With holiday peak season still in full-swing at my work, I've barely had any time for myself. Aside from going on a few flights earlier this month, I really haven't done anything else because of work and lousy weather. Weather was still lousy today, but regardless, I decided to take a day for myself and do some spotting up at Portland on my only day-off this week; I was also mindful in not going overboard with the photography this time around, so I primarily focused on the things I wanted to see. And today's spotting trip was worth it!
For starters, I redeemed myself after a failure last year in chasing down a unique cargo airline that was chartered to help with peak season cargo. The airline I'm referring to is the Guam-based Asia Pacific Airlines, a cargo carrier that UPS charters every year to help do runs up and down the west coast during peak season. It's a relatively small airline with three Boeing 757-200PCFs and a single 727-200F operating out Guam and Honolulu, Hawaii and very unusual to see them operating on the mainland.
I also got to photograph another WestJet Encore Q400 and a Volaris A320neo to round out some of the international carriers. But another highlight of the day was getting to see a Jazz Air CRJ-900 sporting the new Air Canada livery operating the once-daily Portland-Calgary route; I was cheated of that opportunity the last time I spotted in Portland due to a last-minute equipment substitution to a Q400!
While on the topic of international carriers, it was recently announced that British Airways will begin year-round service between Portland and London-Heathrow starting June 1, 2020! Rumors and speculation on British Airways adding PDX to their network have been circulating for a few years now, and now it's finally coming to fruition. British Airways will operate the route using Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners, which will mark the very first scheduled service of the aircraft type to Portland!
And finally, another surprising highlight of today's spotting trip was a coveted opportunity to see a McDonnell Douglas MD-88 operated by Delta Air Lines running a charter for the New Orleans Pelicans NBA team! I say this is a coveted opportunity because Delta is now the only U.S. operator to have the "Mad Dog" still in scheduled service following the retirements of Allegiant and Americans' MD-80 fleets; I've only seen MD-88s two other times and both those opportunities were planes operated by Allegiant Air. It was also a coveted opportunity because Delta utilizes their MD-88s on short-haul routes primarily on the east coast out of their Atlanta hub, making west coast appearances extremely rare. And Delta is now in the process of phasing out both their MD-88 and MD-90 fleets, so I was thrilled to finally catch an MD-88 in Delta colors!
Portland (PDX) 49
Preview:
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| Boutique Air Pilatus PC-12/47 (N471SS) taxiing for departure as BTQ358 for Pendleton. N471SS was the first PC-12 in the EAS carrier's fleet! |
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| NetJets Gulfstream Aerospace G-IV-X G450 (N448QS) arriving on 10L as EJA448 from San Jose. |
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| United Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N494UA) arriving on 10L as UAL1950 from Denver. Still waiting to see the new United livery... |
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| Delta Air Lines Boeing 767-332/ER (N1603) arriving on 10L as DAL179 from Amsterdam. |
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| Meridian Air Charter Dassault Falcon 900EX (N963RS) taxiing for departure as GTH9 for Salt Lake City. |
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| BTQ358 departing on 10L for Pendleton. |
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| DAL179 taxiing to the terminal. |
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| GTH9 departing on 10L for Salt Lake City. |
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| Volaris Airbus A320-271N (N533VL) arriving on 10L as VOI956 from Guadalajara. |
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| VOI956 taxiing to the terminal. I have yet to photograph one of Volaris' aircraft with a Mexican registration! |
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| WestJet Encore (d/b/a WestJet) Bombardier DHC-8-402 Dash 8 Q400 (C-FWEP) arriving on 10L as WEN3628 from Calgary. |
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| WEN3628 taxiing to the terminal. |
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| AvCenter Cessna 560XL Citation Excel (N499AV) arriving on 10L as TTE499 from Jackson Hole. |
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| Israeli Aircraft Industries IAI-1125A Astra SPX (N500MA) arriving on 10L from Indianapolis. Registered to Andretti Autosport! |
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| Jazz Air (d/b/a Air Canada Express) Bombardier CL-600-2D24 CRJ-900LR (C-FJJZ) arriving on 10L as JZA8315 from Calgary. My first time seeing a CRJ in the new Air Canada colors! And I don't think I've photographed a single CRJ at all this year! |
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| JZA8315 taxiing to the terminal. Originally delivered to Jazz Air as a CL-600-2D15 CRJ-705ER (a CRJ-900 airframe configured with 75 seats) in August 2005. It was converted to CL-600-2D24 CRJ-900LR standards (configured with 76 seats) in February 2018, in accordance with Jazz Air's April 2016 announcement that all their CRJ-705s would be configured to CRJ-900s. Since then, Jazz took on additional CRJ-900s, both used (from SkyWest Airlines) and new from Bombardier. |
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| Asia Pacific Airlines Boeing 757-230PCF (N888LT) arriving on 10R as MGE2490 from Ontario. I am thrilled to finally catch this elusive cargo carrier! Leased by UPS to do extra cargo runs up and down the west coast on their behalf during the holiday peak season. |
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| Southern Air (d/b/a Amazon Prime Air) Boeing 737-83N/BCF (N5167A) airborne off 10R as SOO3601 for Chicago/Rockford. Originally destined for American Trans Air - ATA as N334TZ, but not taken up. Instead delivered as EI-DIL with GECAS and then leased to Jet Airways as VT-JGE in November 2004. It was then put into storage in December 2018 and converted for cargo before being re-registered as N855DM with GECAS. Delivered to Southern Air's Amazon operations in July of this year. |
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| C-FWEP departing on 10L as WEN3627 for the return-leg to Calgary. |
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| C-FJJZ departing on 10L as JZA8316 for the return-leg to Calgary. And right after the WestJet flight of course! Definitely cut-throat between Canada's two largest carriers with Air Canada trying to one-up WestJet by returning jets to the route! |
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| N888LT airborne off 10R continuing on as MGE2490 to Seattle-Boeing Field before ending the day back at Ontario as MGE985. This plane was scheduled to return to Honolulu (according to the airline's website!) on Christmas Eve, so today was most likely my only viable opportunity to see this livery; I'm glad I was able to do so! |
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| Originally delivered to Condor as D-ABNN in April 1992 before being transferred to the now-defunct Thomas Cook Airlines in July 2002. Ryan International Airlines leased this plane in December 2003 before returning to Thomas Cook in April 2004. It was then transferred back to Condor in May 2004. It then went to Russia in October 2004 as RA-73014 flying for VIM Airlines before going into storage in December 2014. The Bank of Utah then took ownership of the plane in January 2015 and went into storage before acquisition by Asia Pacific Airlines in April 2017. |
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| Dassault Falcon 900 (N900YY) arriving on 10L. |
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| NetJets Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign (N320QS) taxiing for departure as EJA320 for Scottsdale. |
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| EJA320 departing on 10L for Scottsdale. |
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| Frontier Airlines Airbus A320-251N (N310FR) "Sunny the Collared Lizard" arriving on 10L as FFT2171 from Las Vegas. After about a two-year hiatus, Frontier re-instated flights between Portland and Las Vegas. |
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| Delta Air Lines McDonnell Douglas MD-88 (N912DL) arriving on 10R as DAL8935 from San Francisco. My first time photographing a Delta MD-88 and a true Delta "Mad Dog" and I am absolutely thrilled! Been in service with Delta all the way from when it was first delivered in December 1987! |
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| The flight was carrying the New Orleans Pelicans NBA team to play the Portland Trail Blazers tomorrow; the Pelicans lost to the Golden State Warriors on Friday. After they play the Blazers, N912DL will most likely carry the Pelicans to Denver, where they'll play the Denver Nuggets on Christmas Day. |
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| DAL8935 clearing the active at taxiway B6. N912DL along with her sister-ships are definitely in their sunset years as Delta is in the process of retiring both their fleet of MD-88s and MD-90s. That being said, I am really happy that I was able to catch at least one example of this loud, smokey "Mad Dog" before they head off into retirement! I never thought I'd get the opportunity! |
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| DAL8935 taxiing to the remote cargo ramp, where the New Orleans Pelicans will disembark. The only other operator of the MD-88 I managed to photograph previously was Allegiant Air. Now I can finally check off Delta from my list! |
Have a Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
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