US-UK merger: aircraft recycling ready for lift off

US recycler North American Aerospace Industries (NAAI) has merged with UK firm Aircraft Interior Recycling Association (AIRA). The business deal is hoped to ‘revolutionise’ aircraft recycling.

‘AIRA is the only aircraft interior recycling company that has developed the scientific expertise and technical know-how to properly recycle end-of-life aircraft interiors and waste materials from manufacturing,’ says Sven Daniel Koechler, president and ceo of NAAI.

‘Since our top priority is to provide sustainable aircraft recycling services through which 100% of an aircraft is recycled or up-cycled, gaining the ability to effectively address one of the most challenging aspects of an aircraft’s recycling – its composite plastic interior components – is a major achievement for us,’ he adds.

‘It has taken AIRA six years of research and hard work to develop cost-effective recycling processes,’ comments AIRA’s managing director Tony Seville. ‘We are very proud to be part of this merger and now the real work can begin with airlines, lessors, MROs, OEMs and material manufacturers all working with us and making a huge difference to the aviation industry and the environment at the same time.”

Meanwhile, NAAI is constructing a new facility in North Carolina that it says will be one of the world’s largest hangar sites. The three-part hangar system will serve to ‘recycle multiple aircraft simultaneously, for a faster recycling process’ thanks to a 357 00 square foot dismantling workshop.