In the Arizona desert the hulking metal carcasses of planes dot the vast dry expanse. In Tarbes, tail fins point towards the snow-capped mountains in the distance. On a motorway in Uttar Pradesh, an A320 is now a roadside diner. These are some of the places planes go when they’ve done their victory lap and come back down to earth for the final time.
On this episode of The Weekend Intelligence, the Economist’s Asia Correspondent Leo Mirani, a self-professed plane geek, travels the world to see what becomes of his beloved flying craft when they reach the end of their service, and discovers an aviation afterlife.
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