Planes and stuff

A couple of shots of Smartlynx Malta A320 9H-SLA, departing from runway 23... It's a white frige but maltese registrations are quite rare around here... (Still didn't go to the airport just for this one...)

Last Tuesday we got the info that something unusual could came for some training so, as I had the time, went to the airport to try my luck. Wouldn't be a missed trip anyway as I still hadn't got any Smartwings and Norwegian B737MAX nor had got any Novair this season.... The expected traffic for the training didn't came after all and the weather/light wasn't that good, specially near the lunch time but tryed to get some decend pics for the record... Unfortunatelly...Norwegian decided not to bring the MAX on that day so, still missing that one... Anyway, one can notice the renewall of the fleets as, from the traffic I got that morning, many were NEO or MAX ... Smartwings OK-SWF arriving from Warsow Novair A321NEO SE-RKB, arriving from Gothenburg This season, Novair has been coming with both A321NEO's, Recently, the other A321NEO (SE-RKA) had an incident ..Check HERE So, I guess we won't be seeing it around here anytime soon...this SmartLynx ...

There's currently a Smartlynx "snowwhite" at Madeira for a few days. Still haven't got it (and probably won't....) but remembered to share these, back from October 2016 of another Smartlynx previously unprocessed and unpublished... ES-SAK, Smartlynx Estonia Guess the runway... :P Entering the stand....

Depois de algum tempo sem actualização fica uma nova foto da semana... Foi escolhida por 2 motivos: Destaque dado à AeroVip cuja vitória no concurso para a linha Porto Santo - Madeira - Porto Santo foi ontem anunciado na RTP-Madeira e a presença do estreante de ontem, o B717 da Volotea (EI-EXJ) Dornier 228 CS-TGG da Aerovip, com o B717 da Volotea EI-EXJ em holding no Charlie e o YL-LCO (voo White, da Windavia) aterrando na 05... O que alguns por brincadeira dariam o epíteto de uma "foto à Rui Sousa" :P

A Windavia parece estar a preparar-se para, aos poucos, tomar o lugar da Sata, em especial no que toca à base da Madeira...e isso já é visível pelo menos no tempo que o avião tem estado parado no stand Alpha 4... ;) No passado dia 26, aproveitei que estava pelos lados do aeroporto para um registo nocturno do A320 YL-LCL deles (Smartlynx / White...) Sempre é uma variação ao CS-TKP..., com um TAP a chegar por trás, depois de aterrar na 23

Windavia is the new Portuguese charter "airline". I guess it's a good example of Globalization...it's operating under White Airways air operator certificate and its first airplane is a Smartlynx Airbus A320 (YL-LCL). Yesterday they made its first flight to Madeira, a flight with french tour operators/agents in order to advertise the Madeira destiny and the GPS Tour operation to our island. According to the info that's beeing released by the company, it will have up to 6 A320 and operational bases at Madeira, Lisbon and Paris and has already quite a number of flights booked for charter operations to several destinations. Landed on runway 23, arriving from Paris the fire department trucks waiting for the welcome bath at the entry of the stand. Welcome! nice effects from the water the passengers were received with a warm smile and Madeira flowers On the back the water from the firetrucks salute makes a nice lake effect :) The firs...

After quite some time, finally made some pics of Thomas Cook OO-TCH with Ice Watch special livery. Down with white fridge liveries ! At least this one is rainbow colourful :) After arriving from the Canaries, getting ready to return to Brussels An overview of Madeira's (LPMA/FNC) apron The last two ones (A320 Smartlynx YL-LCD and YL-LCA) are going to TAP fleet Have been here for a few days with some TAP maintenance checks TAP take off from runway 05, through the tails HB-VMX TCS Ambulance flight ready to receive its passengers (Cessna 550B Citation Bravo)

Last Friday, the Smartlynx flight brought us a surprise. The A320 that made the flight from/to Tallinn was made using YL-LCI, still with Aegean Airlines livery. Didn't manage to go to the airport but tought it was a good oportunity to share a couple of pics from, Barcelona where I caught this airline for the first (and only) time... Taken with a small Ixus, through the terminal windows, it gave me quite a work trying to remove that window color cast... SX-DVZ at the stand Taxiing...a little bit more colorfull than the one that was at Madeira. 

Yesterday we had the return of Smartlynx, on the flights from Tallinn. It arrived from that city during the night (around 4.55am) and stayed for a few hours for crew rest. The other few times (or just once, maybe) they brought an airplane with full Smartlynx livery I couldn't go to the airport for some shots so, yesterday, after work made a quick run into the airport to take some shots of its departure, around 4.35pm. It was departing on a positioned (empty) flight to Ponta Delgada, Azores (PDL), so there was a good probability of making a good and early take-off.... Ponta de S.Lourenço on the background... YL-BBC pushing back to runway 05 with a nice Lynx on the nose.. This must have been one of a kind for me! No need to crop nor rotate for horizon leveling...right out of the camera with redimension, a bit of levels and sharp...

The same day of the Golden Haribo  I got a Finnair out of the usual :) Probably due to the strike inside Finnair , Smartlynx made a couple of flights to Madeira this week. The first one was in the middle of the night...my dear bed... The second one was on Dec, 7th in the morning. After beeing leased to Travel Service , the A320 was back to standart fridge colors...plain white! So it wasn't a very interesting catch. Anyway, during the rotation time, there was some rain that turned take off more interesting, with water spraying... YL-LCE from Smartlynx, on a Finnair flight Taking off to Helsinki from runway 23

FINALLY!!! Finally managed to the get Gold Haribo, the last one of current Tuifly special liveries... Yesterday decided to go to the airport for some spotting. It's been quite a while since I had been there for a spotting morning. Knew that the Cargo flight, from Swiftair ,was a different registration with no pics on the main photo databases and also knew that the Finnair flight was beeing made by a Smartlynx A320 . Didn't knew what else was coming and didn't care... It felt like the first times of spotting where you went to the airport completely "blind" and happy with whatever you got... I was also with no radio (bateries went out) when I noticed some plane far away, on final to runway 23, pointed my Bigma and....!!!!!! WTF?? The Golden Haribo!!! YESS!!!!! The first time I took such a long shot that was acceptable... On the back, a sistem of solar panels is beeing mounted in Caniçal. D-ATUD That white nose sure gives it an even more colourfull...

Just a few hours before the sky falling over Madeira, around mid-night the night was very nice, a little bit cold but nice, just perfect for getting the Smarlynx with full livery....or so we thought... Despite last pics of this plane beeing with full Smartlynx livery, after arrival we saw that after all, the livery was already gone....it was now another flying fridge...who would have guessed they had changed after last pics.... Fortunatelly the parking changed to a more photogenic place.... (Thanks Alex!) Arriving... TAP's CS-TTS was also preparing to push-back.... Had my wife and daughter in the car, which was parked in a unload/load area of the departures, so hurried out of there after and didn't even noticed the ATP from Sata without the rudder.... From that night, you can check the other guys photos: Alex Maio, (soon) Jorge Abreu, HERE Paulo Olim, HERE

Last Friday night Smartlynx made the first flight of its operation from Tallinn. Arrived after mid-night around half an hour late (which isn't that bad...) Anyway, was expecting it would be parked in front of the terminal balcony....well, it didn't.... They parked it on A09, behind a "bunch" of TAP's and ladders and other stuff from Ground Force... Also...it's strange but many airlines still don't get the importance of spotting and spotters to free marketing... With so many liveries and a new livery widelly announced on its website, was expecting some interesting livery....well...it wasn't... It was a white "fridge" with a blue tail....nice... :( Anyway took the time for some TAP night shots, together with Paulo Olim, from Asas Madeira Blog.... Will share them later, on another post. For now, the Smartlynx shots.... For the Photo of the Week, a diferent shot, with an overview of the ramp while Smartlynx takes off, from runway 23,...