MRO Memo: Another Boeing 777 Heads For Teardown

News last week that Netherlands-based teardown provider Aircraft End-of-Life Solutions (AELS) has taken its first Boeing 777 aircraft to part-out could provide a further boost to the widebody’s previously constrained used serviceable materials (USM) market.

Last Thursday (April 6), AELS announced it had bought its first ever 777 aircraft which arrived at its teardown facility at Twente Airport earlier this month, where it will be disassembled and dismantled. The company’s goal is to add more 777 parts to its inventory, which will no doubt be welcomed by airlines and MRO providers looking to source more components for the twin-engine aircraft.

The acquisition was made in partnership with MTU Maintenance Lease Services, which is taking the aircraft’s GE90-115B engines. Typically, the Amsterdam-based engine leasing unit of MTU Maintenance focuses on short to mid-term leases. Around 2,200 GE90s are projected to be in-service in 2023 by Aviation Week’s Fleet & MRO Forecast data but this year is expected to see a continuation of demand for spare engines for widebody engine models such as the GE90. 

Since COVID-19 began three years ago, several major airlines have phased out older variants of the 777 from their fleets with a spike of 41 retirements in 2020, a number which reduced for the following two years to 22 in 2021 and 31 in 2022 as carriers reactivated parked assets. At the time, a possible wave of retirements and part-outs seemed like a welcome boost for the market, given the shortage of 777 parts that existed pre-crisis yet with a large majority of the global fleet not flying, demand for parts decreased.

But with long-haul passenger travel rebounding in many global regions last year and through to 2023, USM suppliers and teardown specialists spotted an opportunity and several companies acquired 777s for part-out at the peak years of the pandemic, with some doing so for the very first time.

These included UK-based AJW Group, which acquired its first 777 to manage the teardown process for in 2020. That same year,  the market got a further shot in the arm after Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways retired three 777-200s in 2020 which were disassembled by GA Telesis, who then fed the stock back into the market.

The trend for teardown specialists entering the 777 part-out market has continued since. In late 2022, Dallas-based Touchdown Aviation took its first 777 for part-out in the form of a widebody formerly operated by Air France.

Aviation Week data projects a growing retirement rate over the next decade, peaking at 79 retirements in 2031. However, competition for 777s for part-out is expected to be competitive as is market demand for parts. Operators will be hopeful that a growing number of stock being fed into the market could offset concerns about component supply.

While some of the older -200 variants could be ripe for passenger-to-freighter conversions, feedstock prices in 2022 were reported to be higher than in previous years and this could deter would-be suitors for the aircraft.