Delta Airlines jets sit on the tarmac Thursday at Arkansas International Airport in Blytheville. Aviation Repair Technologies, based at the airport, has accepted 77 aircraft since March 17. All have been idled because of a global slowdown in commercial air traffic related to the pandemic. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe)

The crisis unfolding in the airline industry as a result of the covid-19 pandemic has fueled a demand for places to park all those empty airliners.

A northeast Arkansas aviation company is helping fill the void. Aviation Repair Technologies at the Arkansas Aeroplex in Blytheville has accepted 77 aircraft since March 16, according to operations vice president Anthony Suamell.

"We're helping out the industry," he said.

The company has space for 30 more aircraft, which may be needed if passenger traffic is any indication. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration screened 94,931 passengers nationwide on Wednesday. On the same day a year ago, the agency screened 2,229,276 passengers.

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That lack of demand has left airlines with a lot of big jets to park.

The latest addition to the inventory at the Aviation Repair Technologies complex arrived Saturday. Three Delta MD-88s arrived in the space of less than two hours starting at 11:03 a.m., making the 90-minute flight from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.

Delta is the largest airline tenant at the Atlanta airport, which recently was the busiest one in the world. But Delta has reduced its flights by 60% at the hub. Its most of its service at the two major airports in New York, which is a hot spot for the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, and is cutting overall service in April by 90% percent.

As a result, the airline has parked 600 of its 900 aircraft. Hartsfield-Jackson closed at least one runway to park some of them before the airline began looking for other aircraft storage places, including the Blytheville airport.

The lineup at the Arkansas Aeroplex features five A350-900s from the Delta fleet. The extra-wide-body aircraft that seat more than 300 passengers are a staple on the airline's international routes.

Each aircraft is 219 feet long with a wingspan of 212 feet.

But there is plenty of room at the Blytheville airport, which formerly was an Air Force base that was home to a Strategic Air Command heavy bomber wing and still boasts a runway 11,602 feet long and 150 feet wide.

"We're an old B-52 SAC base so we've got a lot of space," said Barrett Harrison, president of the Blytheville/Gosnell Regional Airport Authority, which oversees the airport.

The airport doesn't boast regular commercial airline service, but it is used to having aircraft from major airlines, particularly Delta, landing and taking off regularly.

Aviation Repair Technologies' line of work, in addition to aircraft storage, includes heavy maintenance, taking apart aircraft at the end of their usefulness and keeping an inventory of spare parts for the airlines.

But 77 large commercial jets in storage is an anomaly.

"When Delta aircraft are capable of flying all over the world, it is a little unusual for us" to have that many, Harrison said.

Aviation Repair Technologies offers two types of aircraft storage -- short term, or "active" storage from one to 20 days, and long-term storage in which the jet is "wrapped" to preserve the aircraft, its engines and auxiliary power units, according to the company's website.

Throughout the storage period, the company's technicians track the aircraft's' scheduled maintenance and service them as required.

When the aircraft are needed again, the technicians will prepare them for "re-entry into service," according to the website.

Business on 04/10/2020