Piedmont grows fleet by pulling planes from storage

Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, dozens of parked Piedmont Embraer 145s have dotted the desert landscape of a remote airfield in southern Arizona waiting patiently to join the rest of the fleet in the sky. As the aviation industry emerged from COVID, planes to fly were plentiful but commercial pilots to fly them were not. With the recent rebound of pilot hiring and the need for increased lines of flying to support the American Airlines network, 145s have begun to emerge from storage on their way to joining Piedmont’s growing fleet.

“Bringing our first plane out of long-term storage is a big deal,” shares Bill Arndt, Vice President of Maintenance and Engineering. “The planes that are planned to leave storage will first move through heavy check and conformity before joining the fleet.” Two aircraft per month will leave storage at Pinal Airpark (MZJ) in Marana, Arizona, through February 2025, increasing the Piedmont fleet to 70 aircraft.

Piedmont team members from Maintenance are coordinating the removal process including review of the storage program, transfer of the aircraft to our operation specifications and transfer of logbooks. Operational checks are completed by an onsite vendor prior to leaving storage.

On a blue-sky day in June, Aircraft N928 operated by a Piedmont flight crew departed MZJ to one of Piedmont’s heavy check facilities in Abilene, Texas (ABI). The aircraft goes through heavy check inspection for approximately 40 days. From there the plane moves to conformity at our Richmond, Virginia (RIC) maintenance base for two weeks where the aircraft is validated to meet our internal airline specifications. All of Piedmont’s 145s in storage were previously operated by Envoy Air and aircraft N928 is one of the newer, low-time aircraft.

Once conformity is complete, the airplane is approved to return to revenue service and is ready to fly on the line. Total time from starting the removal process of leaving the desert to joining the line is approximately two and a half months.

Adding aircraft to the fleet means an increase in work for the Maintenance department. “With the additional lines of flying, we continue to focus on aircraft maintenance technician (AMT) hiring to get the workforce up to handle the workload,” shares Bill. “With 30 percent of our airplanes in maintenance every night, we need 42 additional AMTs to accommodate maintaining 70 aircraft.” Piedmont’s Tuition Payment Program for AMTs is a successful pipeline program where Piedmont pays for students to attend school and guarantees them a job at one of our maintenance bases after completing their Airframe and Powerplant certifications.

“Bringing parked aircraft from storage and returning them to the line is a sure sign of recovery and growth for Piedmont,” shares Arndt. “We are excited to be on our way to flying 70 aircraft and supporting the American Airlines network and our customers.”