Civil aviation aircraft must be retired after 20 years of service. Where do the retired and sold aircraft go?

As far as I know, civil aviation aircraft must be retired after 20 years of service. The aircraft sold after retirement have three uses: converted to commercial transportation, some sold to private individuals, and the third is simply dismantled. use. ?

Civil aviation aircraft are usually very expensive to build. However, passenger aircraft also have a service life. After a period of use, not only the engine will age, but the fuselage will also age. Various components in the cabin will also be damaged, and they will have to be retired. Generally speaking, the internal facilities of some aircraft are aging and cannot be used commercially, but the fuselage and engines are in good condition and can be converted into commercial transport aircraft. Remove all equipment in the passenger cabin and use it for transporting cargo. Cheaper than professional transport aircraft, it is very popular with many transport companies such as SF Express.

Even if the life of the aircraft engine is coming to an end, if the fuselage is intact, it can be sold to private individuals at a low price. After personal restoration, it can be used as a personal aircraft, placed in a museum as a personal collection, or simply transformed into a model, hotel, or scenic spot. ?

After a passenger aircraft reaches its service life, its parts and components age, guest room comfort decreases, fuel consumption increases, and it is no longer suitable for passenger transportation. For cargo aircraft, profit levels are high, they are not sensitive to oil prices, and safety standards are not as high as passenger aircraft. In addition, the cost for airlines to convert retired passenger aircraft into freighters is significantly reduced compared to ordering new freighters. With the rapid development of e-commerce and the surge in cargo business, customer reorganization is increasingly favored by cargo airlines.

If the outer shell of the aircraft is incomplete and rotten to the point that it cannot be recovered, the scrap aircraft can only be sent to the aircraft recycling plant to wait for disintegration. At this stage, the aircraft can no longer be used, but some parts of the aircraft (such as equipment, tires, metal objects, etc.) still have recycling value.

Therefore, after retirement, civil aviation aircraft are classified according to the integrity of the fuselage. But there are exceptions, such as the important American Airlines plane that made an emergency landing in the Hudson River and went directly to the museum for collection.