There are several aircraft boneyards worldwide, but where exactly are aircraft mothballed or recycled? Old US
MILITARY aircraft will likely be stored at Arizona's massive Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (home to over 4,000 aircraft). In contrast, in
England. Commercial aircraft in the Asia-Pacific region may go into storage or go to die at the in the red center of Australia. Most of are in the
United States, but not all of them. Alice Springs Airport (IATA: ASP, ICAO: YBAS) is home to an aircraft boneyard, a storage area for retired aircraft. What sets Alice Springs Airport apart is that it is the first large-scale aircraft boneyard outside the United States, according to . Alice Springs' dry climate makes it one of the ideal places to mothball aircraft. Most long-term storage boneyards are located in deserts (such as in the
American Southwest) where the dry conditions allow the airplanes to be better preserved (the hard ground also means the surface doesn't need to be paved). "It is Australia’s dead centre ??? where our old planes can now go to die. After a slow start, passenger jets including a Qantas 767 and four Airbus single-aisle planes from Tigerair
Singapore have begun to line up at the first large aircraft graveyard outside the US." - The Alice Springs boneyard opened in 2014 and is operated by Brisbane-based Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage Ltd (APAS). The company states the storage facility is the first in the Asia-Pacific region. It is unclear how many aircraft are currently stored at Alice Springs - perhaps a handful or a dozen or two. Before the pandemic in 2019, only a handful of aircraft were stored at Alice Springs Airport. Before the facility's expansion during the pandemic, it covered around 25 acres and had a hard-stand area for up to 25 planes, a maintenance shed, and a pad on which parts could be removed and added to the aircraft. APAS names some of its customers as Qantas, Virgin Australia, Air
New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, tigerair, Our Airline, Scoot, Awas, Icelandair, and even the major accounting firm Standard Chartered. Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage not only stores aircraft but also offers a range of maintenance services. Some of the engines they report being certified to maintain include the Airbus A319/A320/A321 series with CFM 56 series and IAE V2500 series engines, as well as the Airbus A330 series with RB211 Trent 700 series engine (others include Airbus A320/A321neo and ATR 72-500/600 / ATR 72-212A). In 2020, as the
Boeing 737 MAX aircraft were grounded, released a video demonstrating how they stored the troubled aircraft. Besides the Down Under destination for aircraft storage, Alice Springs Airport is also where aircraft go to die. APAS scraps aircraft, offering complete disassembly of the aircraft fuselages, recycling aluminum, and non-recyclable disposal. Another benefit of the location is that it enjoys rail access on Australia's Outback Darwin-Alice Springs-Adelaide railroad, allowing the transportation of aircraft parts and recycled materials. Alice Springs Airport became famous during the pandemic as many airlines few their aircraft the boneyard for storage. At the time, once-humming airports around the world were ghost airports, but Alice Springs's airport graveyard was alive and well. Rows and rows of the world's mothballed airliners flooded the internet. Singapore Airlines, Cebu Pacific, Garuda
Indonesia, Cathay Pacific, Fiji Airways, Scoot, and NokScoot were all reported to be storing aircraft (including A380s) at the airport during the pandemic. So many aircraft were flown there that it was reported by that the facility was close to its capacity and that it would be expanded from 100 aircraft to 200 more aircraft. Learn after a prolonged period of storage. The Alice Springs Airport is one of Australia's most isolated major domestic airports and is located in the red center of the continent. It serves the community of Alice Springs (8 miles away) and is the gateway to Australia's famed Uluru/Ayer's Rock "only" a 4-5 hour drive down the Outback road. As Alices Springs is a tourist destination, airlines can at least partially offset the cost of flying their aircraft to central Australia. The dry and arid climate of central Australia is ideal for storing aircraft (year-round humidity is around 25%). Destinations: Airlines Adelaide: Qantas, Virgin Australia Brisbane: Qantas, Virgin Australia Darwin Qantas, Airnorth Melbourne: Qantas, Bonza Sydney: Qantas Tennant Creek Airnorth Alice Springs Airport has two runways and the larger one can operate the largest commercial flights, including Airbus A380s and Boeing 747s (although not fully laden at takeoff). The states it is the busiest inland airport in Australia after Canberra (the nation's capital). Alice Springs Airport grew out of a military airport and it became a transit base for the Royal
Australian Air Force during WWII. After the war, its importance as a military airport declined, and by 2019, it was handling around 550,000 passengers annually. According to , Alice Springs Airport is also extensively used to launch atmospheric balloons.