Magic Air C5-TAD and C5-TAB are candidates to end up in Iran or Afghanistan. However ended in Belarus

Update: August 21, 2024. All four aircraft were ferried to Minsk in Belarus.
Update: August 23, 2024. corrected type of aircraft. C5-TAA is an A320. Added news on A320 flown from Belarus to Tehran as YK-BAC.
update: June 3, 2025: One of the three A330s has been painted in Belavia colours. Cabincrew was trained by Aeroflot on the A330 type.

Airbus A330 C5-TAD of Gambian airline Magic Air was ferried from Nimes (France) to Muscat at March 4, 2024. This aircraft is a candidate to later be flown illegaly to Iran or Afghanistan.

Also Magic Air A330 C5-TAB was flown from likely Dubai World Central to Muscat.

The aircraft is ex VP-CBE (hex 4248AA). Magic Air is a Gambian airline which has four aircraft in its fleet. A320 C5-TAA, A330 C5-TAB, A330 C5-TAC and A330 C5-TAD. None of the aircraft are flying though. C5-TAC has been parked at Cairo since November 2022. All four aircraft were supposed to be flying for Lebanon Sky Aviation but this never materialized. So this could hardly be a coincidence they are all now Gambian registered. Lebanon Sky despite is name has an office in Dubai. The UAE is known for helping other states like Syria and Iran with transfer of aircraft using fake airlines.

Nothing can be found on Magic Air. No news about this airline. The website of the company only shows a photo of an Airbus A320. The DNS record points to a server located in Singapore.

At August 16, 2024 the first of the four A330’s was ferried to Minsk. A330 C5-TAC arrived around 21:00 UTC from Cairo.

At August 17, 2024 two A330s and an A320 were ferried to Minsk.

A320 C5-TAA arrived around 03:40 UTC on August 17. Flightradar identified the aircraft based on the hex id as N102GN. This is one of the previous registrations. The aircraft arrived from Istanbul.

C5-TAB (from Muscat) arrived at August 17 around 12:40 UTC at Minsk. VP-CBD was the identification by FR24.

C5-TAD (from Muscat ) was flying just a few minutes behind C5-TAB. Identified as VP-CBE. C5-TAD is still wearing the basic Onur Air livery as can be seen on this photo taken at Minsk. What will happen next to these aircraft is not clear. Minsk is not known for having maintenance base for the A330. Very likely these aircraft will sooner or later be ferried to Iran. Possibly using another registration.

At August 22 2024 the former C5-TAA flew with its new registration YK-BAC from Minsk to Damascus. The aircraft will be operated by Cham Wings Airlines