Alice Springs storage welcomes United Nations of aircraft, but Qantas heads to California

Qantas says Californian climate ‘more suited’ to deep storage of aircraft as the airline shuns Alice Springs.

Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage at Alice Springs is fast filling up with aeroplanes from overseas airlines. Picture: Dan Gerich

As Qantas sends its last Boeing 747 off to the Mojave Desert in California, Australia’s only aircraft storage facility in Alice Springs is rapidly becoming a United Nations of airlines.

Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage has taken delivery of nine Cebu Pacific planes this week and another Singapore Airlines’ A380, taking to 43 the number of aeroplanes now parked at the site.

As well as Singapore and the Philippines, aircraft from Thailand, Fiji and Australia are being stored in Alice Springs with more deliveries expected in coming weeks.

Singapore Airlines’ now has seven A380s stored in the Red Centre which has raised questions about why Qantas is sending its 12 A380s to California, at an estimated cost of $150,000 for each flight.

Nationals Senator Perrin Davey put the question to Qantas Group executive Andrew Parker during a Senate COVID committee hearing on Tuesday and was told the Californian climate was more suited to deep storage of aircraft.

“The vast majority of our fleet which is currently in storage is in Australia, with our Australian engineers looking after those aircraft,” Mr Parker said.

“Our A380s are based in California for deep hibernation because the climate we need is slightly different to Alice Springs for long-term storage. We do have an engineering presence in Los Angeles so there’s proximity for our engineers to have ongoing care and maintenance.”

Buyer found

The five Qantas 747s being retired early due to the COVID-19 crisis will not remain in the Mojave Desert indefinitely, after a buyer was found for the aircraft.

Although details of the sales have not been made public, Qantas 747 fleet captain Owen Weaver confirmed the iconic aeroplanes had been sold which he said “backed up the decision to retire them”.

The Qantas A380s include six that have undergone refurbishment in the past year.

While they are not needed at the moment because of poor travel demand and the removal of international services from the Qantas schedule, the airline hopes to return them to the skies in 2023.

Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage managing director Tom Vincent would not comment on the Qantas storage plans, but indicated the Alice Springs site was fast filling up.

The company has fast-tracked expansion plans to cater for demand from international airlines seeking to store aircraft in dry, low-humidity conditions with around the clock care.

Eight Boeing 737 Max 8s stored at the site may be heading home in coming months with the Federal Aviation Administration moving closer to recertifying the grounded aircraft.

A notice of proposed rule-making for an airworthiness directive is expected to be released shortly, after which the public will have 45 days to comment on proposed design changes.

The aircraft was grounded in mid-March 2019, following two crashes in five months that claimed the lives of 346 people.