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.

A couple of shots of TUI Belgium B738 OO-TUV coming to a stop and backtracking to the apron over the famous Madeira runway pillars...

Already miss flying... A shot I hadn't published, taken some time ago, departing from Brussels Zaventem Airport (BRU/EBBR) on a TUI Belgium B738

This week we had the return of the flights from UK, by TUI Airways, WizzAir, British Airways and Easyjet. Unfortunatelly, only managed to get 3 of TUI Airways flights, on Friday afternoon. Was expecting to manage to get a 4 TUI row at the airport but on time schedulle of TUI Belgium and the delay of the TUI Airways from London Gatwick only allowed me to get 2 TUI planes in a row... A few shots of B738 G-FDZX, arriving and departing from/to Manchester (MAN/EGCC) Departing with 3 stored TAP's on the back The arrival, to runway 05, with some wind... touch down with TUI Belgium B737MAX OO-TMB taxiing to the holding point on Charlie Push-back and positioned departure back to Manchester...

 TUI Belgium  B737 OO-JAO departing from Madeira's runway 05 to Tenerife South (TFS), before the return to Brussels...

From the same day of Great Dane Airlines premiere (08.Feb.2020, check HERE ) some shots of the arrival of TUI Belgium OO-TNB, arriving 5 hours late, from Tenerife South, on a direct entry to runway 23, when the visibility over Ponta de S.Lourenço was quite bad... It came in quite fast coming to a stop after taxiway Charlie, going to the end of the runway for the backtrack... reverses and spoillers on after landing on runway 23 despite the black clouds and bad visibility to the east of the island, at the airport there was a nice late afternoon sunlight still closing the reverses, after a fast landing on runway 23

From September, a couple of shots of the arrival of TUI Belgium special livery Family Life, B738 OO-JAF. Had already published a few pics of the departure (Photo of the Week), taken from a spot I usually don't go, check HERE

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 Nederland has been using for many flights other planes, including its sister company TUI Belgium... On this day, the AMS-FNC-AMS flight was made with TUI Belgium B738 OO-JBG with a very nice captain...as he was taxiing we noticed the open window as he was already waving to the spotters :) Hope you had a great flight back! Holding off runway 05 while other traffic takes off (notice the taking off plane?)

Comecei recentemente a colaborar no Gnose.eu , um site que pretende partilhar artigos, visões e opiniões sobre os mais diversos assuntos, desde a actualidade regional, ao mundo em geral. Com colaboradores dos mais variados quadrantes profissionais e da sociedade, fui convidado a partilhar um pouco da minha paixão pela aviação e spotting. O facto de ter acordado hoje com a infeliz notícia da queda do B737MAX8 da Lion Air, na Indonésia deu o mote para um pequeno texto sobre este aparelho, que poderá ser lido AQUI OO-MAX, da TUI Belgium, aterrando na 23 Tentarei que os textos não sejam demasiado chatos e que tenham algum interesse não só para o entusiasta de aviação e spotting, como também para o pessoal que não ligando muito ao metal voador, possa ler sem meter demasiados tecnicismos ao molho e se calhar ficar interessado no assunto para tentar saber um pouco mais.... Entretanto, foi adicionado link para este site, à direita, na secção "Traffic Around", que permitirá ...

Only the second B738MAX I get and once more a TUI Belgium one (diferent registration)... Smartwings has been using also the MAX to Madeira but still haven't got any...(but they do look great....) Opposite to the first time when it made a rocketing take-off, this time it was quite a looong run... Can't complain, as it took off on the right spot... OO-TMY taking off back to Brussels... With this light, no one would have guess that the rest of airport and surrounding areas were quite dark, with no sun at all...

Allways liked those action pics where you can fit a few planes on the framing...lately hadn't been doing many of those. On the day I went photographing, for the first time, the B738MAX (Tui Belgium OO-MAX, check HERE ), managed to get this one also, more interesting specially because Transavia usually makes short take-offs and on this day, it made a real slow departure up in the air...also...no Airbus on the pic :) That's dificult, here... Transavia France F-HTVJ departing with Luxair's LX-LGV finishing push-back and TUI Netherlands PH-TFB and TUI Belgian B738MAX OO-MAX on the stands

When you're expecting to get an Euroatlantic and realise they've changed the titles into a white and red titles TUI kind of livery... Still...could be worse...the sun came with a bit of shine on the right moment and even if small, the Euroatlantic titles are there...also, not many portuguese registration B738.....

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....