Ray Pantling, owner of Tyres Direct in Bletchley, explains how airlines reduce tyre costs by at least 50% through retreading…
The next time you board a jet to whisk you off to that island in the sun, take a moment to check its tyres.
Over 95% of today’s commercial airline operators and military use retreaded/remoulded tyres. This is overwhelming confirmation of the high quality and reliability of aircraft tyre retreading.
For most airlines, tyres represent the third largest item in their operating budget, right after labour and fuel costs.
Aircraft companies have found they can reduce their tyre costs by at least 50% by retreading their aircraft tyres as many as 7 times.
They also incidentally can repair tyres very much the same as car tyres. It takes 22 gallons of oil to manufacture a new airline tyre – most of the oil is found in the casing, which is used in the retreading process.
As a result, it takes only 7 gallons of oil to produce a large retreaded tyre. Southwest Airlines, for example, has used nearly 40,000 tyres in the past year.
But which tyres on an aircraft wear the fastest? The front tyres tend to last an average of 210 landings, while the main landing gear tyres can go to an average of 394 landings.
