Condor has gone on a bit of a Marmite route with its livery. They have decided to paint their aircraft with a striped paint scheme that looks like a beach towel. When they first went this way, the A330s that came to Seattle were leased jets and they only painted the fins rather than the whole airframe. They had ordered new A330-900s from Airbus, and these were delivered with the full paint job. I took a while before I finally saw one of these come to SEA and it was the green one. I still haven’t seen beige or blue! I have heard comments that really show how much people dislike this choice. For me it is such a nice change from the norm that I am really happy to see them. Something different is fun.
Tag Archives: a330-900
Team USA Delta A330
Delta was the official airline of the US Olympic team during the Winter Olympics in China. They painted one of their A330s with Team USA colors. I knew it had been in and out of Seattle a few times but I had either not had a chance to go and see it or it was in crummy conditions. Finally it was due in early one weekend morning so I headed down to SeaTac to catch it. The forecast was not great but I had a feeling that the early sun might hang around and, for once, I wasn’t wrong. The light was generous and the plane came in on the right runway to get a good shot.
Finally I Get The NEO
I complained recently about my lack of luck when shooting the A330NEOs that Delta operates out of SEA. I finally got some better light on them. I was out for the Aloha Air Cargo 767 which was coming in just after sunrise. About half an hour later, Delta had a NEO coming in from Honolulu so I hung around. The light changed a lot in that half hour with the super warm light getting a little subdued as the sun came up but it was still by far the best light I have had on one of these jets. Thankfully it came in on the inner runway so no shooting it in the distance!
One Day I’ll Get the NEO in Good Light
Shortly after my A220-300 landed, another Delta jet was due in. (Actually, quite a few were but they weren’t terribly interesting.). It was an A330-900, the NEO version of the A330. I have shot a few of them but have really struggled to get them in good conditions or nice lighting. Since the weather was crummy on this Sunday morning, that luck wasn’t changing. However, it was there so why not get a few shots. At some point I will get one in good light.
Misty 330s
While at Boeing Field, you get a steady stream of traffic for SeaTac overhead. With Delta’s substantial presence at Seattle, the right time of day can mean a few widebodies. The A330 is a big part of their operations and we currently get the old and the new with the -300s and the -900 neos. The conditions looked pretty clear above me but there must have been a lot of moisture around because the jets seemed to be pulling a bit of vapor with them and going in and out of clouds that they seemed to hard to see without them there.
I played around with the processing a bit to see what I could do to show up the moisture more effectively. It gets a little more interest out of a shot that would otherwise not be worthy of any note.
A330 CEO Versus NEO Courtesy of Delta
While I had headed to SeaTac to see the 21Air 767 arrive, I hung around for a couple of other arrivals. Delta operates a variety of long haul types into the airport and this includes A330s of the older and newer generations. First to arrive was an A330-300. A little while later, it was followed by an A330-900, the A330neo version. I thought I would try and get identical shots of both jets to see how much the engine and winglet changes showed up when looking at them in flight. Here are shots to compare the two types for you to make your own comparisons. I think the differences are there but they are not drastic.