Planes and stuff

Tui fly Belgium is celebrating its 20th Aniversary so, pic of the week dedicated to them with a shot taken aboard B738 OO-JEF, departing from Madeira, passing by Ponta de S.Lourenço. A list of the airline's highlights, as published on their FB page: 📍 2004: First comercial flight to Almería. 📍 2005: A fleet of diferent airplanes back then, including the Fokker 100. 📍 2008: begining of Tec4Jets, their maintenance company. 📍 2012: Integration of Morocco airline Jet4you in TUI Airlines Belgium. 📍 2013: HQ opening at Zaventem. 📍 2013: First Embraer E-Jet E190. 📍 2013: First Boeing 787 Dreamliner. 📍 2016: Jetairfly becomes TUI fly. 📍 2018: First Boeing 737 MAX. 📍 2023: First Embraer E195-E2.

Allways great to see some special liveries! Not many coming to Madeira these days. For TUI Belgium's B738 with the Family Life livery (OO-JAF) decided to go to a spot where I hadn't been for quite a while...turned out the right choice, as it took off right in front of me, back to Brussels OO-JAF rotating...

Embaer ERJ-190 OO-JVA em Bruxelas.... Nem de propósito, no mesmo dia em que o DN publicou no seu Raio-X um artigo de debate relativamente à quebra dos números no Turismo da Madeira (ver AQUI a versão Gnose da autora, com fotos minhas e reacções dos partidos regionais), o NewsAvia publicou a notícia de que os voos TUI Belgium no próximo Inverno sofrerão alterações no sentido de downgrade do aparelho utilizado e rota do mesmo (ver AQUI ) Se, por um lado, em termos de spotting puro, acaba por ser uma boa notícia, especialmente para os que gostam do Embraer 195, como eu, um aparelho extremamente raro por cá, por outro lado, para o que realmente interessa, é uma má notícia, sendo indicativa de mais uma quebra na principal actividade da Região, o Turismo...claro que péssimo mesmo seria o terminus dos voos mas.........

Tui Belgium OO-MAX was the first B738MAX at Madeira. Came for the first time last week but didn't manage to get it. This week, with a nice weather and runway 23 in use, got it, arriving from Brussels...  Comparing the regular B738 (Tui Nederland PH-TFB) with the B738MAX.... The departure was way earlier than the previous traffic so only maneged a belly shot of the departure....

After more than one month flying to Madeira, Eurowings finally brought a plane with its own livery... A319 D-AGWD arriving from Cologne A nice and colorful apron where we can still see Air Berlin colors...Niki flight...which according to some news is about to follow its german "sister" on the bankrupt.... The taxi to runway 05 with the captain interested and filming something on the side of the runway.... For the the departure, on low light, tryed a 1/25 panning...turned out nice...

Back to rainy and dark days...the departure of Jetairfly B738 OO-TUV, returning to Brussels on a 1/30 panning shot, from runway 23:

While we don't get TAP Express's Embraer's ERJ-190 around here...a pic of a OO-JVA, a Jetairfly ERJ-190STD, taxiing at Brussels:

Today's Jetairfly flight from the Canary islands to Brussels, was carried trough by portuguese charter airline, Euroatlantic Airways B738 CS-TQU. Well worth the trip for a few pics... Arriving from Las Palmas  The departure to Brussels... holding short off runway 05, while Travel Service OK-TVT arrives from Paris Charles de Gaulle.

A couple more shots from last month when I went with a local spotter and a visiting spotter to the balcony for some night shots... Unfortunatelly, windy night, not long exposure friendly... Smartwings OK-TVU carrying a Travel Service flight and OO-JAX, from Jetairfly by its side... The smaller birds, ZS-JDL, a Bombardier Challenger 300 (BD-100-1A10) and local inter-island carrier Aerovip's Jetstream CS-DVQ, getting ready to depart to Porto Santo (PXO/LPPS)

Yesterday, we had the return of British Airways colors to Madeira, this time with the SpeedBird itself... After a stop of a few years (When GB Airways, that carried these flights, was bought by Easyjet), yesterday we got to see British Airways colors again at Madeira, with a first flight from London-Gatwick. A320 G-GATK about to enter the apron which was pretty colored with a variety of traffic Welcoming bath from Madeira Airport Fire Dept. Returning back to London-Gatwick, passing by Monarch A321 G-OZBZ that was redy for push-back, also for the return to Gatwick It carried some passengers back to London but it was a really early take-off, with Ponta de S.Lourenço in the back Curiously, at Funchal, was also P&O Cruise Ship "Britannia". Check HERE

Back to June...Some pics of Jetairfly's B738 OO-JLO arriving and departing from Madeira, with the new livery. Landing on runway 05 Departing from runway 05, in a long take off  

A couple of weeks ago, we had the return of Transaero summer flights, from Moscow-Vnukovo. It's quite a long flight to be made in B738.... EI-EDZ landing on runway 05  Arriving to the stand, with a colorfull apron A Monarch A321, Jetairfly's OO-JLO and Transavia France F-GZHN  The return flight started with one of the longer take-off runs I ever seen (probaby the longer...) ... With some tail wind and fully loaded (at least with fuel) for the long flight back to Moscow-Vnukovo, the rotate was iniciated after the old runway 24 treshold.... Seeing the Ponta de S.Lourenço in the back, like that is usual in runway 23 landings, definitely not in runway 05 take-offs....

Noticed today that these couple of shots of mine are currently at #2 and #5 of Top Photos of last 24H, at Planespotters.net Check more pics of this day HERE OO-JLO, on final to runway 05  F-GZHI from Transavia France taking off from runway 05

Last monday went to the airport with the aim of getting AeroVip's replacement for CS-TGG. At about the same time was arriving Jetairfly's B738 OO-JLO with a great morning light. It was the first time I managed to get Jetairfly (TUI...) new colors.... Winds on final were a bit tricky as noticeable in the aircraft's atitude (on that position, the usual is beeing leaned to the oposite side...) And...the cherry on the bottom of the plane... it's quite hard to master the art of getting the beacon on... :P I'd be more happy if that kind of luck was more directed to stuff like the Euromillions but...oh well... getting the beacon is also nice :P  For the take off I was already in another spot... Take-off to Porto Santo as this was also the first Jetairfly of the season to Porto Santo, before proceding back to Brussels Just a final curiosity...the plane was named " Grace ": a woman's name for a plane with a female F/O

Não deixa de ser algo frustrante chegarmos a um aeroporto que, supostamente, terá tráfego em grande quantidade e diversidade relativamente ao nosso e dos primeiros aviões que vemos é um "boring blue" da Jetairfly, coisa que nem me dou à maçada de ir fotografar por cá... Mas,  sempre é um cromo de um aeroporto diferente, além do mais, este estava mesmo a jeito, sem vidros ou outros reflexos pelo meio.... OO-JBG a taxiar na placa de LPA / GCLP. Curiosamente, este foi um dos aparelhos que ostentou a pequena alteração de pintura comemorativa dos 5 anos da companhia...

Another of the catches I made while waiting for the Air Nostrum was OO-JAS, the B737 from Jetairfly . Haven't made any pics on this airline for a very long time but then again, it's one of the boring blue airlines with absolutely nothing special and diferent from a numerous of other Tui airlines...so was never really in the mood to go at the airport just to photograph it.... On this ocasion I was there anyway so.... This summer, Jetairfly is also coming to Porto Santo (PXO / LPPS), our neighbour island, so I'll probably be getting it there during vacations.... (This is being a very nice season for the traffic and tourism at Porto Santo, unfortunatelly, most traffic is already known around here....and it's nothing really exciting....maybe the best thing there, will be the Privilege flights that are being made by a Swiftair MD....let's hope it remains like that....)

Despite yesterdays Orange Easyjet, today is a very special day, and this seemed to be the right plane to publish this day as New Photo of the Week.... ;) OO-JBG landing on 05 (even the runway is the right one for today...) Actually, decided that this all week will be dedicated to the 5...so, a few more posts will be published on this theme, during the week....