Gallery Update: Airbus A350 Sighting in Portland!!!

The fact that I used three exclamation marks in the blog title shows how excited I was for this plane-spotting trip, which made for a really good Monday! Over the weekend, I noticed that Delta filed a flight plan (which got cancelled and then re-filed for today!) for one of their new Airbus A350-900s to fly into PDX and the flight arrived early this morning as a military charter. Having never seen one until today, I was NOT going to pass up seeing the latest wide-body model built by Airbus! So I braved the rainy weather to see this new wide-body jet; this was actually the first passenger wide-body airliner to visit Portland since the COVID-19 pandemic hit us! And I certainly wasn't alone as several other plane-spotters were on hand to see the A350!

Slowly but surely, service to PDX is starting to show signs of returning to normal, albeit with some international carriers changing plans or cancelling altogether. From the look of things, both Icelandair and Condor (both now longtime European options to PDX) will not be serving Portland this summer and will look to resume next year. Delta's seasonal London-Heathrow service seems to have been cancelled completely, partly due to British Airways entering the market later this year. Speaking of British Airways, they will now commence year-round service on September 2. Delta will also finally give a belated inauguration of their Tokyo-Haneda service on July 1. Delta will also plan on resuming flights to Amsterdam on August 1. While these new start dates are subject to change, hopefully, the state of the world and the industry will be in much better shape for these routes...

Aside from the Delta Air Lines Airbus A350, the other main highlight of the trip was something I've been trying to chase down for the past several months: an ATR-72 in the FedEx Feeder livery! I was unable to get it the last opportunity I had because the wind direction and the active runways worked against my photography vantage point. But this time, I was able to catch the Empire Airlines flight on  an afternoon departure, which was unusual because these feeder flights typically depart the hub to go to their out-stations early in the morning before coming back in the late-afternoon/early-evening. FedEx usually puts the longer ATR-72 in place of the ATR-42 on the Portland-Medford-Portland route during the holiday peak season, but they brought it back after the COVID-19 crisis hit in order to keep up with the increased demand for air freight.

Portland (PDX) 53

Preview:

Gulstream Aerospace G-VI G650 (N235BH) taxiing for departure.

SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a United Express) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N156SY) arriving on 10L as SKW5237 from San Francisco.

N235BH departing on 10L.

United Airlines Airbus A319-132 (N895UA) arriving on 10L as UAL464 from Denver.

SkyWest Airlines (d/b/a Alaska Airlines) Embraer ERJ-170-200LR E-175LR (N187SY) departing on 10L as SKW3403 for Seattle-Tacoma.

Delta Air Lines Airbus A350-941 (N513DZ) departing on 10L as DAL8821 for Detroit. My first time seeing and photographing an A350 and I've gotta say, this plane is gorgeous! Note the raccoon-like outline on the front windscreen and the blended winglets. 

Arrived early this morning operating as DAL8962 from Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah as a military charter.

The Airbus A350 XWB (eXtra Wide Body) first flew on June 14, 2013 and was designed in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Initially, it was proposed that the A350 would be a development of the A330 with composite wings and new engines; airlines weren't interested, so Airbus instead went with a "clean-sheet" design that we see here today.

The A350-900 first entered service with launch customer, Qatar Airways on January 15, 2015. The A350 will primarily succeed the Airbus A340 and competes with the Boeing 777, 777X, and 787-10 Dreamliner.

Delta Air Lines ordered the A350-900 on November 20, 2014 and began taking delivery of them in early-2017. The A350 was used to replace the fleet of Boeing 747-400s Delta inherited from their merger with Northwest Airlines. As of today, Delta is the only U.S. operator of the A350. United Airlines has 45 A350s on order, but because of the COVID-19 crisis and the resultant decline in air travel, those orders have been deferred for the time being.

Delta currently operates 13 A350-900s and will eventually operate up to 35 of them.

In time, the A350 will become Delta's flagship widebody aircraft for their international routes.

Quite a wingspan for the A350!

Empire Airlines (d/b/a FedEx Feeder) ATR-72-212(F) (N819FX) airborne off 10R as CFS8673 for Medford. My second ATR-72 photographed and my first time seeing on in the FedEx livery! I've been trying to chase this one down for a few months now and I'm glad I finally got it! Normally served by an ATR-42, FedEx Express has Empire Airlines fly the feeder route between Portland and Medford with an ATR-72 during the holiday peak season. While it did briefly go back to an ATR-42, the ATR-72 was brought back soon after in the wake of the increased cargo demand from the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

First delivered to Eurowings in April 1993 as D-AEWH. Acquired and converted as a freighter by Empire Airlines in January 2006 (along with re-registering to the current N-number) and placed into FedEx operations in October that same year.

Spirit Airlines Airbus A320-232 (N644NK) departing on 10L as NKS1430 for Las Vegas.

Delta Air Lines Airbus A321-211 (N340DN) departing on 10L as DAL791 for Minneapolis/St. Paul. Only my second time photographing a Delta A321!

Delivered to Delta in March 2018. Delta currently operates 100 A321-200s and still has 27 on order from Airbus. Delta also ordered 100 A321neos in 2017, which were slated to replace the now-retired McDonnell Douglas MD-88 and MD-90 fleets and was expected to take delivery of the first few airframes this year. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, deliveries have since been delayed.

Boutique Air Pilatus PC-12/47 (N474SS) arriving on 10L as BTQ357 from Pendleton. Finally, I catch one of Boutique Air's PC-12s sporting this attractive blue and black livery!

Atlas Air (d/b/a Amazon Prime Air) Boeing 767-31K/ER (BDSF) (N1373A) departing on 10L as GTI3731 for Wilmington. Arrived earlier this morning as GTI3730 from Baltimore.

Only my second time seeing one of Amazon's 767s sporting winglets.

This 26-year old 767-300 has an extensive history of operators. It's last operator was Thomas Cook Airlines registered as G-TCCA.