Planes and stuff

Niki Lauda died yesterday... I guess no presentations are needed for the amazing man... The only of its airlines that hasn't (still) been around here was the most recent Lauda Motion... A few shots to remember... Lauda Air B737 OE-LNO, back in 2004 One of the few airlines that ever flew the Embraer to Madeira...Embraer ERJ-190LR OE-IHD (a registration now used by one of Lauda Motion's A320...This Embraer is now flying as HB-JVL at Helvetic) A321 OE-LES, June 2016 A320 OE-LER, April 2013

From last December, 9th 2017.. the last Niki flight I managed to photograph...I guess it really reflects the kind of messy bussiness relations around those german airlines...Niki flight, with an Air Berlin livery plane, operated by Tuifly....4 days later, Niki annouced its shutdown... B738 D-ABMQ landing on runway 05

A320 OE-LEU landing at Madeira's runway 23 last back in May 2016 Unfortunately (but, still as expected....) Niki Airlines annouced the ceasing  of its operations as from tomorrow, as stated in its webpage: " Dear guests, the flight operations of NIKI Luftfahrt GmbH under IATA-Airline-Code HG will cease as of December 14th. Passengers who have booked their flight with a tour operator are kindly asked to contact their tour operator directly. The tour operator is responsible to accommodate his passengers. Several Airlines are currently looking into solutions for bringing back passengers on standby-basis for a small fee from abroad destinations back to Germany, Austria and Switzerland. To our regret, TUIfly will not participate in this solution. We would like to thank you for your long-standing loyalty. Your NIKI-Team" The best of lucks for all the employees....

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 o...

Despite we will still have a few more Air Berlin flights during next week, today was most probably my last oportunity to photograph the Air Berlin before the scheduled shut as from Oct.28th 2017... A320 D-ABFG arriving from Berlin-Tegel A321 OE-LCC preparing to return to Munich The stickers resume pretty much the last days of operation to Madeira...Niki callsign, Austrian registration and Niki stickers....I guess not much of Air Berlin left, just the main titles on the fuselage... 

Some days ago, got an "old" Air Berlin that I suppose it's really the image of the airline these last days.... D-ABAG is a plane I remembered getting a few years ago still with an old livery and now it was all white with a sly sticker bearing the airberlin titles and a also a small operated by Tui sticker, all together in a Niki callsign.... D-ABAG landing on runway 05 last August Back in 2009, still with the old livery departing from runway 23 with another Air Berlin taxiing in the back to the same runway....old times...

Happy New year everyone! Despite all the fuss about the renaming of Madeira Airport, it still remains as it was..."Aeroporto da Madeira" (Madeira Airport) with no schedulled date to happen any change... A previously unpublished pic of Niki's A320 OE-LEU departing from Madeira. Check a few more pics from that day, HERE

Yesterday was (depending on the perspective....) a very calm afternoon at Madeira.... On my perspective, of course... Due to the winds out of limits, I spent an afternoon (after 16:30) at Madeira airport without seeing a single plane as they were holding at ABUSU and diverting to Porto Santo or returning to Lisbon... They only started landing at late afternoon with almost no sun... Niki's A321 OE-LES landed when the sun was already gone...so an ISO400 1/50 panning for this one...

It's been quite a long time since I last photographed a Niki with the Fly livery...Too bad there are less and less planes with this livery...  A321 OE-LES landing on runway 05 the departure from runway 05

It's been quite a long time since I last photographed a Niki. Last Friday (the same day of Thomson's Family Life G-FDZG, check HERE ), got one, arriving / departing runway 23. Unfortunatelly was OE-LEU, already carrying the Air Berlin / Niki livery, which looks quite bad, specially comparing to old regular "Fly Niki" livery.... Still...here's the pics... Landing on runway 23 with Ponta de S.Lourenço in the back  And a couple of pics from the departure, also from runway 23 On the back, a British Airways A320 getting ready for the departure back to London Gatwick

While browsing some older pics, found these couple of shots from June 2014 of OLT Express / Niki hybrid landing on runway 05 at late afternoon... Thought that I'd already shared it here but looks like I hadn't... OE-LEL was trying out a diferent spot, on higher ground...it's a nice one...have to try it some more...

Yesterday we got the first A320 with Sharklets at Madeira...twice! OE-LER, from Niki was the plane and besides beeing the first "Sharkleted" A320 at Madeira it was also my first Niki with the new livery (crappy...the previous one, with the Fly looked a lot better, though I'm sure this one's cheaper....) On final to runway 05 about to land for the second time of the day, from Vienna. Touchdown! Arriving at the stand with a framing who doesn't leave any doubts on the airport these were taken... :)

Time to get back to my pics...and for another Photo of the Week. Last year, during August, Niki made a few flights with the Embraer ERJ-190 ... Those didn't last too long... The ERJ-190 is a plane that I find to be a very good looking one and with the extra that it's a extremely rare bird around here (like I said then...don't remember seeing another ERJ-190 around here and since then neither...) Anyway, only got it once...you can check the photos HERE OE-IHD on final to runway 05

Last Friday, while waiting for the CL-900, from Air Nostrum , took the time for some shots on the Piper CS-AIC , from Aeroclube da Madeira that was departing to a local flight to Funchal bay. The most interesting shot, despite it's not a sharp quality pic, was this one.... taking off from runway 05, passing by OE-LEH, from Niki and another TAP

Last week I noticed that the Niki flight was made by an ERJ-190 but then it was already too late to photograph it... I didn't even knew that Niki had those planes... ...and they looked pretty nice, specially in that livery! To add all that, I can't remember seeing any other ERJ-190 around here... This week, made a early wake to go and catch it... When I arrived at the cargo terminal, sun was final but on short final it was completely dark over the runway, with sun on the hills in the back... Still managed one aceptable shot on the long distance, with the sun on the plane... After that, went to the balcony for some shots off existing traffic and take-off of the Embraer, ended up getting closer than expected... Went inside to check on TV the live transmission of a stage of Rali Vinho Madeira, and when we noticed, the Embraer was already taxiing... Take off, from 05