Icelandair’s famous Boeing 757 featuring the one-of-a-kind Northern Lights livery has been scrapped. However, it’s not the end of the road for the aircraft. Parts of the unique livery have been upcycled into keychains by the German company Aviationtag.

At the end of service, many aircraft may spend years being stored at so-called “aircraft graveyards” before eventually being torn down. Some are scrapped, some are recycled, and the lucky few are upcycled. TF-FIU, Icelandair’s Northern Lights 757, was retired less than a year ago, taking its farewell flight on October 12, 2025. An extraordinarily quick turnaround for scrapping an aircraft.

You Can Buy A Part Of Icelandair’s Northern Lights Boeing 757

Credit: Aviationtag

German aircraft upcycling company Aviationtag today revealed its latest project. Turning parts of the fuselage of TF-FIU into keychains for aviation enthusiasts across the globe. The company has created a limited series of 25,000 tags from the aircraft, which are on sale on the company’s website starting at €39.95 ($46.43) now.

The story starts in June 2026, when the team from Aviationtag went to Lleida, Spain, where the aircraft had been stored. In temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, the team cut hundreds of sections of fuselage out of the aircraft. These sections were then transferred to the outskirts of Cologne, Germany. Here they were cut down to size and laser engraved with their unique edition number.

Commenting on this edition, Tobias Richter, co-founder of Aviationtag, remarked,

“An aircraft like Hekla Aurora doesn’t come along every day. Its livery, its history, and the connection people feel to it are simply extraordinary. We knew we wanted to make sure a piece of it would live on,”

The History Of Icelandair’s Northern Lights Boeing 757

Credit: Wirestock Creators | Shutterstock

While this Boeing 757 is best known for its role at Icelandair, that is not where its story began. In fact, the aircraft’s story actually begins with Iberia, according to data from ch-aviation. The Spanish flag carrier first ordered the aircraft on May 25, 1990. The jet, with MSN 26243, first flew on April 8, 1994, and was delivered on July 29 that year.

The aircraft also flew for Air Europa before joining the Icelandair fleet in April 2004 (just 10 years after its first flight). Initially, the Boeing 757 was nothing special in the Icelandair fleet. However, in 2014, it was flown to Norwich, United Kingdom. Here, it was given the one-of-a-kind livery that became a firm favorite of planespotters around Europe and North America.

According to ch-aviation, the aircraft had logged 80,059 flight hours (equivalent to 9.14 years), across 29,217 flights as of July 31, 2025. That gives it an average stage length of two hours and 44 minutes. The aircraft had 161 economy seats and 22 business class seats to give a total of 183 passengers.

Time To Say Goodbye To An Iconic Aircraft

Credit: Aviationtag

When it came time to say goodbye to TF-FIU, Icelandair knew that it couldn’t just scrap the aircraft discreetly. Instead, it planned a farewell flight for the aircraft on October 12, 2025. The aircraft flew from Keflavík International Airport (KEF) to Reykjavik Airport (RKV). It then flew around over Iceland for two hours and 22 minutes, landing back at Reykjavik before positioning back to Keflavik. These flights weren’t the aircraft’s last. Instead, it flew a return leg to Rome and Copenhagen before leaving the fleet.

On November 6, 2025, the aircraft took to the skies for the last time, positioning from Keflavik to Lleida Airport (ILD), where it would eventually be scrapped. The aircraft touched down for the last time at 14:11 after a flight lasting just over four hours.

After Aviationtag collected parts of the fuselage for their project, the jet was then torn down. Last week, footage of the iconic jet being torn apart by heavy machinery went viral online.