Tag Archives: Airbus

JetRed

Early morning at Washington National and I was waiting for my flight home after a work trip to DC. As I sat at the gate, a JetBlue aircraft was coming up from the south end of the field. It was painted in a red scheme representative of the fire department of NY. They have a few different special liveries on their jets but a bright red one is quite the opposite of their normal look. Sadly, the light was a bit dull but I wasn’t passing up the opportunity to get a shot, even if it was through the terminal windows.

Team USA Delta A330

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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.

National A330 Drops Off The Troops

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National Airlines has a single A330 and, with their livery being far from dull, it is a neat looking aircraft. It was coming to Boeing Field to drop off a bunch of troops. Why it didn’t go to McChord, I don’t know and I don’t care. I was able to get it on approach and then move down the field to see it parked up on Modern’s ramp. A bunch of coaches arrived to collect the troops and you could see them lining up to grab their kit from the hold.

With everyone on their way, the A330 headed off to its next destination. They had to cross the runway to get to the taxiway on the southwest side of he field since it is the only one able to accommodate widebodies. Then they were heading my way for departure. I stuck with the long lens to get a better rotation shot and then went for a close up of the gear retracting and the National logo on the underside of the plane. Shame the conditions were a bit dull for such a nicely painted plane but still a nice catch.

My Only A330-800

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The A330 has been a huge seller for Airbus. The A330neo has not sold as well. As an upgrade of the basic jet, it didn’t get a huge amount of interest from customers. It has started to seek a bit better and it is basically a good jet. It comes in two version and the A330-900 is the larger of the two and by far the more popular. The A330-800 has not sold well at all with a few going to operators, one of which is Uganda Airlines.

For some reason, they brought one of their jets to Seattle. It arrived on a cloudy day and didn’t leave for quite a while. It’s departure was late at night and I didn’t even bother trying to be there but I did catch it arriving. It certainly got a lot of attention from local photographers. It has a bit of nice color in the livery but isn’t the most distinctive of planes. However, I don’t know when I shall next catch an 800 so this could be it for a while for me!

Air France A350

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Regular readers will know I am quite a fan of the Airbus A350. Getting a new operator of the jet in Seattle is nice for me and the Air France service has swapped from the 777 to the A350. It started a while ago but the conditions have been so bad for a while, I didn’t even bother trying to get out and shoot it. I was coming through the area when it was due in so made a diversion to get a few shots. Not too nice a sky but still okay and I will hopefully get better conditions at some point before too long. They arrive at lunchtime so the light is not ideal anyway at that time.

Will I See Another Lufthansa A340?

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The A340s are hard to find these days but Lufthansa is still using some A340-300s. This is my favorite of the type and, having had them all in Star Alliance colors for a while, it is nice to see them in Lufthansa colors again. With one coming to Seattle on a weekend as a substitute for the normal A330, I figured I should go out. The day was a dull one but you just don’t know when you might get another chance so I figured it was worth a trip.

Lufthansa A330

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I was out for something else, but I happened to be around when a Lufthansa A330 made approach to SeaTac. The weather was nice, the light was good and an A330 was coming by. I could hardly avoid shooting it, could I? I am no fan of Lufthansa’s current low-key colors but on a good day, even they look alright.

A National Airlines A330 Comes to Town

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Seeing that a National A330 was coming in to SeaTac one evening, I figured I couldn’t pass it up. Sure, they don’t come here often but they are also one of the few airlines that has a relatively interesting livery. Plus, it would be later in the day when light should be good so why not go? With SeaTac you always wonder whether the heavies will come in on the outer or inner runway. Fortunately, there was a lot of other arriving traffic at that time so it was a good bet they would come on the inner runway. A heavy can disrupt the flow of the lighter wake turbulence category jets.

That proved to be the case. They came to the inner so I was positioned well for the arrival. However, the weather wasn’t playing ball. A bunch of clouds were building off in the distance and they drifted across the sun shortly before arrival. Rainier was already obscured by cloud/haze but losing the sun was annoying. Fortunately, the silvery scheme allows a bit more tolerance of less than ideal light.

Lufthansa A350 Is Now Coming to SEA

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International flights are starting to increase in frequency and, it seems, capacity. Lufthansa has been making the run to Seattle with the A330s for a while now. Recently, they changed from the 300 to the A350. One quiet Saturday, I figured I would head down to grab a shot. Sadly, the old livery example of the previous day was replaced with one in the new livery. I do prefer the old livery but that wasn’t the reason for my disappointment. It will go away before too long so there will be plenty of chances to get the new livery over the years. It was hot and sunny and arrival is noon so about the worst time you could think of for photographing. A polarizer to take out some glare and to deepen the colors was the best I could manage.

Finally I Get The NEO

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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!