Inside Europe's biggest airplane hospital where planes like Airbus A340s, A380s and Boeing 747s are being resurrected

If you think Europe’s biggest airplane graveyard sounds like a place where jets go to die, Tarmac Aerosave is here to prove you wrong.

Aviation YouTuber Sam Chui visited the desert-like facility in Spain, and for someone like him, it proved way more exciting than Disneyland.

The boneyard is less a final resting place, and more a secret hospital ward for some of the world’s largest airlines.

Here, planes sleep, heal, and sometimes rise again, in true aviation-zombie fashion.

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Inside Europe’s biggest airplane graveyard

The tour kicked off with a look at rows of massive wide-body aircraft: A340s, A380s, even a few Boeing 747s standing proudly under the Spanish sun.

Paula, Sam’s guide, explained that while 55 aircraft sit in storage today, the site housed around 140 jets during the pandemic, making it one of the busiest aviation preservation hubs on Earth.

This isn’t just a parking lot where planes are forgotten, because these planes are meticulously maintained.

Every week, technicians inspect covers, seals, and tape to ensure no birds, water, or dust invade the engines or cabin.

And every 15 days, they remove the covers, rotate wheels, check pressure, and keep these mechanical giants in top shape.

Sam also visited one of the most heartwarming areas on site: the reactivation zone, where an Etihad Airbus A380 stored since 2020 was waking up from a years-long slumber.

Engines were crank-tested, systems rechecked, and over 5,000 hours of work went into preparing the superjumbo for its triumphant return.

Inside, the cabin looked almost factory-fresh, from first-class apartments to functioning vanity mirrors.

Even the crew rest, which is hidden inside what’s basically a cargo-container-turned-nap-pod, felt unexpectedly cozy.

Unfortunately, not all the planes get a second chance

However, not every aircraft gets a second chapter.

Some, like British Airways’ retired 747s and a former German Chancellor’s A340, await dismantling.

Next, Sam toured the recycling hangar, where ex–South African Airways airplanes were stripped with surgical precision.

Seats were stacked, galley units tagged, and components catalogued before being shipped back to owners or parts brokers.

Technicians can disassemble a whole A330 in just 12 weeks, recycling up to 94 percent of its total weight.

This is similar to what happens to old cruise ships, although the scale for ships is on a completely different level.

Instead of chainsaws, they use diamond wire to slice through wings and fuselages with clean, sustainable cuts.

The visit ends on a hopeful note.

Many once-grounded jets at Tarmac Aerosave are now finding new owners, new missions, and new skies to conquer.

As Sam Chui put it, these aircraft belong to the sky.

And at Europe’s biggest airplane graveyard, plenty of them are given a second lease on life.

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