Savings at the Jet Junkyard

Mark Gregory sifts through the mangled remains of a seven-year-old Boeing 737-700. Traces of orange on the tail betray the plane’s prior life as a member of EasyJet’s fleet. His gray ponytail bobbing in the wind of the Cotswolds countryside, Gregory rests his hand on a cylindrical piece of metal the size of a hula hoop in the engine casing. The part, a thrust reverser, will fetch $1.5 million, he says. Need an auxiliary power unit? Gregory can get you one for $25,000. He’ll even track down an in-flight service cart for $230. “It’s kind of sad, but I’ve gotten used to it,” says the 50-year-old Englishman, as workers behind him tear into planes that would easily have another decade or two of service in their aluminum bones. “But the parts companies we’re dealing with like that we’re dismantling newer aircraft.”

The secondhand market for aircraft parts is booming, as airlines snap up spare engines and other components from cannibalized planes, which are cheaper than new parts from original equipment makers. From 2009 to 2011 about $2.5 billion worth of spare parts entered the market, according to aviation data provider Ascend Worldwide.