Deserted in the desert

  • Peter Pae / Los Angeles Times
  • Thursday, October 11, 2001 9:00pm
  • Business

By Peter Pae

Los Angeles Times

MOJAVE, Calif. — One of the busiest airports in the United States these days is a place where most of the airplanes that land never take off again.

The Mojave Airport, about 100 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, is home to the nation’s largest graveyard for commercial passenger jets, and in one of the most telling reflections of the airline industry’s woes, business here is booming.

"We’re looking at leveling more ground to accommodate more airplanes," said Dan Sabovich, general manager of the airport, where nearly 200 airplanes, including seven 747 jumbo jets, now sit along the runway with their engines and windows covered with tape. "It’s not exactly the way we want to make money, but the planes have to go somewhere."

In the aftermath of the devastating terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the airline industry has been in a dizzy free fall as skittish passengers stay off flights, prompting airlines to postpone orders for new airplanes and take many older airplanes out of service.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the number of airplanes landing at the airport to be parked or scrapped has increased dramatically, even surpassing the rate that the airport experienced in the last airline downturn a decade ago. Planes flown by virtually all major airlines are represented, from American and Delta to Continental and US Airways.

"We are getting a lot, more than before," said Sabovich, who has been managing the airport since 1971. "It just seems worse this time."

The number of commercial passenger aircraft taken out of service worldwide could reach 2,000 planes in 2002, compared with the record 1,100 already parked as of Sept. 1, according to Airclaims Ltd., a London-based aviation valuation consulting firm.

The company said 21 airlines have already announced since the Sept. 11 attacks that they will retire or dispose of 556 aircraft. The majority of them, 280, are Boeing Co.’s single-aisle planes. Last month, Boeing cut its forecast for the number of new airplanes it expected to deliver next year from 500 to 400 as it announced a plan to slash up to 30,000 jobs.

"The attacks of Sept. 11 and the war — we don’t know what else to call it — have dramatically changed the outlook for commercial aerospace," Byron Callan, a Merrill Lynch &Co. analyst, warned in his report to investors last week. "Cutbacks in scheduled airline service will result in a surge in parked aircraft."

At Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, the other large compound for storing and maintaining large commercial jets, the number of planes coming in for storage has grown significantly since Sept. 11, according to officials there. There are now 180 planes parked at the airport, even though the facility opened just last year, said Dowgall Agan of Stirling Airports International, which manages the airport.

"Here we go again," said Jerri Sabovich, the wife of Mojave Airport’s longtime manager, summing up the collective response of many in the aerospace industry. "Isn’t that sad?"

Jerri Sabovich, known as the first lady of the airport, recalled the last time there was an influx of aircraft a decade ago. In 1991, the number of planes parked at the airport jumped from 20 to more than 200 as the Persian Gulf War pushed what was then an already teetering economy over the edge and air travel plummeted. Many of the parked airplanes never made it out of Mojave.

"What was sad was all the ones that were left behind. They looked like cattle going to the slaughterhouse," she said.

Unwanted planes are cut apart and recycled. The open-air compound resembles a junkyard with parts of planes, from their nose and tail to passenger seats, are strewn about.

Airplanes had been coming at a steady clip even before the Sept. 11 attacks, said Dan Sabovich, the manager. The airport saw more than 60 planes arrive between the beginning of the year and the end of August, or an average of one every three or four days.

But in the last two weeks, the rate has shot up to six or seven a day, and last Monday a record 19 airplanes landed at the airport. "It’s cheaper to park them than to fly them," Sabovich said. "We probably have more airplanes on the ground than at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport)."

It costs airlines and leasing companies $500 a month to park a wide-body jet and $250 for a single-aisle plane such as the Boeing 737.

"It’s cheaper than parking your car at LAX," Sabovich said.

For a while during the airline boom in the late 1990s, many planes were flying into Mojave to be refurbished or undergo maintenance at one of the aviation service companies at the airport.

But most planes these days are getting "pickled," Sabovich said, referring to the process of draining the plane of fuel and oil and taping up openings such as doors, windows and engines for what could be an extended stay.

Some newer planes eventually re-enter service, typically after it is sold at a bargain-basement price to a foreign or start-up airline, but most are disassembled for parts, Sabovich said.

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