After getting off work this morning, I headed to Eugene Airport for a spotting trip because an opportunity I've been waiting for finally came up.
Earlier this year, I've photographed the third ERJ-145 airframe currently in ExpressJet's fleet being used for their "aha!" operations and only had one more to photograph. However, that last airframe was elusive because it was doing charter work out east this past winter. Well, it's finally back flying scheduled service out of their Reno hub and it was scheduled to make a run into Eugene today, so I knew I had to finally go after it! In addition to going after the fourth and final ExpresssJet/"aha!" ERJ-145, I also got to observe United Airlines' mainline operations at Eugene for the first time since they began flying bigger jets back in 2016. Another highlight of this summertime spotting trip to Eugene was getting to see another Avelo Airlines Boeing 737-800.
Eugene (EUG)
Preview:
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| United Airlines Airbus A319-131 (N850UA) taxiing to the gate after arriving on 34L as UAL1476 from Denver. My first time seeing United mainline operations at Eugene since they first started sending Airbus A319s and A320s (as well as the occasional Boeing 737s) back in June 2016. |
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| American Airlines Airbus A319-132 (N825AW) taxiing to the gate after arriving on 34L as AAL2773 from Dallas-Fort Worth. |
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| Envi Adventures Piper PA-28-161 Warrior (N47491) taxiing for departure on a local flight. |
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| Envi Adventures is a Troutdale-based air tour company that shows off nearby attractions from the air. I haven't heard of them having any sort of operation down in Eugene until I saw this airframe. |
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| United Airlines Airbus A319-131 (N809UA) taxiing for departure as UAL2027 for Denver. |
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| Horizon Air (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Q400 (N402QX) taxiing to the gate after arriving on 34L as QXE2268 from Seattle/Tacoma. Formerly painted in the University of Montana Grizzlies livery. The Horizon Dash 8s are quickly becoming an endangered species! |
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| Arrived earlier today as UAL2235 from San Francisco. Gotta love views like this! Unfortunately for the passenger and crew, this flight's departure was delayed due to some weather along the intended route. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 (N439WN) "The Donald G. Ogden" taxiing for departure as SWA3037 for San Jose. Southwest only just recently started flying between Eugene and San Jose. |
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| SWA3037 departing on 34L for San Jose. Arrived earlier in the day as SWA2833 from Oakland. |
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| SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Delta Connection) Embraer ERJ-170-200LL E-175SC (N264SY) taxiing for departure as SKW3576 for Salt Lake City. |
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| Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7BD (N7734H) arriving on 34L as SWA3050 from San Jose. |
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| SKW3576 departing on 34L for Salt Lake City. Arrived into Eugene from Salt Lake earlier in the day with the same flight number. |
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| UAL2027 finally getting underway for departure after holding position on the south cargo ramp area. |
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| UAL2027 departing on 34L for Denver. |
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| ExpressJet Airlines (d/b/a aha!) Embraer EMB-145LR ERJ-145L (N839HK) taxiing for departure as ASQ7063 for Reno/Tahoe. Finally, I photograph the fourth ERJ-145 in ExpressJet's "aha!" operations and I've finally photographed them all! |
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| Cessna 525B Citation CJ3 (N329CJ) taxiing for departure. |
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| N329CJ departing on 34L. |
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| Arrived earlier this afternoon as ASQ7062 from Reno/Tahoe. |
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| I've been waiting to catch this airframe for several months now, but it had been doing college sports charters up until recently out east. |
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| As one can tell, it still has parts of the old United Express cheatline and livery back from when it was operated by Trans States Airlines. |
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| Airframe first delivered to Trans States Airlines in July 2004 and operated exclusively for United Airlines under the United Express brand. |
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| ASQ7063 departing on 34L for Reno/Tahoe. |
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| After the pandemic started this airframe was withdrawn from use and stored in April 2020 as Trans States Airlines went defunct. Sat in storage for about year at St. Louis before being ferried to Kingman, Arizona in March 2021, where it would be prepared for use by ExpressJet. |
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| ExpressJet took on this airframe under lease in August 2021 and began "aha!" branded services with it three months later in November 2021. |
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| Lane Aviation Academy Piper PA-28-161 Warrior (N8133E) arriving on 34L from a local training flight. |
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| N850UA taxiing for departure as UAL1143 for San Francisco. |
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| Avelo Airlines Boeing 737-8F2 (N802XT) arriving on 34L as VXP117 from Burbank. Only my second time photographing an Avelo 737-800! |
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| Again, some incredible close-up views! |
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| Unlike the previous mainline departure, this flight managed to get underway immediately, which is surprising because San Francisco is one of those airports that frequently has air traffic flow control in effect. |
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| UAL1143 departing on 34L for San Francisco. |
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| N402QX departing on 34L for the return-trip to Seattle-Tacoma, carrying the same flight number of QXE2268. |
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| N825AW taxiing for departure for the return-trip to Dallas-Fort Worth as AAL2756. |
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| As the tail number indicates, airframe started out with America West Airlines and then onto US Airways before going to American. |
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| As of right now, American is still running a daily flight between Eugene and Dallas/Fort Worth on a mainline jet. |
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| In addition, this summer also saw American upgrading their flights between to Phoenix Sky Harbor and Eugene with a mainline service in lieu of CRJs operated by either SkyWest or Mesa. |
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| AAL2756 departing on 34L for Dallas-Fort Worth. |
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| N7734H taxiing for departure as SWA1769 for Las Vegas. Formerly N300AT with the defunct AirTran Airways. |
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| SWA1769 departing on 34L for Las Vegas. |
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| Cessna 525 Citation M2 (N521ZB) taxiing for departure to Boise. |
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| N521ZB departing on 34 for Boise. |
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| N802XT taxiing for departure for the return-trip to Burbank as VXP118. |
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| Airframe first delivered to Turkish Airlines in December 2005 as TC-JGG. |
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| After just under 15 years in service with Turkish Airlines, the airframe was withdrawn from use in June 2020. It was briefly re-registered as M-ABNS under the care of a Japanese lessor in November 2020 and went into storage at Indianapolis from December 2020 until April 2021. |
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| Avelo Airlines took delivery of this airframe on April 7, 2021 with the current N-number. |
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| Airframe officially entered service on April 22, 2021 and flew the airline's first scheduled revenue service between the Burbank hub and Santa Rosa on the inaugural day of services on April 28, 2021. |
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| Avelo has been seeing a lot more growth out of their east coast bases at New Haven and has recently announced that they would establish a second east coast base in Orlando, Florida. Growth on the west coast and the Burbank hub has been somewhat stagnant. |
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| VXP118 taking the active. As of right now, Avelo only has two 737-800s bases at Burbank while their third is currently working the east coast (which means, I won't be chasing it down for a while...). |
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| VXP118 departing on 34L for Burbank. |
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| After catching their first 737-800 last year, it's good to finally catch their second. |
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| Hopefully, we'll see some growth on the west coast with Avelo in the future as well... |
