Airplane recycler warns of dismantling overcapacity

The Netherlands – Dutch airplane dismantling and recycling company Aircraft End-of-Life Solutions (AELS) has criticised the development of a major aircraft dismantling facility at Twente Airport near Enschede in the east of the Netherlands.

‘Worldwide, over the past few years, six or seven new aircraft dismantlers have come to the market; that’s really more than enough,’ AELS’ managing director Derk-Jan van Heerden has lamented to the local media. ‘There is absolutely no need for extra capacity.’

Newly-formed Aeronextlife is expected to open its doors in early 2016 and is investing ‘several millions of Euros’ in the project. Meanwhile, the enterprise has rented two hangars to facilitate dismantling operations. Aeronextlife has chosen Twente Airport because its landing strip is long enough even for Boeing 747-sized aircraft to land.

According to the company’s spokesman Wilco van Hoorn, some 3500 airplanes will reach their end-of-life stage and be dismantled worldwide over the coming years. Aeronextlife will focus primarily on dismantling Boeing 737-type aircraft ‘because there are so many of them’.