UNITED STATES – Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the airline industry has suffered near-crippling financial losses with declines in bookings, and quarantines. The travel industry as a whole has realized an 80% estimated losses in global revenue compared to last year, largely a consequence of reduced tourism. Globally, there are an estimated 16,000 planes that have been grounded. Though some airlines have repurposed passenger planes to transport cargo to stave off bankruptcy, well over half of the entire world’s air fleet remains grounded due to COVID-19 and bans/fear of travel.

Airbus A340-313X [CC-CQE] & Douglas MD-83 ‘N619SC,’ Photo by Alan Wilson

Kevin Micheals, Managing Director of AeroDynamic Advisory: Aerospace Consulting, stated that “it is somewhere around 60 percent of the aircraft fleet that is currently sitting idle. Though we’ve had aircraft storage facilities spanning across the globe for decades, what’s unique in this event is the sudden mass of parking.”

Paul Oliver, the Vice President of customer service at Airbus, noted in an interview with CNBC that air fleet “customers have come to us and said ‘look, were parking hundreds of aircraft per day! And logistically, it is quite complex.’ This is a particularly difficult time, and we’ve created a particular application that allows them to park the aircraft virtually.”

With over 11,000 planes in operation, in addition to logistics issues, there is also a pressing health concern. In the case of the aviation industry, it is the health of the fleet during the global downturn. To address this, Airbus launched a new aviation open data platform in collaboration with Palantir Technologies. Because of Airbus’ massive industrial footprint, Palantir was able to leverage historical data and analytics necessary to build the app.

Thus, Skywise, a technology platform that would be beneficial to all major aviation players, was created. The tool is essential for customers that require immediate insight at an “aircraft, fleet, company, and global level.” This app enables carriers to improve their operational performance through predictive and preventative methods to determine the health of their fleets. Now, more than ever, this tool is invaluable to airlines that have had planes grounded for an extended period. The app collects various data from sensors and systems to assist in proactive maintenance detection. It also helps with the logistics of everyday travel operations, such as the launch of a new feature that enables carriers to locate parking for their fleets or individual planes.

Parking aviation carriers can be more complicated than what it feels like landing as a passenger. To a passenger, we are happy when we land, eager as we taxi to the gate, impatient to deplane, but not once do we think about what happens afterward. For instance, how does one park a plane? Numerous factors come into play when a decision is made to park a plane and have it sit out of service for an extended period, chief among them, maintenance of the craft.

Like cars, airplanes engines must be started when in storage, and this requires engineers and maintenance crews to exercise the batteries, turbines, check electronic systems, sanitize the plane, perform bodywork or interior cabin repairs, etc. Proximity to airplane hangers is also a vital consideration. Skywise keeps track of all of this. But, not many airlines were prepared for an economic event that would necessitate the grounding of a significant part of, if not entirely, the fleet of their planes.

The pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to the travel industry, and it seems that airlines did factor in this potentiality and, therefore, seemingly did not prepare for long-term storage needs. As any frequent traveler can tell you, airlines are highly motivated to board passengers and depart as quickly as possible, because parking, especially at European hubs, can run about $285 per hour. In the wake of massive disruption to the industry, airlines have had to become extremely creative about parking.

Arid environments are best suited for plane storage since high humidity can have adverse effects on engines and airframes. In Europe, airports are “temporarily decommissioning runways” to be used by airlines to park planes. In the United States, Roswell International Air Center, which is in New Mexico, is “in the process of adding 300 more acres of asphalt parking space to its existing 4,000-acre footprint -- enough space to accommodate up to 800 airliners.” (Source: CNN)

In Australia, the Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage (APAS) company, founded by Tom Vincent, former Deutsche Bank Vice President, and research analyst, provides storage for short, medium, and long-term needs. Vincent’s entrepreneurial foray, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, seems eerily prescient. Located in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia, Vincent says, “The climatic conditions are ideal for aircraft asset value preservation, with extremely low humidity.”

According to Time, two-thirds of the world’s airlines are grounded. But with the coronavirus continuing to run amuck, many countries are having to delay or scale back opening. Even after countries fully open, there is no guarantee that airlines will be operating at full capacity utilizing their entire fleets. Until travel returns to pre-pandemic levels, planes will be in storage for the foreseeable future. Skywise can help airlines ensure that their fleets are ready to meet the demand as the world adjusts to living in a post-COVID-19 world, and passengers can be assured that the planes they are flying on have been optimally maintained and are flight-worthy.

Here’s What You Do With Two-Thirds of the World’s Jets When They Can’t Fly (bloomberg.com)
Airlines have grounded more than 16,000 planes — here’s a look at what it takes to park them (cnbc.com)
In Photos – Most Of World’s Airplanes Now Grounded At Airports (forbes.com)
Nigeria: As COVID-19 Grounds 7,000 Aircraft Worldwide (allafrica.com)

EUROPEAN UNION - What is the Hyperloop? It’s not a new app for your mobile phone or a new video-game despite its futuristic sound. Its a newly proposed transportation system that uses magnetic levitation (or a “hotbed of air”), to propel a pod or proposed cargo, via a series of sealed tubes with low air pressure and reduced friction. This sealed environment essentially simulates a total vacuum, conditions similar to space, which allows cargo to travel at hyper-sonic speeds, bypassing traffic and congestion while covering much further distances in far, far less time.

While based on an informal proposal uploaded online by Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk back in August 2013, the general idea itself dates back to the 1800s. Pneumatic tubes, the smaller ancestor to the proposed hyperloop tunnels, were still being used to transport mail and telegrams. Inevitably, however, the idea of scaling it up to accommodate bigger cargo, perhaps even living people, became both potentially economically lucrative, yet technologically infeasible for the time.

The dream may finally become a reality, based upon recent significant funding shifts and the progress of construction abroad in Europe. Recently, a Dutch study has claimed that the Hyperloop transport system could be a viable means of replacing the use of short-term flights altogether. The study, which was headed the European airport company Royal Schiphol Group and Hardt Hyperloop, posited that pods carrying passengers through this transport system would be a low-carbon option compared to short-haul flights.

However, with speeds approaching 700 m.p.h., it would be reasonable to expect more than just tubes to be built; while revolutionary, the technology must be thoroughly tested beforehand. Hardt Hyperloop, located in the Netherlands, is notable for also being the first company in Europe to establish a full-scale testing facility for the transportation system itself.

Unique to Hardt Hyperloop’s approach is the concept of a hyperloop switch, which would allow vehicles using the hyperloop to pass one another similar to trains, but one in a network of tubes spanning across vast distances and various cities. Areas such as the province of North Holland also tout hyperloop’s safety versus consumer vehicle use and the beneficial environmental impact of reducing everyday traffic.

Zeleros, a Spain based company also developing their version of the hyperloop, also recently raised 7 million euros and is now in the funding lead for the European Union. The company proclaims that its novel approach to mass transportation is bleeding edge because of its design. The majority of the technology required resides inside of the vehicle itself. Because of this design, the cost for infrastructure such as rail, etc. will be significantly reduced, resulting in a lower price of services as calculated per kilometer.

Zeleros also posits that their hyperloop reduces greenhouse emissions by 7m tonnes per annum, allowing the technology to play an essential part in the battle against climate change. The company is currently looking at testing a 3km track in at the European Hyperloop Development Centre in Spain as a proof of concept for the technology. The companies CEO, Tim Houter, also made comments regarding the increasing viability of the hyperloop projects across Europe as being bolstered by the European Green Deal.

Elsewhere in Asia, however, there are also murmurs of activity with the Virgin Hyperloop One project: connecting Mumbai and Pune in under 20 minutes, at a speed of 1000 km (or 621 miles) a second might be an economic advantage to the region. Of note is the suggestion that the hyperloop itself could in-fact be solar-powered, further making it transportation apart from the past, and one more suited for a future more focused on climate change and hand-wringing over carbon production.

With multiple countries participating and competing for their role in the construction of the hyperloop, the result may very well end up being the sum of many countries working together for a common goal. In all of this, however, one major disadvantage of the hyperloop despite its highly coordinated efforts is the number of resources required to implement this futuristic transportation system. Also, as with other renewable energy technologies, there is a small but vocal group of detractors. All in all, it seems that in addition to new technological and funding capabilities, the environmental prospects for climate change in the 21st century seem to be giving the Hyperloop transportation project the boost that it needs to arrive sooner, rather than later, into the future.