Etihad on as to why grounding a good jet is nothing beats parking a car
12 April, 2020
At midnight on Tuesday, March 24, skies over the UAE fell noiseless after authorities announced the suspension of passenger flights on and from the country.
The move was designed to help stem the spread of the coronavirus from flights, and it saw Emirates and Etihad buying a huge selection of aircraft from all over the world.
In Dubai, a lot more than 200 of Emirates' A380s and 777s are parked up at DXB and Al Maktoum airports, and in the administrative centre, Etihad has a lot more than 100 jets on the floor.
The national airline of the UAE has released a behind-the-scenes seem at what it means to have more than 80 % of its fleet parked at Abu Dhabi AIRPORT TERMINAL.
“I’ve never seen anything such as this before in my aviation job,” says Gary Byrne, mind of technical procedures at Etihad.
Keeping a lot more than 100 Boeing 777, 787s or perhaps Airbus A380s stationary is no small process. The video clarifies that Etihad’s engineers are working around the clock to maintain the aircraft.
“It’s not like parking a good car, we have to maintain them [the aircraft] maintained,” says Byrne.
This calls for covering engines and exhausts with protective wraps to shield them from environmental factors like sand and dust.
While they're sat on the tarmac, Etihad staff regularly run protection checks like powering up the aircraft, performing engines and inspecting flight control functions.
In the video, some aircraft are being inspected in the hangars at Etihad's home base. That is commonly where jets undergo large maintenance checks.
10,000 seat covers replaced
Etihad is working with this "downtime" to refresh cabins on its grounded fleet. In the video recording, staff can be seen checking and restoring seats and in-airline flight entertainment screens, shampooing cabin carpets and cleansing and ironing very soft furnishings like seat addresses.
Up to now, the airline has replaced 10,000 seat and back rest covers and has teams of 200 performing during each shift in its cabin refresh programme.
“When our aircraft return back into services, for the passenger it will be like getting on to a whole new aircraft," adds Byrne.
Passenger flights found in and out of the UAE are grounded until April 21, with exemptions for select repatriation flights.
Source: www.thenational.ae