Gallery Update: Chasing JetBlue's Airbus A220!

So the last time I was at PDX a month ago, I tried and failed to catch Air Canada's Airbus A220 during the evening hours as I'm trying to take advantage of the longer daylight hours of the summer to catch evening arrivals that's not normally possible. I've yet to catch Air Canada's A220, so I decided to switch gears for this spotting trip and go after another operator of the A220-300 which as of this year started appearing at PDX: JetBlue Airways.

JetBlue has become rather difficult to spot at PDX due to them changing up their schedule. Ever since they moved their west coast focus city from Long Beach to Los Angeles in late-2020 (and ending their west coast route between Portland and Long Beach and not transferring it to LAX), the only routes JetBlue has served out of Portland in recent years were ones out to the East Coast, namely New York-JFK, as well as Boston and Fort Lauderdale on a seasonal basis (Fort Lauderdale has since been discontinued). These East Coast JetBlue flights arrive into PDX later in the evening and return to their origin a few hours later as red-eye flights.

JetBlue also began scheduled flights with the A220 (the first of which was delivered on the very last day of a very-dismal year known as 2020!) last year. They also announced that Portland would be served with the A220 on their summer-seasonal flights to and from Boston. With that announcement, I knew I would have to go after one of JetBlue's Airbus A220-300s while the summer season was young.

In addition to going after JetBlue's A220 this evening, I also caught another Condor 767-300 just as they were departing. I was also excited to photograph one of Atlas Air's rare passenger 767-300s on a military charter after previously seeing nothing but cargo flights on the behalf of Amazon. All-in-all, this was a worthwhile, last-minute evening spotting trip!

Portland (PDX)

Preview:

Condor Airlines Boeing 767-330/ER (D-ABUF) departing on 28L as CFG2091 for Frankfurt. 

Nearly 30 years old, this airframe has spent it's entire life with Condor!

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 (N8736J) taxiing to the gate after arriving on 28R as SWA2038 from Phoenix-Sky Harbor.

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-8H4 (N8306H) arriving on 28R as SWA3063 from Oakland.

Volaris Airbus A320-233 (XA-VLK) arriving on 28L as VOI938 from Guadalajara. This is my first time catching Volaris on a weekday, made possible thanks to extended daylight hours of the summer season!

Delta Air Lines Airbus A220-100 (N130DU) taxiing for departure as DAL999 for Los Angeles.

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 (N973AK) arriving on 28R as ASA758 from Seattle/Tacoma. 

DAL999 airborne off 28R for Los Angeles. Note the mismatched engine cowling.

I really like how this shot turned out!

Atlas Air Boeing 767-31A/ER (N662GT) arriving on 28L as GTI8789 from Portsmouth, New Hampshire on a military charter. My first time seeing the standard Atlas Air livery and my first time seeing one of Atlas Air's passenger 767s!

This particular airframe has a rather extensive history.

This airframe is one of six 767-300s Atlas Air operates as part of their passenger fleet used for charter operations.

Compared to their cargo operations, Atlas Air's passenger fleet is small.

Scheduled to depart later this evening for Los Angeles carrying the same flight number of GTI8789.

Atlas Air (d/b/a Amazon Air) Boeing 767-375/ER/BDSF (N1709A) arriving on 28L as GTI3800 from Chicago/Rockford. Another airframe with a fairly extensive history of operators.

FedEx Express McDonnell Douglas MD-11F (N594FE) departing on 28L as FDX1807 for Oakland.

JetBlue Airways Airbus A220-300 (N3077J) "On Wednesdays, We Wear Blue" arriving on 28L as JBU1395 from Boston. My first time seeing one of JetBlue's A220-300!

JetBlue took delivery of its first A220-300 on December 31, 2020 and commenced revenue flights with it in April 2021. The airline is also the second U.S. operator of the A220 family after Delta Air Lines.

With 70 total airframes ordered, JetBlue aims to replace it's E-190 fleet with the A220. 

Scheduled to return to Boston later this evening as JBU1396 on a red-eye flight. The route between Boston and Portland via JetBlue is seasonal, so I had limited time to make this catch. Plus, there are rumors circulating that JetBlue will be temporarily suspending a huge chunk of their routes in the coming months due to industry-wide staffing shortages (which includes all routes to/from Portland!).

FedEx Express McDonnell Douglas MD-11F (N623FE) taxiing for departure as FDX382 to Oakland.

FDX382 departing on 28L for Oakland.