Back to:

A Road Trip Around Britain’s Storage Airports

 By Matt Falcus

Saturday 26th September 2020

With so many airliners now being parked up at storage airfields around the world, I took the opportunity of an unusual free day to head down to two of Britain’s busiest examples to catch up on some of the rarer airliners to be found, and say goodbye to much of the British Airways 747 fleet.

Up before the sun, I set off down the A19 at 05:30 and made it to Gloucestershire Staverton airport for a pit stop a few hours later. I’d never visited here, so had a drive around to log the inmates, which were mostly light aircraft.

My main plan was to visit the Jet Age Museum and log one of the few surviving Tridents that I hadn’t seen. Sadly the museum didn’t open till 1pm, but at least I could see the aircraft (G-AWZU forward fuselage) and a few other inmates from the terminal area.

Other aircraft of note were:

LX-JFE Pilatus PC-12

N10522 Piper PA-46 Malibu

N477PM Piper PA-31 Navajo (engineless)

G-JGAR Robinson R-44

2-PASB Diamond DA-40D

Back on the road, my next stop was St Athan, a couple of miles beyond Cardiff Airport. Crossing the M4 bridge into Wales was an impressive sight in the morning sunlight, and following signs for Barry Island I kept an eye out for Gavin & Stacey!

St Athan was the feature of a recent TV series documenting the process of scrapping airliners that come in here. Artistic license seemed to be used to suggest the whole process is done in a day, but in fact many of the airframes tend to last a few months before reaching the scrapper.

Heading for the track running along the southern boundary, you have a good view first of the Horizon Aircraft residents parked outside their hangar, including:

G-BWGL/N-321 Hawker Hunter T.8C

G-PRII/WT723 Hawker Hunter PR.11

G-DACA/WF118 Percival Sea Prince

G-JIBO BAe Jetstream 31

N235KK Gulfstream GVISP

XW289 BAC Jet Provost (Gate Guardian)

Then from the adjacent crash gate you have a view over the main parking area of the airfield on the north side.

After logging what I could, I drove around to the main access side of the airport, where a new road has changed the layout a bit. You can easily see some more airliners from here, but it’s difficult to stop without causing a traffic offence.

Since I was heading for the South Wales Aviation Museum, you can pull over on its access road and log what is visible, including at the scrapping compound behind the hangars. For help with everything, use the excellent South Wales Aviation Enthusiast website (http://www.southwalesaviationgroup.co.uk/p/airliners-st-athan.html)

Some of the highlights at St Athan were:

3B-NAU, Airbus A340-312, Air Mauritius

5X-GBT, Boeing 737-33A, Nile Jewel

9H-SLA & SLB, Airbus A320, SmartLynx Malta

D-ALAC, Airbus A320-232, Asiana Airlines

EC-KMD, Airbus A319-111, Iberia

EI-CSI, Boeing 737-8AS, Blue Panorama

ER-AXV, Airbus A320-232, Air Moldova

ES-SAW, Airbus A320-232, SmartLynx Estonia

G-ZZZA & B, Boeing 777-236ER, British Airways

G-BNLX, Boeing 747-436, British Airways

G-CIVE, I, K, P, Boeing 747-436, British Airways

G-EUOB, C, D & EUPE Airbus A319-131, British Airways

G-EZGE & EZII, Airbus A319-111, easyJet

G-VAST, Boeing 747-41R, Virgin Atlantic

HL7557 & 7559, Boeing 737-86N, Jin Air

HP-IPU, Airbus A319-112, Swiss

LN-RCY, Boeing 737-883, SAS

LY-BHE, Airbus A319-112, Air India (ex VT-SCA)

OE-IBB, Airbus A321-231, Small Planet

OK-NEP, Airbus A319-112, CSA

OO-SFW, Airbus A330-322, Brussels Airlines

OO-SSG, Airbus A319-112, Brussels Airlines

P4-GAS, Boeing 757-2G5, Air Astana

SX-EMM, Airbus A319-132, Ellinair

TC-ATE, Airbus A321-211, AtlasGlobal

YL-LCO, Airbus A320-214, SmartLynx

YR-BMH & I, Boeing 737-8K5, Blue Air

ZS-DJI, Boeing 767-216ER

The South Wales Aviation Museum is relatively new. It is the brainchild of Gary Spoors, who is well-known on the aircraft restoration and parting out scene, having been involved in the former RAF VC-10 fleet any many other aircraft. Much of his (and his colleagues’) collections are on display here, including various military aircraft and airliner cockpits. They include:

A7-ABC, Airbus A300B4-622R (cockpit)

B-HUI, Boeing 747-467 (cockpit)

G-APFG, Boeing 707-436 (cockpit)

G-BLKP, BAe Jetstream 31

G-BRFC, Percival Sea Prince

G-SDEV/XK895, DH.104 Devon C.20

N858WL, Boeing 737-406 (forward fuselage)

XL500, Fairey Gannet

XL573, Hawker Hunter T.7

XP672, BAC Jet Provost

XR993, Folland Gnat (Red Arrows)

XV582, F-4 Phantom FG.1

XW420, BAC Jet Provost

WR974, Avro 696 Shackleton

ZA195, BAe Sea Harrier

ZA326, Panavia Tornado GR.1

ZG822, Westland Sea King

Just behind the museum is a compound with various aircraft being scrapped, stored and dismantled. Just walk round the back of the museum hangar to see them. A number of cockpits were found here:

B-HUE, Boeing 747-467 (cockpit)

G-AVFM, HS Trident 2E (cockpit)

G-BDXG, Boeing 747-236B (cockpit)

G-CEAG, Boeing 737-229 (cockpit)

G-CELH, Boeing 737-377 (section)

G-GDFH, Boeing 737-3Y5 (section)

G-MKCA, Boeing 747-2B5B (cockpit)

N470AC, Boeing 737-3L9 (fuselage)

N747KD, Boeing 747-236F (cockpit)

XV106, Vickers VC-10 C.1K (section)

Nearby is Cardiff’s main airport, so I drove round to the south western side where there’s a viewing point next to the Highwayman Inn, and also to the general aviation area. Here I could log 7 Boeing 747-436, 4 Boeing 777-236ER and 1 777-336ER in storage outside the BAMC maintenance base, including both the BOAC (G-BYGC) and Landor (G-BNLY) examples, presumably all awaiting their turn to be disposed of.

Aside from some light aircraft, only TUI Airways Boeing 737-800s G-TAWA and TAWD were active at the airport.

After a stop for lunch, I headed back down the M4 into England, and then across many country lanes to reach Kemble Cotswold Airport – another storage and scrapping location which has swelled with aircraft recently.

The airport is very enthusiast friendly and welcome visitors to come and look at the aircraft and enjoy its AV8 café next to the control tower. A large grass area is now available for parking, with portable toilets for visitors to use. With the day being so sunny, it was packed with spotters and families enjoying the views.

As well as this central area, you can also drive to a layby on the south side of the runway close to the village of Kemble, which looks across the main scrapping compound. This was also packed with visitors.

Highlights here included:

2-AGCC, Airbus A340-642X, Qatar Airways

2-MMTT, Boeing 727-76

EC-MFA, Airbus A340-313X, Air Plus Ultra

EI-FFM, Boeing 737-73S, Air Italy

EI-GIZ, Airbus A320-214, Aigle Azur

EZ-A101, A102, A106 & A107, Boeing 717-22K, Turkmenistan Airlines

F-GTUI & HSEA, Boeing 747-422, Corsair

G-BYGA, B, E & F, Boeing 747-436, British Airways

G-CIVD, J, L & N, Boeing 747-436, British Airways

G-LSAD, G & H, Boeing 757-200, Jet2

HB-JGK, Lockheed Jetstar (fuselage)

LV-NVY, Airbus A320-232, Sky Angkor Airlines

LY-SPC, Airbus A320-231, GetJet

M-FTOH, Boeing 727-269

OK-NEN, Airbus A319-112, CSA (Eurowings titles)

OY-JTR, JTT & JTZ, Boeing 737-700, Jet Time

PH-BFG, Boeing 747-406, KLM

TF-AAC, AAD & AAH, Boeing 747-400, Air Atlanta Icelandic

VP-CFR & CMS, Airbus A320-232, Qatar Airways

VP-CMN, Boeing 727-46 (fuselage)

VT-INV, Airbus A320-232, IndiGo

(I maintain an up-to-date log of Kemble residents on my website, here: https://www.airportspotting.com/storage-lists/kemble-uk/)

And so it was time to make the long journey back up north. Half-way I decided to stop into East Midlands to fill up, grab a coffee and log what was visible, which proved quite fruitful despite being a quiet Saturday. Highlights:

D-AZMO, Airbus A300B4-622R(F), DHL

G-LSCW, Gulfstream 550

G-TAYC, Gulfstream 450

G-NPTB, Boeing 737-83N(F), West Atlantic

N226CY, Boeing 767-383ER(BDSF), ABX Air

SE-MAO, MAP, BAe ATP(F), West Atlantic Sweden

SE-RLL, Boeing 737-83N(F), West Atlantic Sweden

TF-BBL, Boeing 737-490(F), Bluebird Nordic

And so ended this long road trip. It’s sad to see the end of the BA 747s, but great to be able to log airliners from some exotic locations here in Blighty!

---