Aircraft Storage Teruel : where jumbos come to life

During the pandemic, airlines parked their planes in Teruel, Spain – in “deep storage”. But air traffic has recovered. In April, Lufthansa will pick up its third aircraft again.

“Spanish Siberia” is what locals call the area around the Spanish Teruel. Summer is far away here. A dry, icy wind blows across the wasteland, which is one of the most sparsely populated places in Europe.

Anyone approaching Teruel from the north sees gnarled bushes, gray fields and, in the distance, snow-capped mountains. And then suddenly: planes standing there like a frozen family of dolphins. There are around 80 large passenger planes these days.

An airplane graveyard, you might think. But the first impression is deceptive. Many airlines parked their planes here in an area the size of 185 football pitches when not much was going on in the industry during the Corona crisis. But now many planes are coming back to life.

Alejandro Ibrahim, Teruel Airport Manager, says: “Many long-haul aircraft have left our airport again. We are seeing a rapid increase in global air traffic. We are helping airlines get their planes back in the air. Like Lufthansa.”

Review: In 2020, the airlines were fighting for survival. At Frankfurt Airport, the entire Terminal 2 was closed due to a lack of guests and traffic. Air travel fell back to 1970 levels. Lufthansa flew 13 Airbus A380s to Teruel, assuming that this largest passenger aircraft with a good 500 seats would never be needed again.

Almost back to pre-crisis level

According to statistics from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), around 4.5 billion people worldwide flew before the Corona crisis. In 2020 it was only 1.8 billion. But this year, IATA expects 4.2 billion passengers again.

The boom can be seen in Teruel. The airport’s business model is to offer parking space in a very dry region of Europe. There are more than 250 sunny days here, in the north-east of Spain. In the summer of 2020, Teruel was almost at the limit with a good 130 decommissioned planes. Now it’s already 50 less. Even the big Airbus 380 leave Teruel again.

Lufthansa, for example, has already picked up two. The third machine will follow in April. Due to the sharp rise in demand for flight tickets and the delayed delivery of ordered aircraft, the Airbus A380 will be reactivated, according to the airline.

A spokesman says: “Especially for Easter and the weeks after, but also for the summer, the booking situation is very good – especially on the routes across the Atlantic to North America, but also for Italy, Spain and many other Mediterranean countries.”

Two months of work to get machines running

That means a lot of work for a special company that takes care of the planes in deep sleep, experts also speak of “deep storage”. “We’re talking about two months, more than 2,500 working hours, that we need until the big planes can take off here again,” says airport boss Ibrahim.

Incidentally, the strong upswing is not causing him any worries. Even if all the airmen were awakened from deep sleep, there will still be work in Teruel. Because here they have also specialized in the recycling of aircraft parts.

And the industry expects that 15,000 aircraft will be scrapped and replaced by new ones worldwide in the coming years.