With aircraft retirements expected to surge, ecube is scaling smart solutions to meet tomorrow’s sustainability demands. Steven Taylor, chief commercial officer, tells us more.

At ecube, our mission has always been simple yet ambitious: to set the benchmark for sustainable, end-of-life aircraft management. As the aviation sector accelerates its efforts to decarbonise and decouple growth from environmental impact, I’m pleased to share how we’re delivering real-world progress through circular economy initiatives across our UK, EU and US locations.

Since our last Green Sky entry in July 2023, a major development has reshaped our platform – we’re now proudly part of Unical Aviation. Joining the Unical Group strengthens our global capabilities and accelerates our sustainability journey.

Focusing on ecube specifically, we recently completed a landmark project with British Airways at our UK HQ in St Athan, measuring each stage of the disassembly process of an Airbus A320 to achieve an industry-first documentation of the reuse, repurpose and recycle rate of 83%. This sets a credible baseline for aircraft circularity for all disassembly providers to measure and improve.

In Europe, our new facility in Castellón, Spain is now open – a purpose‑built 25,833 sq ft building designed to boost throughput and streamline logistics. With dedicated zones for workshops, storage and parts flow, this expansion significantly enhances our service offering and reinforces our status as the leading partner for end-of-life aircraft solutions in the region.

Meanwhile in Coolidge, Arizona, our US operations marked a milestone by disassembling the 50th aircraft, underscoring the site’s rapid growth and vital role in serving Americas customers with full disassembly, component recovery and long-term storage – maintaining our global standards of safety, quality and sustainability.

Across all locations, the momentum is unmistakable. In 2024 alone, we enabled nearly 73,000 components to return to service and repurposed or recycled more than 2,000 tonnes of material – transforming waste into value. Our teams increased the average parts removed per aircraft by 17% year-over-year, while our Plane Reclaimers team continued to pioneer creative upcycling solutions for retired materials.

Looking ahead, we’re actively investing in technologies and infrastructure to shape the next era of sustainable aviation, including exploring blockchain-based traceability which promises a secure, auditable pathway for tracking used serviceable material (USM) from aircraft removal to reinstallation – aligning with evolving customer expectations and future regulatory requirements.

We’re also preparing for scale. With the global fleet projected to double over the next two decades – and over half of that growth linked to new aircraft deliveries – the pace of retirements will rise sharply. With a growing presence in the UK, EU and US, along with expanded processing capacity, we’re building a global platform equipped to meet the rising volume, complexity and sustainability demands of aircraft transitions, disassemblies and material recovery.

At ecube, we’re not just managing aircraft retirements – we’re redefining what sustainable aviation looks like for the future.

This feature was first published in MRO Management – July 2025. To read the magazine in full, click here.