Behind-The-Scenes With American Demothballing Jets From Pandemic Storage
Photo Credit: It takes American Airlines a week to return a stored 737 back into service. Skift / Edward Russell
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Airlines have come a long way from the dark days of the pandemic when idled jets lined runways around the world. On the ground in Tulsa, we check out the meticulous way American is taking its last few aircraft out of mothballs with an opportunistic eye towards summer.
Travel is on the upswing after the depths of the coronavirus pandemic. And despite the possibility of yet another act, U.S. airlines are preparing for what could be a banner summer for leisure travel.
Bookings are up, domestic flights are returning and airlines are recalling and hiring staff in preparation to meet forecast demand. Nowhere is that less evident than at American Airlines’ maintenance base in Tulsa, Oklahoma, — the largest such facility at the world’s largest airline — where many of its 851 aircraft pass through at one time or another.
But since the pandemic began in earnest last March — really since the Boeing 737 Max was grounded in early 2019 — Tulsa has been host to something else: Up to 100 stored aircraft. Planes were parked on taxiways, the ramp, any available space that could fit an Airbus A320 or Boeing 777 was requisitioned at the apex of the crisis.
“We were never in the business of storing aircraft,” Ed Sangricco, who has led American�
