I'm quite happy to get back onto a regular Monday through Friday work schedule as of this month! I'm also taking paid-time-off that's "use it or lose it" this month as well and I've taken today off to give myself a three-day weekend.
I decided to brave the rain and do a spotting trip up to PDX today because I noticed on FlightRadar24 that a Boeing 737-500 operated by Sierra Pacific Airlines was scheduled to fly in. I had to chase this down because Sierra Pacific only has two planes in their fleet and this classic version of the 737 has become a really rare sight! Furthermore, there's not a lot known about Sierra Pacific Airlines so I considered this a little plane-spotting gem.
In addition to the 737-500, I was thrilled to catch one of Delta Air Lines' Airbus A330-300s again, as the carrier re-instated their year-round flights to Amsterdam as of yesterday after over a two year pause due to pandemic repercussions. Another new sight for me as of today was a Boeing 737 MAX 8 operated by United Airlines as well as a Cessna Citation Longitude operated by NetJets. I also caught site of WestJet's Q400 for the first time in two years.
I am also looking forward to catching British Airways' long-awaited inaugural flight serving PDX from their London-Heathrow hub after a two year delay next month. Things appear to finally be getting back to a real normal at PDX.
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| Cessna 525 CitationJet (N678RT) taxiing for departure to Napa County. |
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| N678RT departing on 10L for Napa County. |
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| Gulfstream Aerospace G650 G-VI (N673HA) arriving on 10L. How many times have seen this G-VI at PDX now??? |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-932/ER (N847DN) departing on 10L as DAL2226 for Salt Lake City. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Delta Connection) Embraer ERJ-170-200LL E-175SC (N291SY) arriving on 10L as SKW4053 from Seattle-Tacoma. |
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| Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A321-271N (N226HA) departing on 10L as HAL39 for Kahului. |
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| SKW4053 taxiing to the gate. |
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| Alaska Airlines Airbus A320-214 (N853VA) departing on 10L as ASA686 for Chicago O'Hare. Better catch these while they're still around because they'll be phased out by the end of this year! |
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| Jazz Air (d/b/a Air Canada Express) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (C-GJZK) taxiing for departure as JZA8653 for Vancouver. |
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| JZA8653 departing on 10L for Vancouver. |
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| Sierra Pacific Airlines Boeing 737-5L9 (N709S) arriving on 10L as SPA709 from Tucson. My first time seeing Sierra Pacific Airlines and the first time in a long time photographing a Boeing 737-500! |
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| Based in Tucson, Arizona, Sierra Pacific Airlines operates as a charter airline on the behalf of other airlines as well as various government entities with a fleet of two Boeing 737-500s. The airline previously operated two Boeing 737-200s. |
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| Other than where they're based out of and what their fleet consists of, there's not much else known about this charter airline as they don't have a website or social media (and based on the kinds of charter work they do, it's probably for good reason too!). |
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| Airframe first delivered in March 1997 as OY-API to Maersk Air and then transferred over to Sterling European Airlines in June 2005. |
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| Horizon Air (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N649QX) departing on 10L as QXE2578 for Santa Rosa. |
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| United Airlines Boeing 737-824 (N36207) taxiing for departure as UAL1491 for San Francisco. |
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| Bombardier BD-100-1A10 Challenger 300 (N228PK) arriving on 10L. |
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| SPA709 taxiing to the FBO ramp. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-990/ER (N477AS) departing on 10L as ASA30 for Boston. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Delta Connection) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N253SY) departing on 10L as SKW3542 for Los Angeles. |
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| UAL1491 departing on 10L for San Francisco. |
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| Alaska Airlines Airbus A320-214 (N642VA) departing on 10L as ASA206 for San Francisco. |
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| Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-890 (N527AS) departing on 10L as ASA286 for Dallas-Fort Worth. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-8H4 (N8643A) arriving on 10L as SWA2591 from Chicago Midway. |
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| United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 (N17265) arriving on 10L as UAL8114 from Newark. My first time seeing one of United's MAX 8s! |
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| Today is actually the first day of the year that United's route between Newark and Portland goes to twice-daily, one of which uses the MAX 8. Apparently this is one United's first non hub-to-hub transcontinental MAX 8 routes. |
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| United's taking of the MAX 8 into their fleet was a rather low-key one, considering that they first took delivery of it just last year just months after the worldwide grounding was lifted. As it turns out, United ended up debuting a few new passenger amenities on the MAX 8 that's currently not consistent with the rest of their narrow-body fleet. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-8H4 (N8699A) taxiing for departure as SWA2069 for Phoenix Sky Harbor. |
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| UAL8114 taxiing to the gate. |
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| SWA2069 departing on 10L for Phoenix Sky Harbor. |
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| Delta Air Lines Airbus A330-323 (N813NW) arriving on 10L as DAL179 from Amsterdam. After a two year hiatus due to pandemic repercussions, Delta resumed their service between Portland and Amsterdam as of yesterday! |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 737-900/ER (N918DU) arriving on 10L as DAL685 from Atlanta. |
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| DAL179 taxiing to the gate. The Amsterdam flights are operating thrice-weekly as of right now, so this airframe will operate a repositioning flight later in the day as DAL8789 to Atlanta. |
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| Alaska Airlines Airbus A320-214 (N845VA) departing on 10L as ASA1374 for Minneapolis/St. Paul. |
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| Horizon Air (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (N401QX) in the Washington State University Cougars livery arriving on 10L as QXE2453 from Boise. |
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| QXE2453 taxiing to the gate. Better catch the Alaska Air Group's Dash 8s while they're still around, because they will be retired by the end of 2023! |
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| United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 (N37522) departing on 10L as UAL702 for Denver. |
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| N709S taxiing for departure as SPA709 for Edmonton. |
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| After its service with Sterling European, airframe was re-registered as UR-DND and flew for Dniproavia starting in January 2008. |
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| Airframe was then transferred over and re-registered again to UR-GBC in April 2013 and flew for Ukraine International Airlines. |
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| NetJets Cessna 700 Citation Longitude (N822QS) arriving on 10L as EJA822 from Boston. My first time seeing a Citation Longitude! |
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| The Longitude was developed from the 680A Citation Latitude with an extra row of seats added. The Latitude and Longitude shares the same fuselage cross-section. |
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| SPA709 departing on 10L for Edmonton. |
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| After three years of service with Ukraine International, airframe was withdrawn from use in August 2016 and put into storage in Billund, Denmark. |
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| Sierra Pacific Airlines acquired this airframe in June 2017 to serve as a replacement for their Boeing 737-200s. |
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| Today, I caught Sierra Pacific's 737-500 that's equipped with winglets. The other one in their fleet (based on pictures I've seen online) lacks winglets. |
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| It was certainly a worthwhile trip just to catch this rather rare airframe! |
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| WestJet Encore (d/b/a WestJet) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (C-GEEN) arriving on 10L as WEN3628 from Calgary. WestJet resumed flights between Portland and Calgary as of this month as well and they've apparently gone to twice-daily because rival Air Canada dropped the same route. |
