NUUK, GREENLAND — Air Greenland's venerable Airbus A330-200 aircraft, one of the early models of its kind, has bid farewell to the fleet and made its way to Arizona to be dismantled for parts.


The aircraft, which completed its final scheduled flight on February 16th, was ferried from Copenhagen to Tucson on March 10th. The aircraft made a short circuit around Capital Nuuk before heading to its final destination.

The 25-year-old airliner, equipped with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines, is now in the hands of the US aviation services company AAR Supply Chain at Marana's Pinal Airpark in Tucson.

In 2002, Air Greenland introduced the aircraft with registration OY-GRN into the service following the bankruptcy of Belgium's national airline Sabena. This came just a few months after the A330-200s were first put into service in 1998 with the Belgian carrier.

It was able to operate in extremely low temperatures of up to minus 40°C thanks to its specific design for cold weather conditions.

The aircraft has been mainly deployed on the route between Copenhagen and Nuuk. Having completed over 10,000 cycles with Air Greenland, the A330 is now set to be repurposed as a source of spare parts.

The previous-generation twinjet has been replaced by a newer-generation A330-800 equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines that was delivered to the Nordic carrier last year in November.