Following the Fleet recovery

During the peak period of commercial aircraft being placed into storage as a result of COVID-19 (March), we applied a “default” return to service of 30 September 2020. At that time, it was very much unknown what the lasting impact would be of the pandemic, but, from observing the fleet activities of the last few months, we have now started to review any remaining scheduled return to service dates. In reviewing the scheduled return dates until the end of the year, we have applied the following logic:

• For any aircraft we feel will come back into service (A320neos, A350s, B787s) we have moved the scheduled return date to 31 December 2020 – this will be reviewed again before the end of the year.
• We have reflected any airline announcements or statements in financial reports about sub-fleets being retired or phased out with relevant dates and “scheduled to be parked” events.
• We have removed any “scheduled – return to service” events for sub-fleets that we have seen already being phased out, or are likely to be part of fleet cutbacks due to aircraft age.
• We have removed any “scheduled – return to service” events for airlines that we have seen severely impacted by COVID-19.

For smaller and more regional airlines, we are reviewing on a case by case basis using the expertise and experience within the Fleet Research Team.

As always, we will continue to review daily the future view of our data as well as reflecting the very latest announcements and press statements from the airlines as they re-shape their fleet plans.