An Austrian Airlines Boeing 777-200ER will have a new parking space from October 12, 2020. The demand is in the basement due to the corona pandemic and therefore many aircraft around the world, especially long-haul aircraft, have their wheels flat. However, parking at Vienna Airport is not cheap.

The long-haul fleet at Austrian Airlines currently consists of six Boeing 767-300ERs, which are on average 24,7 years old. They also have six Boeing 777-200ERs that have an average of 19,8 years under their belt. Shortly after the start of the corona lockdown, the AUA announced that the three oldest 767s were to leave the fleet by 2022. This is the OE-LAT, which brings it to 29 years, the just over 28-year-old OE- LAW and the OE-LAX, which is also almost 28 years old.

Austrian Airlines incurs horrific parking costs at Vienna International Airport every day. According to the publicly accessible price list, these amount to around 777 euros per month for the Boeing 36.000 fleet alone. Around 1.500 euros are incurred per machine and week. For the Boeing 767 you have to pay around 1.100 euros per week and aircraft. The short and medium haul machines are considerably cheaper. For example, the DHC Dash 8-400 with "only" 219 euros per week is almost a bargain.

But what do you do with long-haul aircraft that are definitely valuable but are completely unclear when you will need them again? They are sent into the desert! In aviation, this is the colloquial term for so-called long time storage. Due to the climatic conditions, some desert airports in the USA have developed into specialist providers and world market leaders. Unfortunately, you also have to look reality in the eye: For many aircraft it is the last trip, because after years of sunbathing in the desert, scrapping often follows. But it doesn't always have to be that way, the machines often returned and served in scheduled and charter traffic for many years to come.

Long-time storage in Arizona is not only much cheaper for Austrian Airlines, but also better for the structure of aircraft due to the constant, dry climatic conditions. When the demand picks up again, the big hour is there for the technicians: They wake up the machine from the long-time storage and make it fit again for the return home to Austria.

Austrian Airlines has confirmed that a Boeing 777 aircraft will be transferred to Pinal Airpark in Arizona on October 12, 2020. For the time being, it is planned that this should hold a kind of "hibernation" there by the end of the winter flight planning period 2020/21. However, the carrier did not name a specific registration. The specialist magazine Austrian Wings reports, citing pilot circles, that it could be the OE-LPF.