Airbus Retires BelugaST Fleet After Nearly 30 Years: Why and What Comes Next

Today, the last of Airbus’s iconic BelugaST special transport aircraft is poised for its final flight. The Airbus A300-600ST fleet — the super-transporters that carried oversized aerostructures and outsized cargo across continents — will be formally retired as Airbus transitions fully to the larger BelugaXL fleet. The end of operations comes as Airbus closes its Airbus Beluga Transport (AiBT) airline division after a brief operational life, suspending all BelugaST flights.

Airbus Beluga Plane: A Whale, a Monster Cargo Airliner

Airbus BelugaST: Specifications

Specification	Airbus BelugaST (A300-600ST)
Aircraft Type	Oversized cargo transport aircraft
Manufacturer	Airbus
Crew	2
Length	56.15 m (184 ft 3 in)
Wingspan	44.84 m (147 ft 1 in)
Height	17.24 m (56 ft 7 in)
Cargo Compartment Length	37.7 m (123 ft 8 in)
Cargo Volume	~1,400 m³ (49,442 cu ft)
Maximum Payload	~47 000 kg (103 615 lb)
Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW)	~155 000 kg (341 717 lb)
Cruise Speed	~780 km/h (485 mph)
Range (with 40 t payload)	~2 779 km (1 500 nm)
Service Ceiling	~10 670 m (35 000 ft)
Engines	2 × General Electric CF6-80C2A8 turbofans

Source: Aviation File

Airbus BelugaST: A Goodbye to Near Three Decades of Flight

Airbus’s original BelugaST (Super Transporter) aircraft represent a unique evolution of the Airbus A300-600 platform, designed specifically for outsized cargo missions that conventional freighters could not accommodate.

The Airbus Beluga primarily operates on intra-European routes, ferrying oversized aircraft sections between Airbus’s manufacturing and final-assembly sites. Key points in this network include:

• Toulouse in France, which serves as the company’s headquarters and a major assembly hub Hamburg and Bremen in Germany, both central to fuselage and component production
• St. Nazaire in France, where major structural elements are integrated
• Filton in the United Kingdom, a centre for wing design and development.

The BelugaST programme delivered five aircraft, all configured with the distinctive “whale-like” fuselage to transport aircraft wings, fuselage sections, satellites, and other oversized structures across Airbus’s European supply chain and beyond.

According to Simple Flying, Airbus, the manufacturer of the helicopter that landed at the top of Everest. tried to “commercialize space capacity through Airbus Beluga Transport”, but the venture was terminated last year:

“…Airbus A300-600ST flights were suspended. Airbus completed the BelugaXL fleet in June 2024, with operations expected to continue for decades. The final operational BelugaST mission occurred on September 17, 2025. Through late 2025, BelugaSTs were parked and retired, setting up a farewell flypast and static display at Broughton Airfield.”

The Beluga ST will be replaced with BelugaXL programme, which has significantly expanded its internal airlift capability – a 30% increase in payload capacity. This allows Airbus transport larger A350 components (note that the A350 is sued for some of the longest non-stop flights in the world) in fewer rotations, which in turn improves scheduling efficiency and shortens turnaround cycles.

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At the same time, transitioning to a fleet built on the Airbus A330 platform brings operational advantages. A more uniform aircraft type streamlines maintenance regimes and reduces training complexity for flight and technical crews compared with the ageing BelugaST fleet. Strategically, the move also draws a line under Airbus Beluga Transport, ending the manufacturer’s brief foray into offering commercial outsized cargo services to third-party customers.

BelugaST (A300-600ST) fleet details

Airbus BelugaST Role in Aerospace Logistics

The BelugaST played a critical logistical role within Airbus’s internal transport network, facilitating the movement of oversized components — such as wings and fuselage sections — between major manufacturing sites in Europe.

Airbus’s need for a dedicated transport aircraft dates back to the 1970s, when rapid growth created logistical challenges across its geographically dispersed manufacturing base. That initial requirement was met by the Boeing Super Guppy, an aircraft originally developed for NASA and later built under license in France for Airbus operations. The Super Guppy enabled Airbus to connect key production centers in France, Germany, Great Britain, and Spain.

By the mid-1990s, however, rising production rates and larger airframe sections exceeded the Super Guppy’s capabilities. Airbus responded by commissioning the A300-600 Super Transporter, later known as the BelugaST, named for its distinctive whale-like profile. The aircraft was designed to move larger components faster, directly supporting Airbus’s expanding production demands.

Over its service life, the BelugaST:

• Supported Airbus’s production ramp-up for more than two decades

• Enabled the efficient transport of oversized aerostructures across Europe

• Entered limited commercial service between 2022 and 2024 under Airbus Beluga Transport (AIBT), carrying outsized cargo for external customers

For more than 20 years, the Airbus BelugaST (A300-600ST Super Transporter) formed the backbone of Airbus’s internal logistics network, linking production and assembly sites across Europe.

Although it has now been superseded by the BelugaXL for internal operations, the BelugaST’s reliability and specialized design established the operational blueprint for Airbus’s current super-transporter fleet. Its exceptionally large cargo hold — among the biggest ever fitted to a civil aircraft

Key operational use cases of the Beluga ST

• • Transport of the wings and fuselage of the largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380, between Airbus production sites

  • Movement of A320 family wings from the UK to final assembly lines in France and Germany

  • Carriage of A350 XWB fuselage sections and wing components across Europe

  • Shipment of the EUTELSAT 36D telecommunications satellite from Toulouse to a launch site

  • Transport of completed commercial satellites for Airbus Defence and Space customers

  • Support of Airbus production rate increases through just-in-time aerostructure delivery

  • Commercial outsized cargo flights under Airbus Beluga Transport (AIBT) between 2022 and 2024

  • Test and validation flights supporting the transition to the BelugaXL fleet

What will the Beluga ST be replaced by?

Beluga provides around 30% more payload capacity than the BelugaST, and is based on the Airbus A330-200 platform. It also has:

• An overall length comparable to two blue whales placed end to end.

• Designed to carry two complete aircraft wings in a single flight.

• Capable of transporting the largest A350 fuselage section or two 30-metre A350 wings (something that the Beluga ST wasn’t able to do).

• The BelugaXL program was launched in 2014 to support Airbus’s production ramp-up.

Airbus Beluga Transport began to operate the five Beluga STs in the commercial air cargo at the start of 2023. However, by 2025, this commercial division was closed, with Airbus “citing a lack of demand in the marketplace”, reported Aerospace Global News:

“The specialised aircraft had faced tough competition and could not compete with other freighters like the Antonov An-124 due to its weight limits, operational costs, and also its difficult loading characteristics. The decision was taken to gradually withdraw the five aircraft from operations, with flight operations winding down over the latter half of 2025.”

With the concluding flight of the last BelugaST, Airbus is now actively seeking museum and educational placements for these historic aircraft.

Daily Post reported that after the ST flies into retirement after circling around Airbus Broughton on Thursday morning, the whale-shaped transporter will land at the Hawarden Airport runway at around 11am.

A few months ago, a spokesperson of Airbus was quoted (in the same source) to have hinted that some might be retired next year:

This week, one of our beloved BelugaSTs created quite a buzz as it flew its final mission after 20+ years of service! Fans will be happy to hear that a new home and purpose awaitts. Stay tuned for updates! With six BelugaXLs covering our transport needs, the BelugaSTs are slowly flying into retirement. BelugaST 4 had its final flight on Sept 17, 2025. One more flies until until the end of the year and two until mid-2027. Stay tuned for what’s next.”