Why reviving dead planes won't fix airline shortages

With hundreds of planes mothballed worldwide, the solution to the industry’s woes seems obvious. Simon Calder explains that it isn’t so simple as a budding airline is finding out

- Simon Calder

Cancelling flights that could have carried 200,000 passengers is not something an airline does lightly. But British Airways has chosen to axe three daily long-haul round-trips this winter because of a shortage of serviceable planes.

A reader, Tam Carr, wonders: “Why can’t they utilise the hundreds of mothballed aircraft parked up at the world’s airports? Surely they can be chartered?” Tam’s point is well worth investigating. You need venture only as far as Lourdes in southwest France to discover dozens of dormant passenger aircraft. Last time I was there, Airbus A380 aircraft were lined up as densely as you would find them at a major hub. But they are going nowhere.

Bear in mind the world’s first double-deck Superjumbo was delivered only 17 years ago this month, so none of those planes is especially old. They stood alongside Boeing wide-bodied jets of various types and vintages, and a handful of A340 planes looking particularly dilapidated.