Airlines are racing to bring parked planes back into service now that post-pandemic travel demand is picking up. But some of those jets are looking a little rough around the edges.
Eagle-eyed observers say some aircraft due for a routine grooming at United Airlines Holdings Inc. didn’t get fresh coats before being brought back into its active fleet. After nearly two years in the desert, planes with giant flakes of paint peeling from their fuselages can face long wait times at paint shops.
Aviation enthusiast Jerry Lai has noticed several worse-for-wear jets while traveling this year. But especially memorable was a Boeing 757-300, with paint stripped down to the primer, that Lai encountered twice within an eight-day span in February. The narrow-body jet stood out in a sea of largely pristine aircraft at United’s main hub at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
“It caught my eye,” Lai said. While he knew such issues are purely cosmetic—and that this particular paint job was atypical—his first reaction was: “This plane is in really cruddy shape.”
To meet the summer crush of travelers, Chicago-based United has been pulling jetliners out of storage yards, like its fleet of Pratt & Whitney-powered 777 planes. The hulking twin-aisle jets are being pressed into service after a 15-month grounding to inspect and repair blades on their engines.
United had no immediate reply when asked for comment.
Frayed paint presents no safety issues, and fading hues on some aircraft are barely discernible. Still, eyesore jetliners can dent brand appeal and corporate pride—especially at a time when US carriers are commanding sky-high fares from the combination of torrid leisure demand and constrained seat capacity.
The waits for a fresh coat can stretch six to eight weeks depending on the site and type of paint aircraft operators require, and that’s provided airlines can find openings, said Gary Weissel, a consultant who specializes in aircraft overhauls. Some operators are sending their jets to Europe, where lead times run about a month.
“Paint slots are like hen’s teeth these days,” Weissel said. “Pre-pandemic I don’t think we ever waited more than a couple of weeks for paint.”
American Airlines Group Inc. typically slows such work during the summer, said Sarah Jantz, a spokeswoman. Representatives for Delta Air Lines Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. said they aren’t facing delays with jet painting.
Many paint shops are facing logistics and staffing squeezes that have pressured other small and mid-size suppliers as aviation emerges from the pandemic, said Cliff Collier, a principal with Charles Edwards Management Consultant. They’re still feeling ripple effects from ingredient shortages that disrupted paint production over the winter, he said, all while struggling to hire and train workers.
The work involves first carefully stripping old paint down to the metal, precisely masking surfaces, laying on primer and then spraying on the final coating—all while working to exacting federal standards. “There’s a lot of stuff you can do wrong in painting,” Collier says.
