines who keep them in their inventory as spare parts — meaning retired jets can still provide for current ones.

Inside a remote Arizona aircraft boneyard storing nearly 300 planes grounded by the pandemic

Meanwhile, some carriers will take parts of the metal to create memorabilia, like cutting the logo or airline name from the fuselage and using it as wall art.

In addition to the strong MRO and reclamation divisions, storage and parking is still a strong revenue source for AAS.

"80% of all the stored aircraft worldwide are stored in the Southwest," Butler told BI in 2021.

During an April 2023 tour of the airpark, BI found the main lot full of planes, including two rare Boeing 747SPs.

Mechanics spend up to two weeks getting a plane ready for storage. Important components like the engines, pitot tubes, systems, and landing gear are sealed and protected.

This is especially important to prevent critters and other wildlife from taking up residence in the airplane's openings and small crevices.

Butler told BI the stored aircraft also get regular maintenance checks to keep them airworthy.

Parked planes, on the other hand, do not get this service and can be left to collect dust — giving Pinal its "boneyard" nickname.