Roissy Airport (France) (AFP)

At Roissy airport, in a strange silence and under a perfectly empty sky, the teams of Air France maintenance technicians daily pamper more than a hundred aircraft nailed to the ground by the coronavirus, pending better days.

Perched on a cart, a technician in a yellow vest, his face protected by a surgical mask, checks that the plastic films applied to protect the probes and other air intakes on the side of a Boeing 787 are in place.

"The probes must be protected to prevent insects from entering and making nests there," explains Alexandre Auberger, technician on Boeing 787, flashlight in hand to inspect the slightest air intake of his "baby" , whose cheapest model, the 787-8, is worth $ 248 million at list price.

"The planes on the ground require maintenance, we do not abandon them, so that we can find all of our machines in the best condition after confinement," said Dominique Vialtet, line maintenance manager.

The company has already been brought to immobilize planes, at the time of the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull and its ash cloud in 2010 or even after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

But never has the judgment concerned such a long period on such a large fleet.

- The wheels turned -

The operations are "essentially oriented towards the protection of airplanes, their sensitive systems such as aerodynamic devices, Pitot sockets and static sockets, incidence and temperature sensors", essential for flight safety, specifies M. Viallet.

Depending on the type of aircraft, the engine is protected by an orange cover or simply immobilized by fasteners, in particular so that the blades do not start to spin in a vacuum.

Every week, each reactor is started for a quarter of an hour, to ensure the lubrication of the system and avoid any risk of corrosion.

In the cabin, the ambient humidity is checked, if it exceeds 60%, a complete restart of the aircraft is carried out with a start of the air conditioners to avoid the formation of mold.

Every 30 days, the airplane wheels are lifted with a jack and turned to avoid their deformation on the low point.

And regularly, the steering controls of the aircraft are actuated from the cockpit in their extreme stops so that the joints do not dry out.

"An airplane that does not move is an airplane that wears out", summarizes Alexandre Auberger.

In Roissy, 70 technicians take turns every day, against 190 in normal times, to inspect the planes, explains Gery Mortreux, deputy general manager in charge of the industrial direction of Air France.

Today, Air France only operates 30 to 40 flights a day from CDG, or 5% of its usual traffic.

On the tarmac, the flagships of the world aeronautical industry such as the Boeing 777, or 787, or even the Airbus A350, the latest of the European manufacturer's long-haul flights, are immobilized not far from the runway vehicles stored along the terminals deserts.

Of the 224 aircraft in the Air France fleet, 180 are stationary, stored mainly in Roissy but also in Orly, the airport in the south of Paris, closed since April 1, or in Toulouse where Air France has a maintenance base.

Faced with the collapse of air traffic, Air France resorted to short-time working for 80% of its workforce.

As for the cost of all these aircraft stopped, Gery Mortreux has no figures to communicate. But "an airplane is made to fly and generate income. We continue to drive costs but we no longer have income", he summarizes.

On Thursday, the Air France-KLM group confirmed that it has initiated discussions with the governments of France and the Netherlands to obtain financial support "by all means" necessary.

© 2020 AFP