UK-based startup airline Global Airlines has debuted its first A380 in Scotland.
The aircraft flew from Mojave Air & Space Port in California to Glasgow Prestwick Airport - via Montreal - on Tuesday.
Global Airlines took full ownership of the A380, formerly operated by China Southern Airlines, in February this year. Prior to that, it was withdrawn from use and ferried to Mojave in late 2022.
The arrival at Prestwick marked the first time an Airbus A380 has landed at the nationalised airport.
According to aviation website Simple Flying, having transferred ownership to Global Airlines in January this year, the aircraft took a few test flights in February before embarking on its transatlantic crossing from Canada to Scotland.
READ MORE: Major Scottish airport flights boost with record flying programme and new routes
The flight garnered significant interest online, with thousands tracking its journey on flight tracking site Flightradar24.
Following its arrival at Prestwick on Tuesday, Global Airlines posted on social media: “We did it! The first fully owned Global Airlines A380 flew its first transatlantic and transcontinental flights from Mojave to Prestwick today, via Montreal.
“ As planned, she landed safely in Scotland earlier this afternoon. This is a fantastic achievement and a major milestone in Global’s development.
“More news and insight to follow soon, but for now we’re celebrating the moment, we are thrilled to have landed on UK soil.”
Glasgow Prestwick Airport CEO Ian Forgie said: "We are delighted to have supported Global with this key stage in their exciting journey.
"It was also the first time an A380 has landed at Prestwick, so this was an exciting moment in Prestwick's aviation history. It drew a large crowd of aviation enthusiasts who wanted to witness the touchdown."
Founded by entrepreneur, James Asquith in 2021, Global Airlines aims to begin operations from London to New York City and Los Angeles, using a fleet of four Airbus A380s.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel