Remembering Air Berlin

Air Berlin made its last flight yesterday...the farewell to an airline that I was used to see around here for many years and definitely one with an important role on Madeira Tourism.
Saw it with Boeing and with Airbus, with narrow-bodies and wide-bodies...it was one of the few airlines that, at some point had some regular wide-bodies fligths to Madeira...
Bye bye Air Berlin...and the best of luck for all your employees...

A few shots of Air Berlin at Madeira during my spotting sessons...maybe not my best shots nor the most important but tryed to go for a wide selections of types, colors and ocasions....
Check all Air Berlin pic's I've published on the blog, HERE

 B738 D-ABME with the One World livery take-off, with an amazing rainbow
May, 2014

a dificult catch....we waited about 2 years for the oportunity of getting D-ABDU, with the Etihad special livery...
Down on the apron, Swiss (former Belair) Air Berlin A320 HB-IOZ

A330 D-ALPB, Jan.2009, already on duty with Air Berlin but still with LTU last livery, after that airline beeing bough by AB

Milo...the special livery highlighting the airline's frequent flyer program on a really winter day...only a plane like this to make me go out spotting on this weather :)
A320 D-ABFO, Feb.2015

A320 D-ABGA and D-ABDR back in Nov.2007, showing a couple of previous liveries

May 2016: A320 OE-LEU still with Air Berlin tail and Niki titles

Air Berlin with 757? :)
Yes... :)
Belair HB-IHS back in Fev.2008

Sharklets A321 D-ABCO with airdusseldorf titles

Airbus and Boeing...with a couple of diferent liveries

Allways nice to have a bird like the 330 over you :)
D-AERS, Mar.2011

A320 D-ABHC with One World titles back in Dec.2016

Belair / Air Berlin B767 HB-ISE, Sep.2009

A320 D-ABDL with the old livery, Nov.2008

B738 D-ABMP departing from runway 23, back in Aug.2015

A320 D-ABFK with Fan Force One livery, Apr.2015

Those were the days....Apr.2014 A330's D-ALPA and D-ABXA

A320 D-ABDP still with the old livery on very short final to runway 05, Jan. 2009

A bit of Christmas's spirit with B737 D-ABMJ, in Dec.2012

A320 D-ABDB with a OLT Express hybrid livery

Currently flying as OE-LBK in Austrian, back here (Jan.2010) was D-ALTK, a former LTU A320 with a livery that didn't last long at Air Berlin.

A321 D-ABCB, Dec.2009

Uma para os "locais"

Normalmente os aviões da companhia nacional TAP não me despertam assim tanta atenção, já que são "clientes" habituais do nosso aeroporto.
No entanto, esta semana lá decidi dedicar-lhe a foto da semana, já que esta foi uma das fotos tiradas no passado dia 5, num ângulo pouco habitual, entre as minhas fotos (e que agora, com o início do ano escolar, dificilmente repetirei nos próximos tempos....)

A319 da TAP CS-TTO, descolando da 05

Chegada do CS-TTO, também pela 05.
Uma aterragem um pouco mais longa que o habitual, devido às condições de vento que se faziam sentir na altura, com algum vento de cauda...
Ao fundo, os A320 CS-TKP da Sata e HB-IOP da Air Berlin (Belair), que esteve em destaque na passada foto da semana.

Week Photo: Off to Zurich

This one should be a nice catch with a sharkleted A320...unfortunately it wasn't the case but, still it's the kind of pics I like.

Air Berlin's (Belair) A320 departure to Zurich, from Madeira's runway 05

HB-IOP

A pic of its arrival, also on runway 05, with some tricky winds

New Photo of the Week: Home colors (and a few more)

It was quite a while since I last went for some afternoon spotting.
Didn't stay as long as I had planned but still it was enough to get some of the most importante afternoon landings...

D-AICF, one of the 3 Condors of the day...
(and still no retro colors around here....Come on Condor! Where's D-AICA?)

It was only when I was processing the pics, in the computer , that I noticed that this Air Méditerranée was in fact an Hermes Airlines B735

A close-up on home colors for this Photo of the Week (CS-TTM a TAP A319)

Time to get these ones before Condor get them out of the company

D-ABOE just moments from of touching down on 05 with a nice wingflex

F-GZHC, from Transavia France, arriving from Paris-Orly (via Porto)

Allways nice to see a colorfull apron, despite the sun trying to leave..
On the apron yet another A320 that I didn't get on the landing: Air Berlin's (Belair) HB-IOW, wich had arrived from Zurich

Nova foto da Semana: Air Berlin Rolls Royce

Para esta semana estava a apetecer-me algo diferente...

Como um dia destes o pessoal andava a falar de motores, na Madeira Spotters, decidi-me por esta...

Afinal de contas é bem raro (ainda mais por cá) ver as cores e títulos Air Berlin nestes motores...

Alguém sabe que avião é? ;)

Vejam AQUI

New Photo of the Week: From Zurich...

Some time ago, I mentioned that Edelweiss Air was definitely one airline I'd wanted to see around...

Looks like that will come true, as they're announcing on their website flights from Zurich to Madeira as from May, 27th...GREAT!!

Anyway, while I haven't any pics on Edelweiss, choose this rare 767, from Belair that made a flight from that city, back in 2009...

HB-ISE taking off from runway 05 to Zurich
Belair titles are quite rare around here and besides that, this must have been one of the few times (if not the only...) that they brought the 767...

Windshear and a go-around

Like I mentioned on the Condor from Hamburg entry the winds on that day (Jun.16th) were quite bad.

The Condor had managed to make a safe landing at first atempt but the same didn't happened with Air Berlin (Belair) A320 from Zurich.

Was distracted inside my car when I heard a plane coming in for a land with loud engine noise, struggling its power againts the wind...
Grabbed the camera and got outside just in time for a some shots of HB-IOZ, from Air Berlin, pulling up, for a go-around...

it made a go-around straight into circuit for another try on runway 05...

The second atempt was busy....

but sucessfull...

Arriving from Zurich

Last Thursday, joined to a couple of Algarve spotters and few more local ones for some shots on the afternoon planes.

The star of the day was the last plane I got...but this one was also a nice catch: the new Air Berlin colors are rather nice, the pics turned out also nice and I had never seen this registration around here...

HB-JOZ, Air Berlin (Belair) A320 over rwy 05 treshold

Smoky landing, arriving from Zurich

Air Méditerranée

Air Méditerranée started flying to Madeira on this summer season and it's been coming to Madeira for a few weeks.
Despite that still hadn't got any pic of it.
Last Thursday decided to go for it: was coming on the afternoon right on time to get it after work and it was a B735, which is not that usual around here...

But oposite to Funchal, the weather at the airport was quite dull and it looks like the pilots had only trained Madeira's  runway 05...despite the wind was indicating runway 23, they chose, both for landing and take-off runway 05....

After missing the landing (was waiting on 23, it landed on 05...) headed for the usual spots, together with a few more spotters, which would give a  nice location for runway 23 take-off......

Despit the winds indicating 23, it linned up on 05, passing by Bulgaria Air  LZ-FBC and  Falcon 2000 PH-VBG

check the wind indicator....it was quite a long take-off run...

F-HCOA and (taxiing) the other french traffic of the afternoon,  Transavia's F-GZHE.
On the apron, parked: Air Berlin's (Belair) HB-IOR and Sata's CS-TKJ

Nosy Belair

On the day of the return of Air Berlin's A330, that company also brought another plane with a special touch of interest:

The A320 (HB-IOU) from Zurich, operated by Belair..

New Photo of the Week - Thomsonland and little more...

The break in the amount of traffic is more and more visible every day and on mondays it specially visible on the Thomson traffic.
Nevertheless, Mondays at Madeira are still ruled by Thomson that turns LPMA into an authentic Thomsonland during some times of the day (late morning and lunch...)

G-BYAL and G-OOBC on the stands, G-OOBP taxiing in holding and G-OOBD landing on 23

 Last Monday, João Melim, a spotter from Porto Santo, was at LPMA so I went to the airport for little more than an hour.
The Thomson traffic was a lot more visible than the previous monday I'd been there, probably due to the Thomson cruise ship on Funchal port.

G-BYAL livery looking even older again shinning new painting of G-OOBP (that came into service with Thomson in May, 2010: former HB-ISH, from Belair)

The arrival of G-OOBD

Departure of G-OOBP, from runway 23

and finally an big change from the blues to full red of Sterling (OY-MRF)

Thomas Cook and Thomas Cook Scandinavia are also monday morning usuals but, Thomsons are like the "emplastro"...a well known portuguese guy that keeps apearing behind every guy that's beeing filmed, so it can appear in TV...LOL