M. Wynn: "Wild Card" Aviation Photography & Images: Gallery Update: British Airways Inaugural to PDX!

About This Blog:

The primary purpose of this blog is to showcase the best of my aviation photography. As such, you will find links to my main aviation gallery on Facebook containing photos from aircraft spotting, some kind of aviation event such as air shows and fly-in events, as well as aviation museums. I also critique my flights on commercial airlines and the services they provide. Occassionally, you'll find personally written, independent articles based on news and current events involving aviation. And of course, I'll put up links to official and unofficial aviation-related websites when I find them. And when time permits, I'll talk and discuss about anything involving aviation. But most importantly, this is my way to document my journey into the aviation industry!

Friday, June 3, 2022

Gallery Update: British Airways Inaugural to PDX!

Today was a long-awaited day for PDX as British Airways FINALLY inaugurated their service between their London Heathrow hub and Portland! There hasn't been direct flights between the two cities since Delta Air Lines ended their summer seasonal service in 2018. Originally announced in early-2020, British Airways was slated to begin flying Boeing 787 Dreamliners between Portland and London in June 2020; this would be Portland's first regularly-scheduled flights with the Dreamliner. Of course, those plans never materialized thanks to the pandemic. And throughout 2021, it seemed as if the U.K.'s flag carrier abandoned plans to even start serving Portland due to market conditions that was adversely impacted by the pandemic... That is until just a few months ago, when British Airways announced that they would pick up where they left off and finally begin service after a two-year delay.

Of course, with inaugural flights, it was delayed in departing PDX and I unfortunately missed the arrival due to traffic driving up to Portland. And even though the weather was less than ideal, it was still worth it. Aside from the long-awaited British Airways inaugural, other highlights from this spotting trip included a UPS 747-8F, another Alaska Airlines special livery that I haven't seen before, my first Airbus A220-300 operated by Delta Air Lines, a Kalitta Air/DHL 767 Freighter, and seeing Condor Airlines again after over two years.

Portland (PDX)

Preview:

Sun Country Airlines (d/b/a Amazon Air) Boeing 737-84P/BCF (N7919A) taxiing for departure as SCX3051 for Fairbanks.

United Parcel Service - UPS Airlines Boeing 747-8F (N620UP) arriving on 28L as UPS2998 from Louisville. Only my second time photographing a 747-8F in the UPS livery!

SCX3051 departing on 28L for Fairbanks.

Sun Country Airlines Boeing 737-8KN (N835SY) taxiing for departure as SCX294 for Minneapolis/St. Paul. Only my second time seeing Sun Country's "Tide Pods" livery!

SCX294 departing on 28L for Minneapolis/St. Paul.

FedEx Express McDonnell Douglas MD-11F (N625FE) arriving on 28L as FDX382 from Memphis.

Ameriflight Beechcraft 1900C (N7203C) arriving on 28L as AMF1909 from Medford.

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-900/ER (N265AK) "Honoring Those Who Serve" arriving on 28L as ASA518 from San Diego. I am thrilled to FINALLY catch this livery!

The Alaska Air Group first applied this livery on a Boeing 737-800 (which still to this day retains said livery) before applying it on this -900 airframe. They also applied this patriotic livery on the very last E-175 Horizon Air took delivery of. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for the other frames!

Air Transport International - ATI (d/b/a Amazon Air) Boeing 767-3P6/ER/BDSF (N409AZ) taxiing for departure as ATN3313 for Anchorage.

Delta Air Lines Airbus A220-300 (N309DU) arriving on 28L as DAL573 from Los Angeles. My first time seeing the Airbus A220-300!

After bringing their A220-100s to Portland earlier this year, Delta has started putting the stretched A220-300 into the mix.

Delta took on the first A220-300 in late-2020. The airline is now the world's largest operator of the A220 family.

All of Delta's A220-300s are currently built at Airbus' U.S. manufacturing plant in Mobile, Alabama (a move partially influenced by the anti-dumping tariffs brought on by the Bombardier/Boeing feud). Had Airbus not taken over the CSeries program, we'd be referring to this plane as the Bombardier BD-500-1A11 CS300.

ATN3313 departing on 28L for Anchorage.

Kalitta Air (d/b/a DHL Aviation) Boeing 767-3P6/ER/BCF (N763CK) taxiing for departure as CKS404 for Cincinnati via Seattle/Tacoma.

Only my second time photographing this Kalitta Air/DHL hybrid livery. And I'm glad I got another opportunity because Kalitta Air is removing the Boeing 767-300 freighter from their fleet, with DHL-owned airframes being reallocated to other operators while Kalitta-owned frames are to be leased out to other airlines.

Condor Boeing 767-330/ER (D-ABUB) arriving on 28L as CFG2090 from Frankfurt Am Main. It has been a long time since I last saw Condor and this is my first time seeing their revised livery and logo after their old parent company Thomas Cook ceased operations in late-2019!

After Thomas Cook collapsed, the German government provided Condor a bridge loan in order stay operating in the interest of maintaining fair competition among German airlines. As a result, Condor hastily removed the defunct "Sunny Heart" logo that's long associated them with Thomas Cook and reapplied the original Condor logo on their aircraft.

After a longer-than-expected hiatus due to the pandemic, Condor resumed flights to PDX just last month on May 13th.

FedEx Express Boeing 767-300F (N197FE) taxiing for departure as FDX1216 for Memphis.

CKS404 departing on 28L for Seattle/Tacoma.

Early rotation means a light load departing PDX and likely picking up more cargo in Seattle before continuing on to Cincinnati.

FDX1216 departing on 28L for Memphis.

United Parcel Service - UPS Airlines Boeing 767-300F (N376UP) taxiing for departure as UPS973 for Louisville.

UPS973 departing on 28L for Louisville.

British Airways Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner (G-ZBJA) departing on 10R as BAW266 for London Heathrow two hours late. My first time seeing the British Airways livery and my first time seeing a 787-8!

British Airways is the first airline to bring regularly-scheduled 787 flights to PDX, which is surprising considering that Boeing was building Dreamliners up until recently up in the Seattle/Everett area and the type has been in service worldwide for a little over a decade now.

With Alaska Airlines having just joined the OneWorld Alliance (which British Airways is also a part of), there should be decent feed on both ends of the Portland-London route.

Arrived earlier this afternoon as BAW267. Honestly, I think it's sad that it took a little over 10 years for PDX to get its first regularly-scheduled 787 flights, considering that Portland is one of those markets where a lot of point-to-point routes would work out (routes that the Dreamliner was designed for!)