In its heyday, this Boeing 747-200 cargo jet soared high in the sky to such destinations as Halifax, Miami, Panama, Dakar, Harare, Tehran, Bangkok and Shanghai.
But the final destination for the MK Airlines plane was a small airfield in the scenic hills of the Cotswolds of Britain, where all that remained of it after about 12 weeks of dismantling was a pile of scrap aluminum that was taken away to be recycled into Coca-Cola cans and other everyday items.
Another 747-200 sat nearby, the next to be scrapped, its parts to be reused and the rest recycled or disposed of in an unglamorous end for a jet that logged millions of kilometres since entering service in 1975, flown by various owners including British Airways and Dubai Air Wing.
They were just two in a growing line of aircraft decommissioned by Air Salvage International, which has become one of the world's busiest airplane scrapyards. The British company is benefiting from the aviation industry's slump in the global economic downturn, which is forcing airlines and air transport companies to retire unneeded aging planes as they take delivery of newer, quieter and more fuel-efficient models.
"Business has been pretty good for us lately due to the recession," said Mark Gregory, founder and managing director of Air Salvage International.
"There's a lot of airlines that have been handing back their leased aircraft and the leasing companies, not knowing what to do with the aircraft, they ultimately try to sell the aircraft and can't sell the aircraft. We end up breaking them into spare parts."
The number of planes parked worldwide has ballooned 28.7 per cent to a record 2,860, according to aerospace publication Flight International's most recent census of the global airliner fleet.
"A lot of those planes this time around likely are going to go straight to the scrap man," said Max Kingsley-Jones, deputy editor of Flight International.
"They won't come back into service when the market recovers because there's been so many new airplanes being delivered by the Airbus and Boeing companies that they [aircraft owners]don't need to take the aircraft back."
The key difference between the current recession and previous ones, Mr. Kingsley-Jones said, is that fuel prices are still high. That means aircraft owners have extra incentive to get rid of old thirsty planes, even if they still have a few more years of life left. Some older aircraft also require three crew members in the cockpit compared with two in modern jets, which affects operating costs.
The recession has brought down the value of older, second-hand aircraft "to the point where they're only worth the expensive parts of the aircraft in terms of technology," particularly the engines and the auxiliary power unit, he added.
Citing appraisers, Flight International said in a recent report that an entire 1984 vintage Boeing 737-300, one of the most common planes being scrapped today, could be worth as little as $3.17-million (Canadian). Jet engines in good condition, on the other hand, can fetch up to $1.06-million each on the second-hand market.
In pre-recession times, Mr. Gregory said ASI, which has scrapped 350 planes since its inception in 1997, usually received about one jet a month. Since the start of 2009, however, business has doubled.
Mr. Gregory estimated that his company is the biggest such operation in Britain and one of the top five aircraft scrapyards worldwide. But unlike the famed boneyards in the desert states of the U.S. southwest, which have vast acres of space to store jets indefinitely, ASI has to turn over jets quickly because of the limited space it has at the airport, a former Royal Air Force base 160 kilometres west of London.
ASI is one of 11 founding members of the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association, set up in 2006 with the goal of recycling 95 per cent of each plane scrapped within the next decade.
After removing the batteries and draining off the fuel and toxic substances, ASI's engineers will carefully strip each jet of its valuable parts, removing the engines and the auxiliary power unit, followed by the avionics, air conditioning units, flight controls and hydraulics. Last to come off is the landing gear.
On a recent visit, three Boeing 737s in KLM blue, but without the airline's logos, sat forlornly on the apron, awaiting their turn on the chopping block. Further down the runway sat an Airbus A300 in DHL yellow and red, also missing its company logo.
Mr. Gregory said the scrap aluminum is taken away to be fragmented and then smelted into ingots.
"The metal is not used again, actually, for aviation. It's used for pots and pans and tins and Coke cans and stuff like that."
Special to The Globe and Mail