Merry Christmas 2020

 2020's Christmas image is a fitting tribute to the sad loss of the Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747's this year, seen here during a much colder winter of the past.

Merry Christmas everyone!

MAN 21st December 2020 - Vueling "Visit Tenerife" A320 EC-NIX

 Making its first visit to Manchester on a dull and damp afternoon, Vueling A320 Neo EC-NIX wears a special "Visit Tenerife" scheme.

MAN 15th December 2020 - Braathens Regional ATR72 SE-MKD

 An early afternoon arrival making the first visit to Manchester of a Braathens Regional ATR72, SE-MKD seen here on short finals for runway 23 Right carrying the Gothenburg Women's side to play Man City Women's in the Champions League.

MAN 7th December 2020 - Cyprus Airways A319 5B-DCW

 Today saw a very welcome return of Cyprus Airways albeit a different airline than the original which failed back in 2015. A319 5B-DCW arrived early afternoon in a nice patch of sunshine and is seen here taxiing to stand 24.

Emirates Airline operated A380 A6-EOU in the Orange version of the EXPO scheme, seen here departing 23R early afternoon.

MAN 3rd November 2020 - Aeroflot A350-900 VQ-BFY

 The first visit of an Aeroflot A350-900 occurred this afternoon when VQ-BFY arrived from Moscow to take Manchester United out to Istanbul for their Champions League match against Istanbul Basaksehir. 

The weather was pretty awful with heavy rain and terrible light, all fairly normal for Manchester though I guess!

MAN 26th October 2020 - Hainan "Free Trade Port" B787-9 B-1540

 Departing back to Chongqing early morning in pretty awful weather, Hainan Airlines B787-9 B-1540 wears the special "Hainan Free Trade Port" scheme.

MAN 3rd October 2020 - Blue Islands ATR42 G-ISLH

 Blue Islands operated their ATR42 G-ISLH this morning instead of the usual ATR72, seen here taxiing out and departing a very wet and murky Manchester.

Cornwall 26th & 27th September 2020

 A long weekend away with my Wife down in the South West allowed a couple of new airports to be added to my log book, Our route took us past Newquay and Lands End with a few photos grabbed along the way.

Newquay is not good for the photographers as there are no spots that allow close up views of the stored airliners sadly, the following were just record shots taken from the fenceline on the Saturday evening.

A pair of Interjet A320 Neos are currently stored along with a trio of Thomas Cook A330's, a trio of Alitalia A321's and a Love Fly (Russia) B737-800.

Over on the museum side was the ex Qinetiq BAC1-11 ZH763, a blast from the past for me having first logged this frame as G-BGKE at Manchester back in the mid eighties!

The Sunday morning saw us visiting Lands End and we made a quick call at the airport (incidentally this is closed on a Sunday!) while passing, a pair of Isles of Scilly Skybus Twin Otters were parked outside.

MAN 22nd September 2020 - Etihad F1 B787-9 A6-BLV

 Finally making a return visit to Manchester after a very long time and coinciding nicely with some sunshine AND a day off for me!

Etihad B787-9 wears the stunning Formula One scheme and is seen here landing just before midday on their service from Abu Dhabi.

Tees Valley (Teesside) 20th September 2020

An evening run over to Durham / Tees Valley (Teesside) International to catch a very rare UK movement, Fiji Airlines B737-700 DQ-FJF  was arriving for parting out / scrapping having made the long journey from Nadi (Fiji) via Honolulu, Los Angeles & Bangor, sadly it landed just after sunset meaning it was almost dark!

 

 

Heathrow 19th September 2020

 Another run down south to London Heathrow to catch a few more required subjects including the superb LATAM Star Wars special saw the following pass me in the warm sunshine over the course of the day.......

The sun wasn't quite up for the arrival of the Gulf Air 787-9 A9C-FE or the ACT Cargo B747-400 Freighter TC-ACG sadly,

A quick run around to Feltham to catch a few departures including Etihad's "Choose Thailand" special B787-9 A6-BLJ

then back round to the 09 Left end to catch arrivals .....

Middle East Airlines' newest A321 Neo T7-ME2 was nice to catch,

The main target of the day, LATAM B777-300 PT-MUA wearing the superb looking "Star Wars" scheme landing early afternoon!

A nice bonus with UAE Royal Flight A320 A6-HMS

Our final catch of the day, Boeing BBJ N737LE mid afternoon. 

A successful day out in the sun with a few more new photo subjects and another 15 new numbers in the book.