The announcement by Unical Aviation that they will be dismantling a ‘fleet’ of Airbus A320neos managed to cause some significant stirs in the aviation industry. The young Airbuses are the very first aircraft of this type to be decommissioned.
Unical Aviation made the announcement last Tuesday, April 1st. Despite this, it did not turn out to be an April Fool’s joke. A ‘fleet’ of young Airbus A320neos is indeed heading towards a storage facility in Arizona, United States. The company intends to dismantle the aircraft, recycle parts, and keep usable components as spare parts for other aircraft. Doing this, Unical Aviation hopes in better supplying the spare parts market.
‘As the first company to dismantle A320neos, Unical Aviation is always one step ahead and meets the growing demands of our aviation and maintenance customers,’ said David Dicken, CEO of Unical Aviation, in the press release. The work will be carried out by subsidiary Ecube, a company specializing in the storage and recycling of aircraft.
The exact number of aircraft remains unclear. Unical Aviation repeatedly refers to a ‘fleet’ of Airbus A320neos. However, photos indicate that these are former Airbus A320neos from Go First. The Indian airline went bankrupt in 2024 and attributed its demise to the ongoing issues with its Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engines. The oldest aircraft in their fleet are just over eight years old.
Controversial
Unical Aviation’s move to dismantle relatively new A320neos is considered controversial by many. This aircraft type is extremely popular, and numerous airlines have been standing in line for quite a while. Last year, Airbus registered a total of 615 orders for the three variants of this model.
According to Dickens, the importance of the spare parts market plays a crucial role in the acquisition. ‘We will soon transform these assets into materials that are in high demand. This will allow us to support operators worldwide with affordable and timely delivered secondary market opportunities.’