Thought you might like to see this!

Here’s What You Do With Two-Thirds of the World’s Jets When They Can’t Fly

Just finding space to park can be a problem, and idle planes require a surprising amount of work, from maintaining hydraulics to stopping birds from nesting.

 

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-04-16/coronavirus-travel-what-happens-to-planes-grounded-by-covid-19?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Wow, makes me sad.. I had the dubious honor of "parking" one of our A330's. It was a short flight, and I tried to savor every moment of it.... I was actually thrilled when ATC issued us a hold outside of PIT! 

Currently, I'm getting paid not to fly until October. But, since my fleet will be fully gone by then, not sure what I'll end up flying. For lack of a better description, I've bid for the 787, and the 321. 

 

I think it should make every sane person feel sad. No bad feelings, but this is wrong. 

2 hours ago, busdriver said:

Wow, makes me sad.. I had the dubious honor of "parking" one of our A330's. It was a short flight, and I tried to savor every moment of it.... I was actually thrilled when ATC issued us a hold outside of PIT! 

Currently, I'm getting paid not to fly until October. But, since my fleet will be fully gone by then, not sure what I'll end up flying. For lack of a better description, I've bid for the 787, and the 321. 

 

Fingers crossed, all the very Best of Luck.🤘

Just sent my sis in Las Vegas a shot of that Bloomberg report. She could not believe her eyes and she flies Delta and SWA often.😒

2 hours ago, busdriver said:

Wow, makes me sad.. I had the dubious honor of "parking" one of our A330's. It was a short flight, and I tried to savor every moment of it.... I was actually thrilled when ATC issued us a hold outside of PIT! 

Currently, I'm getting paid not to fly until October. But, since my fleet will be fully gone by then, not sure what I'll end up flying. For lack of a better description, I've bid for the 787, and the 321. 

 

I'm thankful that I retired in 2016. I was US Airways Fleet Service in DFW. I went through the controller's strike, 9/11, the great recession, and numerous other economic downturns. This is unlike anything we've ever seen. Hang in there. This too shall pass.

This is pure speculation on my part, but I would suspect there will be, or even is, a surfeit of cargo pilots, or at least qualified airline transport pilots who would have relatively next to no trouble flying boxes instead of self loading cargo in similar airframes.

41 minutes ago, HighBypass said:

This is pure speculation on my part, but I would suspect there will be, or even is, a surfeit of cargo pilots, or at least qualified airline transport pilots who would have relatively next to no trouble flying boxes instead of self loading cargo in similar airframes.

 

More than likely, yes. My airline fully retired it's 75/76 fleet, and the 76's went to Amazon. Someone needs to fly them, so I guess this could be an avenue for some. For myself, ultimately I should be ok. I'll most likely end up on the 787, as I'm on the right side of the seniority curve.

Hope the self loading cargo behaves itself when things calm down a bit!

9 minutes ago, HighBypass said:

Hope the self loading cargo behaves itself when things calm down a bit!

Me too. Boy the stories I could tell..... I'm glad to be locked behind a steel reinforced door. My heart goes out to the FA's, they have it pretty rough sometimes.

Should be interesting to see how many of those planes will take to the skies again. A couple of days back there was an article in the business part of the paper in which realtors specialising in office rentals here in Ireland were pretty much wetting their pants. With the huge increase in people working from home (and still, miraculously, getting their job done) there is a strong vibe that corporations are seriously reviewing their office space requirements. Why have four floors of a building, when one or two might do, if and when you only call in your employees for really important meetings that should be better held face to face? And they also mentioned the further implications that screen meetings might do away with a considerable part of business travel. This is something that has been touted for several years, but now we're going through a massive case study on how feasible that actually is in real life.

Just a short while back Dublin - London was the second busiest route in the world, with more than 80,000 people flying that stretch every week... Doubt we'll be seeing that kind of traffic again soon, and with it the planes that shuttled the (mainly) suits there and back...

 

Cheers

Mallard

2 minutes ago, Mallard said:

Should be interesting to see how many of those planes will take to the skies again. A couple of days back there was an article in the business part of the paper in which realtors specialising in office rentals here in Ireland were pretty much wetting their pants. With the huge increase in people working from home (and still, miraculously, getting their job done) there is a strong vibe that corporations are seriously reviewing their office space requirements. Why have four floors of a building, when one or two might do, if and when you only call in your employees for really important meetings that should be better held face to face? And they also mentioned the further implications that screen meetings might do away with a considerable part of business travel. This is something that has been touted for several years, but now we're going through a massive case study on how feasible that actually is in real life.

Just a short while back Dublin - London was the second busiest route in the world, with more than 80,000 people flying that stretch every week... Doubt we'll be seeing that kind of traffic again soon, and with it the planes that shuttled the (mainly) suits there and back...

 

Cheers

Mallard

I agree. Sadly I think that type of flying is over. Not to mention, I would not want to be in commercial real-estate... Globally, I think that is going to be a huge drag on the world-wide economy for a long time.

What are the current forecasts for the state of commercial air travel after this is all over? Are we looking at huge fleet reductions, and significantly higher ticket prices? Is this going to change the way that the world sees the airline industry?

Edited April 22, 20206 yr by Christopher Low

4 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

 Are we looking at huge fleet reductions, and significantly higher ticket prices? 

This would be my best guess. When the airlines will pick up business again, say in 6 weeks, they will have half empty planes, thus double the average ticket price. It's the same with the real estate market, buying gives you some nice bargains now but renting stays at 100%. Another example why the economic impact of the panic strategy hits the less fortunate most. 

I am not just thinking in the short term. Is the current "we expect to be able to fly anywhere, at any time, and at a cheap price" model going to be viable in a post pandemic world?

I'd say no, Christopher. Air travel used to be a privilege, not a right, people were smartly dressed for the occasion, but the airliners themselves didn't pack the pax in like cattle.

Everyone needs a holiday, but whilst it's great to be able to go practically anywhere for that holiday, no one NEEDS to jump on a plane to do so. So destinations and holiday flights to those destinations may very well change.