I Love Manchester, by Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook UK A321 G-TCDM on final to runway 05, from Manchester

An unexpected catch, this morning, on a quick stop at the cargo terminal zone.
Haven't caught many Thomas Cook UK planes lately so, any of it would be nice..
Turned out it was carrying ILoveMCR titles...nothing to extravagant but still, a diferent touch on the regular livery...

Condors

Back to Madeira, from last month, a couple of Condor pic's, lining up on runway 05, in the morning...
(yeah...not the regular heart livery, for a change...)

A320 D-AICA, still with the retro livery, back from the 50's

Hybrid Afriqiyah / Small Planet A320 performing a Condor flight

Star Alliance by Swiss

Swiss A320 HB-IJM getting ready for the departure....

Lot's of Swiss International Airlines planes at Zurich (who would have guessed?... :P  ) so, decided to sart with a "diferent" one...
Unfortunatelly, didn't get any special livery while there so, the next best thing (yeah, right...) .... a Star Alliance livery plane.
Taken from the terminal, while getting ready for the departure....

Photo of the Week: Peter Pan

After a long wait, finally, this week, Transavia, brought us it's "Peter Pan" special livery...

B738 PH-HSI lining up on runway 05, for the return flight to Amsterdam

A special livery is allways nice but considering that the record of Transavia special liveries at Madeira isnt's that good, it's definitely a nice (and probably once in a lifetime) catch...

Condor Loves Sentido

Yesterday, on a quick stop, managed to catch some new stuff :)
One of the newbies (for me...) was this Condor A321 with special titles regarding the Sentido Hotels & Resorts.
Was at Santa Cruz when I noticed this one on final to runway 05, no way I could manage to get the arrival but was nice to make a record on the departure....

It's easy to notice Thursdays are Condor day at Madeira, currently (with 8 flights...)

Still, a nice record with 3 different liveries for Condor...A321 D-ATCD, with Sentido titles, A320 LY-VEF, leased to Avion Express and a different tone on the tail grey and A320 retro D-AICA

Photo of the Week: Transavia Sunweb

For this week was planning to choose as photo of the week a shot of Small Planet / Afriqiyah hybrid but Transavia finally decided to present the local spotters with the Sunweb livery plane...What a catch...Transavia hardly ever brings its special liveries to Madeira so, it was great to be able to get this one (Thanks for bringing it on a Saturday :)  )

B738 PH-HSJ on final to runway 05 with a very nice morning light despite the gathering dark clouds on the back...

Already over runway 05 and about to land.
From this spot (below the runway) we don't get the touchdowns but the morning approaches to runway 05 have great background... 

Only after arriving home realised that the livery is different on both sides....too bad...maybe I get another oportunity for some shots..

Easyjet Berlin

After coming here a few times, finally managed to make some shots on the Easyjet with Berlin titles...

A320 OE-IZQ arriving from London Gatwick

taxiiing to the gate after arriving on runway 23...should be interesting to get the departure from that runway but couldn't wait..maybe some other day...

Vueling special Disney / Marvel

Last Saturday Vueling brought (as far as I know) the second special livery to Madeira, since its flying here...
Never managed to get the first one, a few years ago so, didn't want to miss this one.
Despite the sun at Funchal, the weather at Santa Cruz (on the airport) was quite crappy and dark...but you know what they say...better to have a bad pic than no pic at all...
Anyway...the first Vueling of the year, for me....

A320 EC-MYC with the Disneyland Paris 25th Aniversary / Superheroes Marvel landing on runway 23

Spotting location

From the day we got Brussels Smurfs (check HERE), a shot that ilustrates how nice it is this spotting location.
The "rampas"
This is 1 of 2 local roads behind the airport, with public access and a great view, (on the afternoon, for photographing) over Madeira's airport apron, runway 05 landing's or runway 23 take-off's

Google Maps :  32.692648, -16.782913

Air Europa Express

Por hoje fica um registo de um Embraer 195LR da Air Europa Express, a dar um toque diferente a uma paisagem TAP em Lisboa

EC-KYP, a preparar o embarque...ao fundo, o CS-TOV, o A333 retro da TAP, a dar um arzinho da sua cauda, poucos dias antes de vir à Madeira, pela primeira vez. Ver AQUI

The Spanish Thomas Cook

This summer season, Thomas Cook started using a Thomas Cook Balearic A320 for one of its flights from Germany to Madeira.
It's definitely something diferent around here, a Thomas Cook with spanish registration :)

EC-MTJ on final to runway 05

After getting it for the first time with the cell phone, while gettting out of my plane, now some "decent" shots of it :)

entering the stand with one of the hilights of the day on the back, Brussels "Smurfs" special livery, for the first time at Madeira.
Check HERE

Photo of the Week: First time for the Smurfs

Last Friday we got, for the first time, Brussels Smurfs special livery.
It looks really fantastic (as all the other Brussels special liveries, by the way....)

Arriving from Brussels, around 17:25, it's a more interesting hour (light regarding) than the previous schedulle of sunday at the end of the morning...

OO-SND

The approach was windy and the touch down just a little bit longer than usual (for many of the planes, this day)

Pushing back, with the other highlight of the day....Privilege B767 EC-LZO that came with on  charter flight on behalf of Acuna Fombona, for a medical conference at Madeira.

The father smurf is the F/O and Smurfette is the Captain...in this case was about right, as the Captain was a woman and one of the nicest captains I've met ;)

Foto da semana: O retro da TAP

Como já vai sendo habitual após período de meteo (ventos normalmente...) complicada (e desta vez agravado com o cancelamento de vários voos, por "razões operacionais" da própria companhia), a TAP efetuou 2 voos, na passada terça-feira com o A330, para escoamento de passageiros retidos.

Desta vez, a má sorte de outros foi a melhor das sortes para os spotters locais, que há muito aguardavam a vinda do CS-TOV, com a pintura "retro" da TAP Air Portugal.
Foi igualmente a primeira vez que tivemos por cá um A333 desta companhia. Como bom "chorão" que sou, só foi pena ter sido à hora de almoço, com uma luz forte e "dura" mas, este, nem que estivesse a chover torrencialmente merecia umas fotos...
A ver se a TAP nos dá mais alguma oportunidade para voltar a apanhar este (ou o seu companheiro "Stopover") por cá.... ;)

Foto da semana: Descolagem do retro, pela 23, de regresso a Lisboa

à chegada, entrada na placa, pelo "Charlie" após aterragem pela 23

Tamanhos (e pinturas) bem diferente :)

Mais um par de fotos da saída...

OE-IVA, the first Easyjet Europe

Last month finally made a shot on OE-IVA, the first Easyjet Europe plane with the "Austria" special livery...it arrived just on the right timing for a click, before leaving :)

ATUF

Tuifly Hapag-Lloyd B738 D-ATUF arriving at Madeira, runway 23

Despite not beeing exactly the Hapag-Lloyd livery I remember seeing back in the 90's and early 2000's, it's still nice to see this Tuifly with the Hapag-Lloyd titles...

Photo of the Week: Christmas in February

Finally, after more than 2 months and way passed Christmas, managed to get Finnair's special reindeer livery... was pretty sure I wouldn't get it...
Thank you Finnair for keeping the spirit up in the air ;)

With a landing with not sun on the side to highlight the reindeer, waited for the take-off and it payed well, on some nice sunny shots....

Photo of the Week: A321 OH-LZL departing back to Helsinki, from runway 23, with another rarity on the apron, a private Embraer 190 (A6-HHS, from Falcon Aviation, getting ready to depart)

Taxi to runway 23

despite the plants and fence, still a nice rotation on a good spot...

Waiting for Christmas...

Finnally, last monday had the oportunity to get Finnair's Christmas livery...A321 OH-LZL with the reindeer....
Altough I didn't know if by the end of February, the Christmas stickers would still be on the plane....Anyway, had been quite a long time since I last had photographed a Finnair...would be worth it anyway, specially with runway 23 in use....

On final to runway 23

Unfortunatelly as it touched down, the runway was quite dark, with no sun at all....it was a bitch..the side shots where we could most see the stickers were quite dull....

Fortunatelly, for the take-off shots, the sun wasn't shy at all and was well worth the wait....more on those later....probably for the next photo of the week...

Tuifly RIU

From the same day of the Royal Navy Merlin's (Check HERE), the arrival of Tuifly's D-ATUZ, with the RIU Hotels special livery...it still wasn't the day for a nice sunny landing...

New Photo of the Week: TinTin at Madeira

Yesterday, Brussels Airlines brought us another of its special liveries.
We got, for the first time, OO-SNB "Rackham" with the TinTin special livery and with the extra of beeing flown by a really nice captain :)

The forecast was becoming a bit harsh (today is even worst) and some of the planes only managed to land on the second atempt, which also happened to this one as the ATC informed that the winds were out of limits during the first approach.

A320 OO-SNB on final to runway 05

Taxi to the apron with the newest Madeira Airport Follow Me car...an eletric Renault Zoe

Quite a colorful apron...

After the landing we paid the captain a visit with a great welcoming on behalf the crew, despite all the work on preparing the next leg of the flight, to the Canary islands, before returning to Brussels

getting ready to depart

departure from runway 05, with a little bit of sun shining on Rackham...