Gallery Update: Two College Sports Charters!

Regular college football season will soon wind to close, but basketball season has just started! And depending on distances, basketball teams might utilize charter flights to get to their games. Today, I went after two college sports-chartered airliners; an Allegiant Air MD-80 that was chartered by the Utah Valley University Men's Basketball team and a Sun Country Airlines 737-800 chartered by the BYU football team in the carrier's new revised livery! The MD-80 was an airframe that I haven't photographed before. In fact, I've seen it here in Provo (via FlightAware and FlightRadar24), but I kept missing it! With the MD-83s and MD-88s slated to be phased out by the end of next year, best to catch them while they last! The Sun Country 737 was one I've seen before, but it has since been repainted in the airline's new livery and has been christened with a Minnesota lake name, both sound reasons to chase after a repeat airframe.

Here's the link:

Provo (PVU) 46

Preview:

Allegiant Air McDonnell Douglas MD-83 (N425NV) taxiing for departure to Lexington-Blue Grass as AAY4407 with the UVU Men's Basketball Team on board for their game against the Kentucky Wildcats tomorrow afternoon.

AAY4407 taking 13 for departure. Airframe first delivered as an MD-82 to SAS Scandinavian Airlines as SE-DFY in April 1987; during it's time with SAS, it was nicknamed "Ottar Viking." It was then re-registered as LN-ROW in December 1999. It then went into brief storage in September 2009 before being re-activated in December of that same year; it was also re-registered back to SE-DFY. Allegiant Air took ownership of the airframe in July 2010 and then modified it to an MD-83 in May 2012.

Cessna 182Q Skylane (N282EL) departing on 13 to do some pattern work.

Pilatus PC-12/47E (N566GL) departing on 13 in sequence for Boise.

Sun Country Airlines Boeing 737-8BK (N808SY) "Lake of the Clouds" taxiing for departure as SCX8644 for Las Vegas with the BYU football team on board for their game against the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Rebels taking place tomorrow night. The last time I saw this airframe was last year when Sun Country reinstated flights between Portland, Oregon and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Since then, the aircraft has been christened as "Lake of the Clouds" and has received the new, revised livery for Sun Country Airlines.

SCX8644 taking 13 for departure. Sun Country Airlines modified and simplified their livery without much fanfare or an announcement in late-2016 by getting rid of the shadow-style, two-tone blue S-logo on the fuselage and applying full titles of the airline name in a modified font.

SCX8644 beginning takeoff roll. Airframe was first delivered to Sun Country under lease starting in March 2005. From then, it was leased back and forth between Sun Country and Transavia. During one year with Transavia, it was re-registered as PH-HSU. PrivatAir leased the aircraft in August 2009 and operated it for Lufthansa, registered as D-APBD.