The Sidelined Delta Fleet in Wilmington, Ohio

In 1996, my dad took me to the Dayton Air Show for the first time. 24 years later, we went to another air show of sorts.

- Delta Airlines aircraft temporarily stored at Ohio's Wilmington Air Park during the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic on April 18, 2020.

This particular story has been covered quite a bit recently (from Cincinnati’s best news source: 91.7 WVXU, to The New York Times), but I wanted to see an example of it for myself (and had the benefit of only being an hour or so away). The ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic has drastically reduced demand for flights and as airlines grapple with that reality, there’s been a trickle down effect to all corners of the industry from airport food courts to a Boeing corporation already beleaguered by scandal. While flights are still available, the various carriers have slashed capacity and schedules, seeking physical locales across the world where they can temporarily store portions of their vast, currently sidelined fleets.

- Boeing 717 and 767 aircraft belonging to Delta Airlines stored at Wilmington Air Park on April 18, 2020.

Under normal circumstances, all of these now idle aircraft would be crisscrossing the globe, many of them up in the air at all hours of the day. Most airports, however, typically lack the space required to host so many physical planes (one can also assume that bailout-seeking carriers wouldn’t want to pay that rent anyways) and airline maintenance facilities located on international airport grounds generally aren’t designed to accommodate such a large number of aircraft. So, the corporations have gotten creative.

In addition to their Tulsa, Oklahoma maintenance facility, American Airlines has been parking planes across the US from Pittsburgh to Roswell, NM. In the deserts of America, “boneyards” (which typically serve as retirement homes for defunct aircraft) are now hosting temporary residents from many flight operators in a dry climate. Delta Airlines sent a portion of its fleet to Arizona’s Pinal Air Park boneyard, but as Ann Thompson reported in her April 6, 2020 story for 91.7 WVXU, the boneyards have their drawbacks. As these are still active aircraft, they require regular maintenance and the facilities to support that work. That’s where places such as the Wilmington Air Park come into play.

About halfway between Cincinnati and Columbus—Wilmington, Ohio's ILN airport began life as a small landing strip in 1929. In 1942, the United States Army Air Force took over operation of the field for military purposes. When the USAAF was spun off from the army, becoming the United States Air Force in 1947, the airfield became the Clinton County Air Force Base. The installation supported Air Force Reserve operations until 1972 when the base was decommissioned. The airport was adapted for private use, eventually becoming a hub for freight carrier Airborne Express.

With its military and later private cargo use, the Wilmington Air Park’s grounds and facilities had been greatly expanded from their humble beginnings. Although no passenger service operated there, the facility was able to accommodate massive wide-body jets on its runways, taxiways, and tarmacs. In 2003, Airborne Express merged with DHL. This new company maintained its Wilmington hub until shuttering the ground and airborne operations at the height of The Great Recession in 2009. The move was a massive economic blow to the surrounding community.

Although DHL turned over the facilities and runways to a local authority, things sat dormant for years. Finally, some good news arrived when word got out that Amazon was using the facility to test plans for its own cargo operation. Amazon Air officially launched its Wilmington service in 2016, staging the first of what have now become ubiquitous white, blue, and black aircraft. Like DHL before them, Amazon eventually announced that they’d be shifting primary flight operations southward to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport as their new hub. However, the e-commerce empire still maintains a Wilmington presence with daily cargo flights and a sorting facility/warehouse.

Known now officially as Wilmington Air Park, the grounds host a slew of businesses in addition to Amazon. In a March 2019 article, it was reported that the facility’s available space was “nearly 100 percent leased.” Still a major logistics site and home to various freight contractors, the Air Park is also renowned for providing aircraft maintenance, especially in regards to the Boeing 767.

That’s why you’ll see commercial aircraft from all over the world hanging out there, including the New England Patriot’s team aircraft which had just recently ferried N95 masks from China to the US to aid in the fight against the coronavirus.

- Cincinnati Bengal fans will be unfamiliar with the trophies painted on this aircraft's tail.

On April 6, “more than 20” aircraft from Delta had been stashed at Wilmington (where the airline is paying a reported $800 per month per aircraft). By late April, many more had joined the existing tenants. My dad and I had been curious when we decided to take a drive up from Cincinnati one afternoon to go see things—walking around and looking at planes like we had at multiple Dayton Air Shows when I was a kid (as of this writing, the 2020 event has not yet been cancelled due to coronavirus concerns). We ran into a few aviation enthusiasts who gave us some good info (thanks, Chris!) as a United Airlines 767 rolled away from the maintenance facility and roared up into the sky, bound for George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

- Viewed through a chain-link fence, United Airlines Aircraft N647UA departs the Wilmington Air Park maintenance facility for Houston. The aircraft had previously made stops in Portugal, Spain, and Newark.

The silent Delta fleet sat between the two main runways—massive aircraft parked with precision, many of which had their windows and engines covered for protection against the elements. The Delta presence was made up of Boeing 717 regional jets, as well as, many Boeing 767 wide-body jets—key aircraft in Delta’s long-distance and international routes now strategically stationed at a facility that could not only house them, but also provide care and overhaul should the need arise.

Looking back now and zooming in on some of the tail numbers, Wilmington was hosting regional aircraft that had arrived from places like Atlanta, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Chicago. Many of the much larger 767s had previously been making regular runs such as New York to Los Angeles, San Diego to Detroit, and Los Angeles to Japan while others had made stops around the world at airports in Accra, Buenos Aires, Rio De Janeiro, Amsterdam, and even Joint Base Andrews within the last few weeks before they had been grounded.*

* Per FlightAware.com.

On April 18, 2020, though (and as of this writing a few days later), tail numbers such as N923AT and N1201P were registering no known, scheduled destinations. And there will still be a bit of time before they do. Even well after the coronavirus winds down—the airline industry with its various infrastructure, aircraft, and thousands of employees is going to be reeling. It’s another facet of life touched by the effects of COVID-19, just as the bright red Delta logos bunched together in the afternoon sun were yet another physical sign of the ongoing global pandemic.

Many thanks to Dannie, Chris, Dad, and the reporting of Ann Thompson/WVXU for their help with this post.