UPDATED: Valentines Day marks Beluga XL’s two year anniversary of Broughton debut

Live stream update: Airbus has said that “unfortunately, today’s XL2 flight has been rescheduled for tomorrow morning due to an issue in TLS while loading the aircraft. Sorry about that everyone. We will attempt the live stream tomorrow and let you know the time when we have it.”

Airbus will celebrate the second anniversary of BelugaXL’s debut in the UK by broadcasting a live stream of the landing and loading of the transporter Hawarden Aerodrome on Monday.

Valentines Day 2019, BelugaXL made its much-anticipated UK debut when the brand new Airbus super-transporter touched down at Hawarden Airfield for the very first time.

On a bright and sunny afternoon, BelugaXL, complete with distinctive livery featuring whale-inspired eyes and an huge grin, made its way from Airbus headquarters in Toulouse to the wing making plant in Broughton.

On this day 2 years ago the beautiful XL Beluga made its debut at Hawarden 😃@DeesideDotCom @AirbusintheUK #AvGeek #AIRBUS #belugaxl pic.twitter.com/0As13XP7Xt

— Mark Atkins (@markmiwurd) February 14, 2021

Crowds gathered along the perimeter fence to catch a glimpse of the huge new transporter, test pilot Tony Flynn flew low over the runway giving a wing waggle salute to the thousands of Airbus workers watching below.

Tony, a former RAF pilot then lined up the aircraft for a ‘performance landing’ braking hard as it touched down and bringing the 125 tonne transporter to an almost immediate halt.

In recognition of the two year anniversary Airbus UK tweeted this morning: “Happy Valentine’s Day 🥰 to all our followers! Two years ago today we welcomed #BelugaXL to UK shores. So tomorrow we will broadcast a live stream of XL3 arriving in Broughton and being loaded with our #WelshWings. Tune in from 09.35 (STC).”

BROUGHTON | Two years ago on #ValentinesDay our #BelugaXL 🐋 swallowed her first #A350 wing set to take to @Airbus Bremen for equipping. Enjoy this video. We will live stream tomorrow XL3’s landing and loading in Broughton with insight from line station manager Andy from 09.35 🐳 pic.twitter.com/ycBvCbmuX2

— Airbus In The UK (@AirbusintheUK) February 14, 2021

Stream will be broadcast here from 9.35am on Monday February 15th: https://twitter.com/AirbusintheUK