Could planes be brought back from the desert to fill the global shortage of aircraft?

Cancelling flights that could have carried 200,000 passengers is not something an airline does lightly. But British Airways has chosen to axe three daily long-haul round-trips this winter because of a shortage of serviceable planes.

A reader, Tam Carr, wonders: “Why can’t they utilise the hundreds of mothballed aircraft parked up at the world’s airports? Surely they can be chartered?”

Tam’s point is well worth investigating. You need venture only as far as Lourdes in southwest France to discover dozens of dormant passenger aircraft. Last time I was there, Airbus A380 aircraft were lined up as densely as you would find them at a major hub. But they are going nowhere.

Bear in mind the world’s first double-deck Superjumbo was delivered only 17 years ago this month, so none of those planes is especially old. They stood alongside Boeing wide-bodied jets of various types and vintages, and a handful of A340 planes looking particularly dilapidated.

A similar scene is replicated at the former military airfield at Teruel in Spain and across the desert airstrips of the southwest US. Most spectacular of all: Southern California Logistics Airport outside Victorville. Even before the Covid pandemic, I saw a string of former British Airways Boeing 747 Jumbo jets growing old beneath the desert sun. (It’s well worth a visit if you find yourself on the most interesting stretch of Route 66 in California, between San Bernadino and Victorville.)

Worldwide, hundreds such planes are standing idle at a time when BA and other airlines are hungry for long-haul aircraft.

“Bring back the Boeing 747,” many former passengers and crew will chorus. But that particular plane has flown for the last time for British Airways. Even without the Covid pandemic, the Jumbo was due to be retired by around now by BA – previously the world’s biggest operator of the type.

While well-maintained older planes are perfectly safe, the cost of keeping them in tip-top condition increases with age. And with four thirsty engines, the extra fuel burn compared with modern “big twins” is economically and environmentally unjustifiable.

Another seemingly obvious suggestion presents itself: surely British Airways could acquire some of the A380s that are sitting around waiting for owners? They, too, have four engines but carry far more passengers.

As I have reported, BA would enjoy a few more A380s to boost the resilience of its programme; Sunday’s Boston-to-London flight, for example, was downsized to a Boeing 777 because there were not enough serviceable aircraft available. Simple, then: buy or lease some of the prematurely retired A380s, presumably at knock-down prices.

Not quite so simple, as the saga of Global Airlines reveals. This A380-only airline was founded three years ago by James Asquith. The idea is to offer top-grade flights across the Atlantic on the Superjumbo.

By all accounts the investors have deep pockets. The first aircraft – a former China Southern A380 – was registered with Global Airlines at the start of February. A full overhaul and inspection took place. It was a further three months before the plane was moved from Mojave in the US desert to Prestwick in southwest Scotland, on a flight that involved the undercarriage to be fully down for the whole journey. The company announced it would “commence a full interior refurbishment and continue its maintenance journey back to the skies”.

Anyone impatient to fly on the new carrier will have to wait a while longer. Earlier this month, the plane made another undercarriage-down move, from Prestwick to Dresden in southeast Germany, for heavy maintenance.

Global Airlines expects one day to fly from London Gatwick to New York JFK.

Let’s hope so, because that is one of the routes British Airways has suspended for the winter, along with London Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur. But resurrecting aircraft is a painfully slow process. What airlines such as BA need is a quick solution. While we wait, air fares will be higher and travel options fewer.