Discarded in Wales: The last Swiss Airbus A319 is scrap metal

They were all handed over by Airbus to the former Swiss airline, and the Swiss successor took them over in 2002. The Swiss national airline actually wanted to shut down the Airbus A319 by 2017. A modernized Airbus A220 made the fleet of old aircraft unattractive.

But in the end, the three A319s with registration numbers HB-IPV, HB-IPU and HB-IPT flew with a difference of honor. They were not decommissioned until early 2020 at ages 23 and 24 respectively, and were flown to St Athan Airport. By that time, both had logged about 57,000 flying hours.

end of Wales

Specialized company Ecube, which breaks down aircraft and recycles parts, is based at the airport in South Wales. It has since also destroyed three former Swiss Airbus A319s, only one of which was owned by the same airline.

According to a Swiss spokeswoman, the two chartered planes were returned to charter company Willis Lease Finance as planned. They sold their own cars with license plate number HB-IPV. The three met their end in the same place.

The Swiss kept important parts

But why were three Airbus A319s canceled, even though the Lufthansa Group still operates 87 models – at Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cityline? “The residual values ​​for this model are so low that taking it apart is worth more,” Air Insight’s Addison Schonland explains.

However, some of them live. “We kept important components for us when we sold them, such as engines and about 100 other parts. This is what was agreed upon with the buyer”, says the Swiss spokeswoman.