Singapore Airlines A380s arrive at plane ‘graveyard’ near Alice Springs

As grounded aircraft wait out the coronavirus pandemic, this plane “graveyard” in the Aussie outback has become the resting place for many of them.

As the skies become emptied of planes like we’ve never seen before, the aircraft population in Australia’s outback is booming.

Four A380 jumbo jets have landed at an Alice Springs aeroplane “graveyard” that’s become the perfect resting place for grounded aircraft to wait out the coronavirus pandemic.

The Singapore Airlines planes, which landed in the Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage facility near Alice Springs last week, join six Boeing MAX 8s and 13 other narrow-body aircraft that have already been parked in the desert.

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The newly arrived Singapore Airlines A380s dwarfed the planes already stored at the Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage near Alice Springs. Picture: Steve Strike Photography

Photographer Steve Strike, who took these spectacular photos of the newly arrived A380s dwarfing the other planes in storage, estimated their collective value to be about $5 billion.

“I can’t imagine the long-term effects of this,” Strike wrote after sharing his photos online. “I don’t think anyone has any idea how travel in the world will be in the future.”

The Singapore Airlines jumbos are waiting out the pandemic in the Aussie desert. Picture: Steve Strike Photography

Far from being a desert wasteland, the arid Alice Springs facility is the perfect place for the grounded aircraft to rest before returning to fly when air travel resumes.

Like the Arizona Boneyard in the US city of Tucson that’s home to 4500 grounded aircraft, the dry climate of the outback is ideal for preserving the aircraft for long-term storage.

Singapore, where many of these planes have come from, experiences high humidity and heat that risks corroding the aircraft over time.

The Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage has stored disused aircraft since the early 2000s. Picture: Steve Strike Photography

Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage (APAS) has stored aircraft since the early 2000s.

“It’s quite a process to put the aircraft into storage, (but) once the storage induction check is complete, we’ll then start carrying out the periodic checks every week,” APAS director Tom Vincent told the ABC.

He explained aircraft had to be sealed airtight and filled with non-corrosive gases while engines are protected from the weather. Flight mechanics inspect the aircraft weekly to keep the planes in “nearly flight-ready” condition. That includes periodically switching on the aircraft.

The facility is an option for airlines that have grounded their fleets due to COVID-19. Picture: Steve Strike Photography

“We’re here to … keep the aircraft in a nearly flight-ready condition, and then return them back to service,” Mr Vincent said.

The facility currently holds about 20 aircraft but Mr Vincent said expansion to infrastructure would lift its capacity to up to 70 aircraft.

This year the Northern Territory government invested $1 million into APAS to boost its storage capacity, the ABC reported.