Overview
- BelugaST F-GSTF completed its final mission on January 29, landing at Hawarden around 11:00 a.m. local time after departing Bordeaux as flight BGA2901 and performing a fly-past.
- Airbus has withdrawn the BelugaST fleet and plans for the larger BelugaXL to assume all component transport by mid-2027 across 11 European sites.
- Efforts to place retired BelugaSTs with third-party operators through Airbus Beluga Transport ended with the subsidiary’s closure in 2025.
- Introduced in the mid-1990s to replace the Super Guppy, the BelugaST enabled movement of oversized assemblies such as wings between Airbus production plants.
- The retiring airframe is credited with carrying about 1,700 wings from Broughton and completing roughly 13,300 inter-site journeys, including frequent satellite transports to Kennedy Space Center.