Our latest analysis shows that 59% of the total airline fleets around the world are now grounded. Based on data from ch-aviation’s fleets advanced data, 19,068 aircraft are now parked for storage or maintenance globally.
Compared to a ch-aviation analysis done two weeks earlier, the number of grounded aircraft has increased from 55% to 59%, or by more than 1,000. Still, this does not fully reflect the situation in the industry as many airlines have reduced utilisation to a minimum to avoid storing aircraft.
The highest proportion of grounded aircraft is now in Europe, where airlines increased the number to 75%. Asia now has fewer aircraft grounded than two weeks earlier (50% vs 52%), but North America has increased its grounded fleet from 39% to 47%. Still, this is not reflected in the level of operations. Utilisation is not taken into consideration, and it makes Southwest Airlines the largest airline in the world now by active fleet numbers.
| Active | Total | %, grounded | |
| Africa | 412 | 1,545 | 73% |
| Asia | 5,386 | 10,850 | 50% |
| Europe | 1,967 | 6,040 | 75% |
| North America | 5,247 | 9,981 | 47% |
| Oceania | 298 | 950 | 69% |
| South America | 378 | 1,402 | 73% |
The most popular narrow-body types are not grounded equally. We see 69% of Airbus A320-200s grounded, while B737-700 and A320-200N are relatively more used.
| Active | Total | %, grounded | |
| B737-800 | 1,966 | 4,841 | 59% |
| A320-200 | 1,268 | 4,144 | 69% |
| A321-200 | 558 | 1,611 | 65% |
| A319-100 | 443 | 1,217 | 64% |
| B737-700 | 586 | 987 | 41% |
| A320-200N | 401 | 940 | 41% |
Among the most popular widebodies, the A330 is the most-grounded aircraft, though the A380 has the highest proportion of grounded aircraft with just four units active and 234 grounded.
| Active | Total | %, grounded | |
| B777-300(ER) | 335 | 808 | 59% |
| A330-300 | 194 | 868 | 72% |
| B787-9 | 231 | 536 | 57% |
| A330-200 | 97 | 490 | 80% |
| B787-8 | 97 | 365 | 73% |
| B767-300(ER) | 92 | 347 | 73% |
Important to mention that long-haul freighters are not impacted by the groundings. 181 B777-200Fs are flying (98% of total) and 165 of 767-300Fs are also active (95% of total). We see articles about passenger jets being used for belly freight capacity only, but we see this does not have any material impact on aircraft remaining active.
When we looked at aircraft groundings in the largest markets, we see quite significant gaps. 80% of all aircraft are grounded in India while in China now only 25% of total fleets are stored. This is a slight reduction compared to February, when we saw more than 29% of the fleet grounded by Chinese airlines.
| Active | Total | %, grounded | |
| United States of America | 4,612 | 8,195 | 44% |
| China | 2,934 | 3,920 | 25% |
| Russian Federation | 496 | 1,170 | 58% |
| Canada | 392 | 1,043 | 62% |
| United Kingdom | 199 | 911 | 78% |
| India | 172 | 842 | 80% |
We use ch-aviation fleets advanced data for this analysis. Our fleet team works to deliver the latest updates on airline commercial fleets globally.
