Aviation in Malta 16th June 2022

 Last year's Summer has been a mix despite on Covid restrictions. Efforts for airliners to Malta had been desperate with airliners such as TUI Airways been cancelled flights here as well as other European destinations. Easyjet, British Airways similar but limited on flight schedules and our carrier Air Malta to this day are in crisis. Last year Lufthansa used their Airbus A350 directly from New York's Newark, USA for cruises it's on my blog. Let's take a look on airliners in Malta taken the month of June 2022.

TUI Airways returned to Malta fully this year. Last year TUI Airways did come here last year with their Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 787-8 but only when restrictions came by the Maltese Government forcing TUI to cancel Summer 2021.

This year TUI Airways is back to normal but only on charters & cruises. TUI Airways operates their Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737 MAX 8 from Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and London Gatwick.

Last Summer Jet2 did operate here but not as much. After Thomas Cook Airlines ceased operations both Jets2 abd Easyjet operated former Thomas Cook slots as more flights added. This year is what spotters want. Jet2 is one of Europe's Boeing 757's still operate with passengers other than Condor and Icelandair. According to Jet2, it'll retire their 8 Boeing 757-200 by 2026. It'll be replacing by Airbus A321neo.

In this photo, Jet2 occasionally send's their Boeing 757-200 aircraft from Manchester, UK while the airline do use Airbus A321ceo.

British Airways this Summer has been a nightmare due to UK's short staff as well as job cuts from the pandemic, and strikes. Iberia Express and Titan Airways from London Gatwick. While Finner operates BA from London Heathrow. Similar to Easyjet uses Smartlynx & Aviation Express Malta and Jet2 uses two Airbus A330's from Air Tanker.

As we said goodbye to Alitalia, said hello to Italian's new airliner ITA Airways. When ITA operates here, sometime we get mixed planes in full ITA livery or former Alitalia livery. 

Air Malta this year is still in chaos during the pandemic & after that. It was announced Air Malta have to do alot of cut backs not only nonprofit destinations, but major cut backs on staff. And what also announced, is that Air Malta will be downgrading the livery. For example, my photo 9H-AHS has been in full Air Malta livery for two years. Last year it went full white similar to it's former fleet 9H-AHR. If this aircraft could go into ima livery change for example, the tail will be 90% 1989 tail livery with not only the purple stripes come back, but more extra blue at the bottom layer. While the whole fuselage will be similar to this one.

This mighty Airbus A330-200MRTT came to Malta for paint work. As this was an empty flight, the aircraft made a short takeoff when doing full length departure. This aircraft is operated by Multi-Role Tanker Transport from The Netherlands.

Enter Air came as a charter. During that day, this aircraft had to go around due to heavy traffic departing Malta.

And finally we're going to mention Wizzair. Few months ago, Wizzair announced it'll be expanding it's European base beyond Hungary. Compare to Wizzair UK due to Brexit, Wizzair announced it'll be introducing a new base here including Maltese registered aircraft. We don't have any information how many Maltese registered aircraft will have, Wizzair hopes the destinations could replace Air Malta's unprofitable routes to North Africa like Casablanca, Morocco and Cairo, Egypt. While it'll plan to operate more European destinations. As Wizzair has UK registered aircraft because of Brexit, and Wizzair Abu Dhabi operates from Abu Dhabi, UAE to few Asian & European destinations Wizzair might expand more compare what Norwegian use to have in Argentina. 

And their you have it. It's not much since I've been extremely busy with work & more travels. They'll be more spotting blogs soon.

Fedex F166FE

It has been three decades this Boeing 727 formerly operated by FedEx. Last month, I went to Paris Le Bourget, France since I last visited their in Paris Airshow 2017. I didn't see the 727 properly during the airshow so it's good to see this bird in glory. In this blog, let's take a look back of this trijet.

This Boeing 727-200 was built & delivered in 1966 to United Airlines ex N7056U. In 1989 when it was converted to a freighter, it joined Federal Express which is known as today's FedEx. 

Since then, it operated all over the Unites States full of packages & parcels. However during the 2000's, the 727's have slowly retiring from both passenger and cargo variants. This is where this 727 came in. Although FedEx continued operating their 727's till 2013, this aircraft N166FE was withdrawn from service in 16th May 2007. It was stored at Mobile Downtown, USA for it's final flight. A couple of months later, it did a final flight as FedEx Flight 721 from Mobile Downtown - London Stansted, UK for refuel and it's final destination to Paris Le Bourget, France in 20th June 2007. It was donated for the museum where it stands today.

Did you see this aircraft on it's final flight? What was the inside look like? Feel free to comment.

Aviation in Amsterdam, The Netherlands 4th June 2022

Welcome back to the first blog for 2022! I've been out of nowhere during 2021/mid 2022 during the pandemic and other events. 

I have alot of spotting photos to go through including last year so let's start with Amsterdam in The Netherlands. The weather on that day started to rain so I had less spotting.

Amsterdam at the time of posting has been chaos for passengers. Similar to the UK, Amsterdam has lack of staff from staff sickness relating to Covid for baggage handlers, security checks, immigration and various staff. Meaning flight cancellations, suspended bookings and lost luggage. Luckily my luggage arrived as I took a flight from Southampton, UK.

The last time I was in Amsterdam, Delta Air Lines use to send out Boeing 767's while other fleet still uses Airbus A330's. Now Delta send's their new Airbus A350's and Airbus A330neo's from the US. During the day I've only seen thr A330ceo and A350 so this is the best one on final approach.

On flightradar24 I saw an Etihad Boeing 787-10 with a special feature on the engine. This aircraft A6-BMI showes ecoDemonstrator program is showing off how this aircraft is going greener.

American Airlines I've only seen two of them in Amsterdam. The 787-8 aircraft arriving from Philadelphia, USA in the early morning. Later on their is a 787-9 from Dallas, USA.

TUI Airlines Netherlands mostly send's their Beoing 737's from the Mediterranean. Since the return of the 737 MAX program, this aircraft is a Boeing 737 MAX 8 delivered a year ago.

China Airlines on final from Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan). However, their has been recent political & military uncertainty by the mainland China similar to current Russia's invasion of Ukraine. If China threatened Taiwan, similar to Ukraine we might not see the national carriers anytime soon.

Finally, time to go classic! Before the rain & thunderstorms arrived, I had my chance to see this Airbus A310 I rarely see nowadays. This is a 30 year old Airbus A310 delivered new to Aeroflot in 1992 as F-OGQU. It went to Emirates in 2005 converted to Cargo and ULS Airlines in 2008. It was arriving from Istanbul, Turkey.

Thank you for looking at my blog, it has been over a year ago. Their is changes where I'll ve showing my spotting and aircraft only. I will no longer doing YouTube, Flickr and flight reports.