LONDON – Aircraft dismantling firm and end of life specialists eCube have opened their first facility in Arizona, United States.
Opening the doors within Coolidge Municipal Airport, it also happens to be just 50 miles away from the well known ‘Aircraft Graveyard’ and storage facility located at Pinal Airpark.
The addition of this site it takes the company up to three locations across Europe and the US along with its headquarters in St Athan, United Kingdom and Castellon, Spain.
At just eleven years old it is a relatively young company, so this expansion proves that since opening their doors, they have been going from strength to strength.
eCube boasts to re-use or recycle 93 per cent of the aircraft that comes into their dismantling hangars, this helping to support and sustain aviation’s ‘circular economy’.
The decision to base themselves in Arizona does not come by chance. eCube can now say it is the only company in the world that covers two of the busiest regions in the world for aircraft dismantling activities, supporting 90% of the global part-out market.
Having facilities at both sides of the Atlantic will ensure a high level of of service, building on what they have been able to provide to its customers out of its UK and Spain hangars in recent years.
“At the forefront of our US expansion plans is the consistency of service, ensuring we replicate the experience our customers have learned to enjoy and rely on at our UK and EU facilities.”
“We also plan to elevate the importance of our industry’s circular economy within the region, focusing on quality aircraft teardowns delivered with expertise and experience,” said Chief Executive Officer, Lee McConnellogue.
The leadership team understood the demand was there through their customer feedback and describe it as a “logical and exciting development in the company’s growth”.
“We underwent an extensive exercise over the past 12 months in speaking with and listening to our customers to understand the optimal location for asset owners of EOL aircraft, this inevitably resulted in eCube planting its flag at a new location in Arizona.” McConnellogue continued.
To coincide with the new facility opening, a Boeing 737-700 was welcomed through the doors on October 5th. The aircraft was managed by leasing company Aero Capital Solutions, a team that has worked closely with eCube in the past.
Kevin VanDenBerg, Senior Vice President of Commercial & Asset Management at ACS, said:
“We are very excited to be working with eCube at their new location in Coolidge. eCube has a terrific customer focus and we have valued their partnership throughout a longstanding working relationship at the UK St. Athan location.”
Chief Commercial Officer for eCube, Steven Taylor predicts an increase in requirement for both aircraft storage and teardown across narrow body and wide body jets as we head toward the back end of 2022 and into 2023.
He said: “The convergence of aircraft utilization and passenger traffic trends to pre-pandemic levels should elevate demand for Used Serviceable Material (USM), and as a key determinant in aircraft EOL evaluations I anticipate a higher level of global retirements (compared to the previous 2 years) to service this need.”
