Aircraft End-Of-Life Facility Opens In Pinal County

Brandon Brown

Phoenix Business Journal
October 10, 2022

A United Kingdom-based company will start tearing apart airplanes in a new facility south of the Valley at the Coolidge Municipal Airport.

Ecube, which has facilities in Wales and in Spain, announced this month it started its operations in Coolidge — making it the only aircraft end-of-life solutions company that operates in both Europe and North America.

The company said its expansion was driven by customer demand and an expectation that the retirement of both narrow-body and wide-body aircraft will increase at the end of 2022 and into 2023.

“We underwent an extensive exercise over the past 12 months in speaking with and listening to our customers to understand the optimal location for asset owners of EOL aircraft, this inevitably resulted in Ecube planting its flag at a new location in Arizona,” Lee McConnellogue, Ecube’s CEO said in a statement. “At the forefront of our U.S. expansion plans is consistency of service, ensuring we replicate the experience our customers have learned to enjoy and rely on at our UK and EU facilities. We also plan to elevate the importance of our industry’s circular economy within the region, focusing on quality aircraft teardowns delivered with expertise and experience.”

Ecube looked at several sites before landing on Coolidge. The company told the Coolidge City Council this summer it considered six total sites — four in Arizona and two in New Mexico. The company was looking for sites that accepted all types of aircraft, had dry climates and had "favorable" sales tax for customers.

Coolidge and Ecube signed a 10-year lease on 6.82 acres near the airport over the summer. The company will pay a base rent of $3,702.6 per month, plus other fees for fuel and aircraft parking, according to city of Coolidge documents. Ecube estimates that it’ll have revenue between $2 million and $3 million during its first year in Coolidge and expects that to grow every year — up to more than $7.5 million in 2028.

Ecube has already brought in an aircraft – a Boeing 737-700 – it will dismantle at the Coolidge site. The company estimated that in its first year it’ll disassemble 15 to 20 aircraft and increase that number every year.

Ecube told Coolidge leadership it will employ 15 to 25 employees in its first year and by year five, its workforce will grow to more than 75 employees.

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