On the 23rd November 2020 a very rare aircraft seen in the UK arrived at Bristol Airport, Air Cote d’Ivoire Airbus A319-100 registration TU-TST arrived at Bristol Airport from Abidjan, Africa. The aircraft was en-route to Keflavik in Iceland and stopped at Bristol to refuel.
Unfortunately after what looks like 5 attempts to get going again the aircraft was grounded with a technical fault and so the departure was delayed some weeks, on the 11th December the aircraft was able to depart and left for Keflavik arriving after a flight time of 2 hours 30 mins.
The aircraft then stayed on the ground in Iceland for a further 5 days, we are unsure why but possibly due to another technical issue like it had in Bristol, on the 16th December the aircraft departed Keflavik bound for Bangor where it refuelled and departed just 2 hours later for San Antonio, an international airport in Texas.
Once again the aircraft remained on the ground for the night when the next morning it departed for Hondo South Texas Regional airport where it has now reportedly gone into storage. The total distance of the entire journey totals 8517 miles from Abidjan to Hondo Regional.
The aircraft is noted as being 17 years old and has had a long and varied life with Mexicana, Avianca, Air Senegal and Air Cote d’Ivoire. Its future is unclear whether it will go to a new operator or be scrapped.
Operator History of TU-TST:
Thanks to PlaneSpotters.net for this info
Flight History of TU-TST between 23 Nov 2020 and 17 Dec 2020:
Thanks to FlightRadar24 for this info