As Major Airports Shudder, a Single-Runway Arizona Airpark Bustles
A 777 awaits its fate in storage as the coronavirus pandemic ravages global travel demand (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Ryan Ewing)
Amid a global crisis that has practically reduced global travel to a skeleton of what it once was, a small, single-runway airpark smack-dab in the middle of the Arizona desert is an unlikely portrait of productivity. Pinal Airpark, situated along the Interstate 10 corridor between Phoenix and Tucson, in Marana, Ariz. has only one runway measuring at 6,849 feet, yet it is home to airline fleets of all aircraft types, both large and small.
The cloudless blue skies join the mountainous landscape to make for what many locals consider another Arizona day. At Pinal Airpark, there’s an eerie sound interrupting the typical calmness of the desert: jet engines clicking in the wind.
That is the anthem of aircraft with an uncertain fate, many of which brought to the desert by airlines around the world to ride out the COVID-19 pandemic as travel demand tumbles by the day.
