Teardown of two ex-British Airways A319s

The start of TDA

British Caledonian/British Airways is where Nazie learned the ropes on selling parts, which eventually evolved into the successful international company that Touchdown Aviation is today. Nazie el Masry, ex-CEO and current Chairman of the Board:

“The selling started with British Airways and British Caledonian, when my boss, the engineering director, came to see me. He asked me if I could start selling some of the material we had overstock.”

The merger of British Airways and British Caledonian marked the start of a new era. Nazie continues: “I had never switched jobs until British Caledonian and British Airways merged. But my boss said to me, go commercial, you have all the potential. So I got my golden handshake, and with that check, I bought one big engine part and stored it in my garage. That’s the first thing I bought, and that’s how I started.”

Natural course

The dismantling of the two planes could be considered as somewhat sad, especially to an ex-engineer such as Nazie. But he explains why this is its natural course:

“An airplane has checks to do. A, B, C, D checks. The A-check we used to do in the night shift, just general checking. The B-check is more intensive. The C-check is even more intensive than the A and the B. The D-check is when they dismantle the aeroplane to pieces, check it all and put it back. The costs of D-checks are so high, sometimes into millions, 15 to 20 million. So you understand airlines say, wait a minute, we have this airplane coming in for a D-check. How old is it? How many hours has it flown? It’s 20 years old, and we might only use it for 2 or 3 years. Then they decide to sell it for its parts”.

And that’s where TDA comes in.