Pollard Spares: Breaking up aircraft is never easy
The Pollard Aircraft team standing in front of their newly-acquired Gulfstream GIV business jet.
Meet the Texan company that wants to take apart your business jet and re-sell the parts.
The Pollard Aircraft team standing in front of their newly-acquired Gulfstream GIV business jet.
With business jet deliveries dwindling since 2008 and aircraft manufacturers slowing-down production or even ceasing it completely, you could be forgiven for thinking there is currently an oversupply of spare parts for business aircraft.
Tim Pollard, president of Pollard Spares, however disagrees. His company, headquartered in Roanoke, Texas, specialises in buying business jets to disassemble and then re-sell the separate parts to aircraft owners.
“Aircraft is a supply and demand business,” acknowledges Pollard. “Supply has exceeded demand since 2008, but supply has actually been down in the past 12 months.”
While buying and selling business jets for Pollard Aircraft Sales, Pollard was able to identify certain aircraft types where the availability of parts was particularly scarce.
He came to the conclusion that there were “sweet spots” in the market where you actually could increase your margins by disassembling – or “parting-out” – the aircraft rather than simply reselling it.
“Our aim is to go after markets that are untapped,” says Pollard, who appears to thrive upon breaking new ground, or as he playfully puts, being “the first one to the dance.”
“We parted out the first Falcon 50 and Falco 2000 in the world,” he says. “It’s nice when there are just three available parts compared to 30.”
By ensuring that the parts are taken only from FAA or EASA-certified aircraft in an airworthy condition – which creates an occasional overlap between Pollard Aircraft Sales and Pollard Spares – Pollard claims the company can save its customers between 35 and 70 per cent on the cost of aircraft parts.
Having recently bought a 26-year-old Gulfstream GIV from PNC Financial Services, the company’s inventory now includes a Falcon 50 and 2000, a Hawker 800A, a Challenger 600/601, a Citation 650, a Citation CJ and a King Air 200 as well as the GIV. This is far from the end of the company’s ambition, as it is already looking at another GIV and is eager to buy a Challenger 604.
The company will buy – and sell – to any type of client. “We don’t care who,” says Pollard. The same approach does not apply to the company’s aircraft selection process, however, with Pollard admitting that he is “very picky.”
“I recently turned down a Falcon 50 because there were some corrosion issues,” he says. “I don’t buy damaged aircraft. I look to buy flying aircraft.”
One issue that occasionally arises from this approach is that owners with a sentimental attachment to their aircraft can be very reluctant to allow for it taken to pieces, despite wanting to sell it. “We had an issue recently where there was almost an altercation when I told them we were going to part it,” says Pollard.
The company’s website shows that it stocks a large selection of airframe-related items from airbrakes and wings, and Pollard notes that the first part the company ever sold was a windshield to a customer in South Africa. The company also stocks Honeywell engines, which are in very high demand, along with auxiliary power units.
