World’s largest aircraft dismantling base opens in Harbin

A retired Airbus A320 is being pulled into the China Aircraft Recycling Re-manufacturing Base in Harbin, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province on June 5, waiting for further dismantling. [Photo/MY399.COM]

An A320 aircraft which has served for 20 years landed in Harbin Taiping International Airport at 4:00 on June 5. This was the last time for the aircraft to operate flight and it will wait for further dismantling in China Aircraft Recycling Re-manufacturing Base.

The aircraft numbered B-2373, used to serve Sichuan Airlines and came from Chengdu, capital city of Southwest China’s Sichuan province. 

“The flight time of the aircraft exceeded 58,000 hours,” said Li Yuze, manager of Zhonglong Aircraft Dismantling Base Co, which headquartered in Hong Kong.

“If a human being lives up to 90 years, the age of an aircraft is equivalent to 70 years old.” Li added.

Although the aircraft can still fly for another 10 to 15 years with its well-functioning devices, its economic life came to the end, due to much more expensive maintenance fees and more aviation fuel consumption.

The aircraft was already pulled into China Aircraft Recycling Re-manufacturing Base on the morning of June 5. Now it will be dismantled into thousands of components and then those components will be sold to global second-hand aero materials markets.

Dismantling of the aircraft will begin on June 8. It marks the official operations of the base.

China Aircraft Recycling Re-manufacturing Base is located in Harbin Linkong Economic Experimental Industrial Park and neighbors Harbin airport.

The whole base covers an area of 300,000 square meters, with the facilities of a maintenance hangar, aero material warehouses, power houses, special vehicle garages, parking aprons and office buildings.

Its parking aprons occupy 78,000 square meters, which can park 15 A320 aircraft simultaneously.

Additionally, the maintenance hangar is 123 meters long, 65 meters wide and 26 meters high, equivalent to one and a half of a football pitch. It has enough space to accommodate three A320 aircrafts, or one Boeing 747 and one A320.

It will be the first aircraft dismantling base in Asia and the largest one in the world once it officially commences operations.

It’s also the first aircraft dismantling base constructed by Zhonglong Aircraft Dismantling Base Co in China. The total investment of the base reached $2 billion.

Currently, a construction of the first phase of the base has completed, enabling the base to dismantle 20 aircrafts per year. It has already received about 10 orders from home and abroad.

Establishment of the Harbin base is to satisfy the sharply increasing demands of aircraft dismantling. Since 2014, there have been more than 1,000 aircrafts waiting for being dismantled every year; and around 90 percent of aircraft component and materials are worth being recycled and reused. It generates an annual industry output value of $10 billion yuan.

“There are around 30 aircraft dismantling bases in the world, while they are all located in developed countries in Europe and North America,” Li said in an interview with Harbin Daily.

The Harbin base will help break the monopoly of foreign businesses in the sector and reduce the costs of domestic airlines purchasing aero materials.