An aircraft’s end-of-life journey is rarely immediate. For commercial jets, retirement starts with storage, often at a parking slot in a dry desert airfield where engineers can keep the systems in “preservation mode” for months or even years. If market demand changes, a stored plane might be returned to service. If not, it enters the decommissioning phase. Sensitive avionics are removed, the engines and landing gear are stripped, and any reusable components are tagged, inspected, and re-certified.
According to the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association (AFRA), more than 12,000 aircraft will reach the end of their operational lives over the next two decades. Modern recycling techniques can reclaim up to 90% of an aircraft’s weight in reusable materials, mostly aluminum, titanium, and composites. Engine parts, electronics, and safety equipment are the most valuable, while cabin interiors and decorative fittings are often the first to be repurposed or sold to enthusiasts. McJenkin’s company is part of this global ecosystem. “We’ll pull hundreds of parts from a single aircraft,” he says. “Some sell within days, some sit in inventory for years, waiting for the right customer to need that exact part.”
The location of a graveyard can mean the difference between parts surviving for decades or corroding in a matter of months. “You won’t see many in Florida,” McJenkin says. “The humidity ruins everything.” That’s why many of the largest commercial boneyards are in places like Arizona, where the air is dry enough to keep the damaging effects at bay. But even in the desert, time is the enemy. Every year an aircraft sits idle, its value drops. Seals dry out, paint peels, and rubber components crack. Eventually the salvageable parts are gone, and what’s left is trucked to a metal recycler.
Not all retired aircraft are stripped for parts. Some find a second life as tourist attractions. In Costa Rica, a 1965 Boeing 727 that once flew for South African Airways has been converted into a luxury jungle Airbnb, perched on a 50-foot pedestal with panoramic ocean views. In Sweden, a retired 747 parked at Stockholm Arlanda Airport became Jumbo Stay, a 33-room hostel where one could book the “Cockpit Suite” and sleep beneath the instrument panel. (It shuttered operations and filed for bankruptcy in early 2025.)