‘Scene’ at ‘The East Midlands Airport’

Located almost at the side of the M1 with the cities of Derby, Leicester and Nottingham all less than 20 miles away, the ‘EMA’ is superbly situated at the centre of the East Midlands region.

 

This is what attracts the range of operators that it does

 

N319UP

 

An American registered Boeing 767-34AF of ’United Parcel Service’. (UPS)

 

It first flew in August 1997 and was delivered new to ‘UPS’ the following month.

 

G-BTPE

 

A British Aerospace ATP-F of ‘West Atlantic Airlines’. 

 

It was originally built for ‘British Airways’ (BA) as ‘PE’ and first flew in March1989 spending almost 10 years with ‘BA’ before moving as EC-GZH to ‘Air Europe Express’ (AEE) in Spain.

 

It later carried the registration EC-HGE whilst with ‘AEE’ before being restored to the UK register with ‘Atlantic Airlines’ in October 2007 before moving to ‘West Atlantic’ in  April 2009.

 

EI-SEV

An Irish registered Boeing 737-300 of ‘Ryanair’.

 

An unusual aircraft in the ‘Ryanair’ fleet in that it is the only 737-300 in an otherwise totally 737-800 fleet. The reason being that it was bought specifically as a crew training aircraft and not for commercial operation.

 

It first flew in January 1999 as N60436 with Boeing and was delivered to ‘Azzurra Air’ as EI-CRP the following April.

 

Since then it has flown as PR-SAE in Brazil, OY-MLW in Denmark and HK-4627 in Colombia before joining ‘Ryanair’ in June 2015.

 

N714SA

 

An American registered Boeing 777-FZB of ‘Southern Air’. (SA)

 

Seen being loaded outside the massive DHL freight terminal.

 

Delivered in March 2012 to ‘SA' operating for DHL.

 

G-JECX

A Canadian built Bombardier DHC 8-Q402 of ‘flybe’.

 

The ‘Q’ in the designation indicates quiet.

 

EC-HCF

 

A Brazilian built Embraer EMB 120RT Brasilia of Spanish operator ‘Swift Air’.

 

It first flew 1n 1985 as PT-SIB.

 

The blanked off windows indicate that the aircraft has been converted to a freighter.

 

G-MCGH

Sikorsky S-92A operated by ‘Bristow Helicopters’ on behalf of HM UK Coastguard.

 

CS-TLZ

 

A Portuguese registered Boeing 767-375ERF of ‘euroAtlanticargo’ operating for ‘Star Air’.

 

It first flew in December 1988 with the test registration of N6055X and was delivered in March 1989 as C-FCAJ to ‘Canadian Airlines’.

 

It moved to ‘VARIG’ in Brasil as PP-VPV in December 1997 before coming to its current operator having been converted to a freighter.

 

G-JMCP

A Boeing 737-4Q8F of ‘West Atlantic Airlines’ (WAA).

 

Built as N39340 March 1987 for ‘Continental Airlines’. 

 

Converted to freighter configuration, it moved to ‘TNT Airways’ as a freighter with the Belgian registration OO-TNB.

 

It moved to ‘WAA’ in December 2013.

 

TF-FIG

An Icelandic registered Boeing 757-23APF of ‘Icelandair Cargo’ (IC).

 

It first flew in July 1989 as N571CA for ‘Challenge Air Cargo’ by whom it was leased in Australia to ‘Ansett World Wide’.

 

It came to ‘IC’ in September 1999 who converted it to freighter.

 

OE-IAT

An Austrian registered Boeing 737-4M0F of ‘TNT Airways’.

 

Built for the leasing company GECAS and first registered to Boeing as N1015B. 

 

Its first flight was in January 1999 and was delivered to the Russian operator ‘Aeroflot’ in April 1999.

 

It was registered as VP-BAR. The Russians registering the aircraft in Bermuda to avoid paying import taxes in Russia.

 

In 2004, it moved to ‘Garuda’ in Indonesia as PK-GZO before being converted to a freighter and joining ‘TNT’ in June 2012.

 

OY-SRL

A Danish registered Boeing 767-232F of ‘Star Air Freight’ (SAF), a Danish company. 

 

Interestingly it carries joint ‘Maersk’ titling. 

 

‘Maersk’ being a major company worldwide in the transport and energy sectors. 

 

Delivered to ‘Delta Airlines’ in January 1983 as N107DL.

 

It was converted to a freighter by Israel Aircraft Industries in 2006 when it joined ‘SAF’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Scene’ at Manchester International Airport (MIA) 2

When I first visited in the 1950’s, ‘MIA” as it is now it was simply Ringway airport where we lads sat on the grass writing down the registrations only a stones throw from the aircraft. 

 

Only the posh kids possessed cameras, I certainly didn’t. The ladies in the nearby cafe kept us going with cups of tea and bottles of pop.

 

There are still some old timers (other than me) ‘lurking’ in the background,

 

G-IRJX

A British Aerospace (BAe) RJX 100. An advanced version of the ‘BAe’ 146 series of airliners that for whatever reason ‘BAe’ terminated production of in 2001. Three aircraft had been built against orders for 14 from ‘British Airways’ and ‘Drukair’. The aircraft was flown to ‘MIA’ in 2003 for preservation.

Personally, I thought that an aircraft of its size using 4 engines was a problem to operators. I was always surprised that it was not re-engined with 2 engines much as the Handley Page Herald had been in the 1950’s.

 

G-ZBAE

 

An Airbus A321-231 of ‘Monarch Airlines’. It first flew on the 15th. May 2013 with the test registration of D-AVZO. It was delivered to ‘Monarch’ 8 days later.

 

G-FBJB

An Embraer 170/175 of ‘flybe’ which first flew for the airline in July 2011 with the test registration of PT-TOB. Surprisingly perhaps, it was not delivered to ‘flybe until the following December (11th). The length of time elapsed between the first flight could be because of the aircraft being used for test purposes during the certification process

 

In my view one of the most visually attractive airliners I have ever seen it is a tragedy is that we as a nation should be importing these aircraft from Brazil. 

 

If the Brazilians can do it and they do do it very well then this is the type of aircraft that should be being built by the British aircraft industry.

 

Remember, we still have one, just....!

 

G-FDZX

A Boeing 737-8K5 of ‘Thomson Airways’ (TA). It first flew on the 9th. of May 2011 and was delivered new to ‘TA’ on the 24th.

 

G-BYHG

A Dornier 328-110 registered to ‘flybe’ but is operated by ‘Loganair’. It previously operated with the registration D-CDAE.

 

HB-JVC

A Fokker 100 of Swiss operator ‘Helvetic Airways’ (HA). Built for ‘American Airlines’ as N1468A, it first flew for them on 21st of February 1994 being delivered on March the third. It moved to ‘HA’ almost 10 years later in February 2004.

 

N700KG

A Learjet 40 built in 2004 registered to ‘Florida Express Corporation’. It was previously registered N502JM. 

 

The Americans use a registration more than once providing that the earlier user is no longer current on the American civil register. 

 

This is N700KG’s third outing having previously been carried by a BAe HS 125-700A and a Piper P-60 Aerostar both of which were eventually sold abroad.

 

G-OOBG

A Boeing 757-236 of Thomson Airways. Its first flight was the 30th. of April 1999 as N544NA. The operator is shown in the records as ‘Rolls-Royce AcM’ to whom it was delivered on the 21st of May 1999. On the 14th. of June 1999 it was delivered to ‘National Airlines’ (NA) with the same registration.

After a period in store following the demise of ‘NA’, it became G-OOBG with ‘First Choice Airways’ (FCA). During its time with ‘FCA’ between 2004 and 2008 it was regularly leased to SkyService as C-FUBG. This was to allow the Canadian operator use of the aircraft when British operations were quieter. ‘FCA’ were merged with Thomson in 2007.

 

G-FLBB

 

A Bombardier Dash 8 of ‘flybe’. It was delivered new to the airline in July 2009.

 

A7-ACM

An Airbus A330-202 of ‘Qatar airways’. It first flew with the test registration of F-WWKP on the 23rd. of May 2007 and was delivered new to the airline on the 5th. of July 2007.

 

G-LSAE

A Boeing 757-27B which first flew in February 1988 as PH-AHE for ‘Air Holland’ to whom it was delivered the following Month. It was leased twice to ‘Sterling Airways’ as OY-SHE in 1989 and1990. Further leases to ‘Icelandair’, ‘Dinar Lineas Aereas’ and ‘Spanair’ followed under its Dutch registration until eventually going to ‘Air Slovakia’ as OM-SNA in 2004.

It came to Jet2 in September 2006 and carries the name’ Newcastle’.

 

EI-DEO

An Airbus A320-214 which first flew in June 2005 as EI-DEO for ‘Aer Lingus’ and was delivered the following month. 

 

From March 2013 it has been leased in full ‘Virgin Atlantic’ (VA) livery. One of four all leased from the same source to operate ‘VA’s domestic ‘Little Red’ flight’s between Heathrow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Manchester. The airline has recently announced that these services will be withdrawn at the end of September 2015.

 

A6-ETJ

A Boeing 777-3FXER of ‘Etihad Airways’. It first flew in January 2012 being delivered new to the airline on the 17th. of February the same year.

 

G-LSAI

 

A Boeing 757-21B of Jet2. It first flew in October 1987 as B-2803 of ‘China Southern Airlines’ with whom it stayed until coming to ‘Jet2’ in November 2006.

 

 

G-MDBD

An Airbus A330-243 of ‘Thomas Cook UK’. First flown in June 1999 with the test registration of F-WWKG. Delivered 20 days later to ‘Airtours’ (At) as G-MDBD. It had a spell with ‘Garuda Indonesian Airlines’ in 2001 before returning to ‘At’. They became 

‘My Travel Airways’ who eventually became part of the ‘Thomas Cook’ organisation in 2007.