Two 10-year-old Boeing 787-8 to be dismantled for parts

After 10 years of service, two Boeing 787-8 aircraft will be dismantled for parts. The aircraft, managed by an Irish asset management company, will be scrapped simultaneously.

Dublin-based asset management and trading company EirTrade Aviation announced that it will manage the disassembly and consignment of the two Boeing 787-8 aircraft. Parts are expected to be available in late Q1 2023.

According to Ken Fitzgibbon, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EirTrade Aviation, the first 787s will soon be approaching their 12-year checks, so disassembly of the pair has come at the perfect time. Now operators and maintenance companies are able to source serviceable material (USM) for the 787, reducing maintenance costs.

“As no B787s have been retired from commercial service to date, there is almost no USM market for this platform at the moment. We are entering into a specialist area and hope to become a market leader in the provision of USM for the platform which will enable the reduction of the cost of maintenance events for B787 aircraft owners,” Fitzgibbon said.

The disassembly process will take place at Glasgow Prestwick Airport (PIK), Scotland, according to the Irish company.

Two Boeing 787-8s are currently in PIK: VP-CVL and VP-CVM. The aircraft flew for the first time on June 13 and August 3, 2013, respectively, per planespotters.net data, and were delivered to Norwegian Air Shuttle in 2013. VP-CVL has been in storage at PIK since May 2019, while VP-CVM arrived at the Scottish airport in September 2019.

“Understandably, there has been huge interest in these aircraft,” added Steven Trowell, Hangar Manager for EirTrade Aviation. According to Trowell’s estimates, it will take around three months to disassemble the aircraft.

“We have, of course, already inducted Boeing and Airbus widebodies for disassembly and are no stranger to disassembling new technology aircraft having previously been involved in the first A380 aircraft to be retired and one of the first companies to disassemble the CFM56-7BE engine,” concluded Lee Carey, the Vice President of Asset Management at the Irish asset manager.

While the two Boeing 787-8s will become the first commercial aircraft of the type to be scrapped, Boeing previously scrapped another frame, namely a Boeing 787-8 bearing Manufacturer Serial Number (MSN) 40694 and Line Number (LN) 5 in April 2018. The aircraft was a testbed for the type, having flown for the first time in June 2010. It was never delivered to an airline and was stored at Paine Field Airport (PAE), in Everett, Washington, the United States, since October 2013, according to planespotters.net data.