Up to Four Airbus A380’s to be Scrapped in Knock

Update, Thursday 20th February at 0750L. The Airbus A380 F-HPJB is filed into Knock this afternoon at 1555L from Dresden as the AFR373S. Please monitor the flight tracking websites for up to date details.

The latest information we have is that the A380 will not arrive on Friday 14th as originally planned due to some regulatory issues. An updated date is not available at present but we’ll do our best to update this post when we receive more information or when a flight plan is filed for the flight.

The first batch of Airbus A380’s have started to be retired after just over 10 years in service. Air France retired their first one, F-HPJB, in December and plan to retire their remaining nine A380’s before the end of 2022. F-HPJB was painted all white in early December in Malta before returning briefly to the Air France fleet. It completed its last flight on 31st December 2019 flying from Shanghai to Paris. It then positioned to Dresden where it was returned to its lessor, the Dr. Peters Group. Return to lessor test flights were completed on 2nd/3rd of January out of Dresden. This morning it positioned from Dresden to Leipzig and it is expected to fly to Ireland West Airport Knock this Friday 14 th February. This date has already been delayed twice (most likely Storm Ciara related) and is subject to change .

While scrapping an Airbus A380 at Knock might seem far-fetched, it is completely within the capability of EirTrade Aviation who are based at the airport on the Western Apron. The company specialise in airframe disassembly for the following aircraft types: A380, A340, A330, A321, A320, A319, B777, B757, B737/3/4/5, MD83, ATR72-212A. See video below.