A practical approach to support end-of-life commercial aircraft parking, market relocation, retirement and decommissioning strategic decisions

Abstract

ABSTRACT This research effort is dedicated to develop and test a mathematical approach to estimate the optimal aircraft age to make decisions about its withdrawn from service, market relocation, or starting its retirement and decommissioning processes. Our method consists of a cost-benefit financial analysis based on the expected revenue from the aircraft returning to operations and the aircraft recovery process to support end-of-life decisions. The core contribution of this research is the possibility of systematically analyse opportunities to return parked aircraft to active service, considering reasonable scenarios of operating revenue improvements or operating cost reductions, postponing the aircraft retirement and decommissioning decision. It is important to highlight that only financial concerns of the end-of-life aircraft problem were analysed. Considering this managerial context, the estimation of the aircraft parking and retirement costs, the recovery of the operating revenues from its market relocation and the recovered values from its disassembly and dismantling may influence these companies' aircraft fleet planning in a well-supported manner. This research intends to fulfill the gaps in the literature regarding commercial aircraft costs and revenues incurred during its end-of-life phase, aiming to estimate how much they affect its total cost of ownership, considering aircraft owners' and operators' decision-making contexts.