Airbus A330 – G-VMNK (ex D-ALPA)

3-in-1!

Although the new arrival we are announcing today last bore the British registration G-VMNK of Virgin Atlantic, in Germany it is better known as D-ALPA. The Airbus A330-233 sporting MSN 403 joined German charter carrier LTU in May 2001, making its maiden flight on the route Düsseldorf-Toronto.

Following LTU’s takeover by Air Berlin, in 2009 D-ALPA was repainted in Abu Dhabi in the Air Berlin livery design, having flown to Dubai in LTU livery for the last time the day before. After Air Berlin filed for insolvency on 15 August 2017, the A330’s last flight was from San Francisco to Düsseldorf on 15 October 2017.

Sporting the English registration G-VMNK, the plane was then transferred from Frankfurt-Hahn to Manchester on 2 January 2018, where it was repainted in Virgin Atlantic Airways livery and given the name “Daydream Believer”.

After chalking up some 90,000 flying hours and more than 13,000 take-offs, the Airbus A330 G-VMNK was then transferred to its old home base in Düsseldorf, where it was dismantled in the noise protection hangar in February and March 2022.

We are thrilled to be able to offer an Aviationtag series that boasts two legends of German aviation at once, LTU and Air Berlin – and the fantastic Virgin Atlantic livery as the icing on the cake.

Go, get yours now!

Airbus A330: The Airbus A330 is a wide-bodied twin-engine aircraft produced by the European aircraft maker Airbus, designed as a medium or long-haul aircraft and developed to replace the A300-600R and to give the Boeing 767-300ER a run for its money.

The A330-200 programme was officially launched in November 1995, with ILFC placing the first order for 13 aircraft in February 1996. The maiden flight followed on 13 August 1997 and certification in April 1998.

The A330-200 comes in at a length of just over 59m, has a maximum range of 13,400 km and can carry up to 400 passengers in a single-class configuration.

Note: Every tag is unique. Depending on the plane, tags may vary in terms of haptics, material thickness and colour. Small blemishes bear witness to the plane’s long history and are an authentic reminder of its glory days over the clouds. Small scratches, flaky paint and imperfections are totally normal and give our Aviationtags their unique charm – the charm of a vintage product crafted from upcycled materials. These quirks are not the result of the production process, they simply reflect the state of the aircraft material we use when it was extracted.