After not doing a whole of photography this month, I decided today was a day to get in one last spotting trip for the year 2016. I drove home to Oregon last weekend so I've been home since then and have been able to spend a relaxing Christmas with my family. I drove up to Portland today so I could get some spotting in. I went in the hopes of catching a Boeing 747-8 Freighter operated by Cathay Pacific, but I arrived too late as the freighter departed earlier than scheduled much to my disappointment.
Quite a few things have happened at PDX since I last went spotting there. PenAir finally began intrastate flights between Portland and Crater Lake-Klamath Falls Regional Airport on October 5, 2016 after prolonged delays due to issues with the TSA; this intrastate route was once operated with Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia turboprops by SkyWest Airlines on the behalf of United Express. But after SkyWest retired all their turboprops and went to an all-jet fleet, the Portland-Klamath Falls route was gone since a regional jet wasn't viable with the current passenger numbers at the time. With PenAir stepping in to provide service to Klamath Falls, they have effectively restored this intrastate route by reconnecting the Crater Lake-area to Portland.
Cathay Pacific Airways' cargo division started twice-weekly service into PDX with the Boeing 747-8 on November 3, 2016. The Hong Kong-based carrier operates this service on a Hong Kong - Anchorage - Los Angeles - Portland - Anchorage - Hong Kong routing every Thursday and Saturday. Portland became Cathay Pacific's 18th cargo destination in the Americas. As mentioned, I was disappointed to miss out the opportunity to catch one of their Boeing 747-8Fs. I guess I'll have to wait until next time I'm back in and around Portland...
And finally, just two weeks ago on December 19, San Francisco-based Boutique Air restored passenger air service between Portland and Pendleton three months after incumbent carrier SeaPort Airlines went into Chapter 7 bankruptcy and ceased operations. Boutique Air operates the route three times a day utilizing the 9-seat Pilatus PC-12 single-engine turboprops (an aircraft-type that SeaPort used to operate before they went to Cessna 208 Caravans). As a matter of fact, Boutique replaced SeaPort in several markets elsewhere in the country where the latter pulled out of months before it went bankrupt. Boutique Air also operates in a way that SeaPort used to, and that is by operating out of the Fixed-Base Operator Atlantic Aviation at PDX instead of the main terminal, which also means no TSA security. The flights between Portland and Pendleton are subsidized by the government under the Essential Air Service contract. However, Boutique Air has the option to swap out one daily flight to Portland for either a flight to Seattle or Boise; this could happen either at the request of the Pendleton community or if there's enough demand for it. However, under the terms of the contract, these flights would not be subsidized.
Even though I missed the one thing I came to PDX for, the spotting trip wasn't a total loss and I wasn't going to waste it. Here's the link:
Portland (PDX) 26
And the preview. These will be my final shots for the year 2016:
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| Sun Country Airlines Boeing 737-752 (N715SY) taxiing to the gate after arrival from Minneapolis as SCX295. This is my first time catching the shorter 737-700 in the Sun Country livery! The airline also recently revealed a modified livery that will be fleet-wide in the coming months. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N428WN) departing on 10L as SWA976 to Sacramento. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N464WN) departing on 10L as SWA2365 for Oakland. |
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| Horizon Air (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (N435) in the University of Washington Huskies livery departing on 10L as QXE2018 for Seattle. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Bombardier CL-600-2C10 CRJ-700 (N217AG) taxiing for departure as SKW3466 for Tuscon. This will probably be the last time I'll see a CRJ in the Alaska livery now that most of them have been replaced by the E-175. As a matter of fact, Alaska Airlines officially ended CRJ-700 flights on November 17, 2016; it appears that N217AG is most likely the last one in the Alaska livery and is being used as a stand-by aircraft in the Alaska-SkyWest network. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N181SY) taxiing to the gate after arrival from Burbank as SKW3457. |
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| American Airlines Boeing 737-823 (N976AN) departing on 10L as AAL1525 for Dallas-Fort Worth. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N434WN) departing on 10L as SWA6418 for St. Louis. |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 717-2BD (N893AT) arriving on 10L as DAL2077 from Los Angeles. |
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| Peninsula Airways-PenAir Saab 340B/Plus (N404XJ) taxiing to the gate after arriving from Klamath Falls as PEN174. |
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| Hawker 800XP (N544PS) taxiing for departure to Sun Valley. |
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| Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign (HI985) arriving on 10L. I never expected to see an aircraft registered in the Dominican Republic to make an appearance here! |
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| Virgin America Airbus A320-214 (N635VA) "my other ride's a spaceship" departing on 10L for San Francisco as VRD801. The Alaska Air Group completed it's acquisition of Virgin America just recently. As for what will happen to the Virgin America brand, we've yet to see... |
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| United Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N453UA) departing on 10L as UAL1953 for Houston-Intercontinental. |
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| United Airlines Airbus A319-131 (N801UA) departing on 10L as UAL353 for San Francisco. |
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| N715SY departing on 10L for the return-trip to Minneapolis as SCX296. I was quite impressed at how quickly this flight got airborne; it must be a light load. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N182SY) departing on 10L as SKW3454 for Burbank. Last time I saw this airframe was back in Provo when it had to divert there! |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 767-332/ER (N176DN) airborne after departing via 10R as DAL69 for Tokyo-Narita. This flight developed mechanical issues just as it was about to depart so it ended up taxiing back to the terminal to get checked out. The flight was delayed by an hour. |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-232 (N6700) arriving on 10L as DAL1741 from Salt Lake City. |
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| Horizon Air (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (N440QX) in the Oregon State University Beavers livery departing on 10L as QXE2354 for Spokane. |
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| Canadair CL-600-2B16 Challenger 604 (N116JS) arriving on 10L from Everett. Hard to believe the CRJ-100/200 that people loathe so much came from this! I see the opposite; it seems to me that someone took the CRJ-200, chopped the fuselage length in half, and stuck the engines and wings on it! |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-832 (N375DA) departing on 10L as DAL801 for Seattle. |
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| United Airlines Boeing 737-924/ER (N38454) arriving on 10L as UAL276 from Denver. |
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| N893AT departing on 10L for the return-trip to Los Angeles as DAL2077. |
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| Delta Air Lines McDonnell Douglas MD-90-30 (N945DN) arriving on 10L as DAL2167 from Minneapolis. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-3H4 departing on 10L as SWA1379 to Denver. |
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| Gulfstream Aerospace G150 arriving on 10L. The G150 is an improved version of G100 with wider and longer cabin, whereas the G100 was originally known as the IAI Astra SPX built by Israel Aerospace Industries. IAI subsidiary Galaxy Aerospace, which held the certification for the Astra was acquired by Gulfstream Aerospace in May 2001. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N581AS) departing on 10L as ASA400 for San Francisco. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7Q8 (N7819A) departing on 10L as SWA1850 to Los Angeles. Airframe formerly A4O-BS with Oman Air. |
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| A view of the Atlantic Aviation ramp with one of Boutique Air's Pilatus PC-12/45 (N477SS) parked. |
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| A view of the Ameriflight/UPS ramp. Wish more cargo flights during the day to add to the variety. I'll have to come back to PDX on a summer afternoon/evening to catch some cargo heavies. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N170SY) getting ready to depart for San Jose as SKW3496. This was the very first E-175 delivered to SkyWest in the Alaska livery. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N176SY) taxiing for departure as SKW3448 for Fresno. |
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| Peninsula Airways-PenAir Saab 340B (N685PA) getting read to depart to Crescent City as PDN197. |
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| N404XJ departing on 10R as PEN183 for Redding. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-790 (N618AS) taxiing to the remote stands to be put out of service for the day. Arrived into PDX earlier in the day as ASA587 from Santa Ana. I believe this is the first time I've seen a 737-700 in Alaska Airlines' new livery. |
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| Horizon Air (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (N414QX) in the San Diego State University Aztecs livery taxiing to the gate after arriving from Seattle as QXE2043. |
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| Delta Air Lines Airbus A330-323 (N802NW) airborne after departing on 10R as DAL178 for Amsterdam. During the winter, Delta used to scale back their daily Amsterdam flights out of Portland to 767s. But it seems like they're now operating A330s year-round. |
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| JetBlue Airways Airbus A320-232 (N506JB) "Wild Blue Yonder" departing on 10L as JBU1521 for Long Beach. |
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