The largest and heaviest airliner that had ever flown on this planet took to the skies: the legendary Airbus A380 with the manufacturer serial number MSN003. It was the first of some 240 A380s now in existence to enter scheduled service with passengers on board, flying from Singapore to Sydney for Singapore Airlines as flight number SQ380. The four pilots, 26 crew members and exactly 455 passengers must have been very aware that on this flight they were witnessing a historic event. The tickets sold for record prices, with one passenger paying over 100,000 US dollars for a First-Class cabin measuring a little under three square metres. For a decade, the jumbo Airbus spanned the globe for Singapore Airlines until it was finally retired at the airport in Tarbes, France, also the first ever A380 to have this distinction.
In January 2020, the plane was finally dismantled and a large part of the 560 tons of material was successfully recycled or reused. By upcycling it into Aviationtags, bordbar is contributing to this sustainability success story. Today marks the launch of this especially historic edition of 7,000 Aviationtags crafted from the fuselage of the MSN003, just a few weeks after the plane was dismantled. And while the aircraft registered as 9V-SKA made its second scheduled service landing by autopilot, the Aviationtags were crafted by hand. This entailed parts of the outer skin being further dismantled and cut at the Cologne bordbar manufactory until they could be punched into the typical Aviationtag shape and then polished. Precise laser engraving was then the final step in this upcycling process. Each of the strictly limited-edition Aviationtags sports the aircraft type, aircraft registration number, edition number and size. Each Aviationtag may differ in thickness, colour and structure from other serial numbers and is unique. The engraved data can even be used to locate registered users. The Lost & Found Service offered by bordbar has already made many a lost Aviationtag and attached keys reappear.
