Tag Archives: emirates

The A380s Aren’t Dead After All

Aviation enthusiasts are an odd bunch. They love aviation but they can really hate certain types. The emotions can really run high and no type exemplifies this more than the A380. The project hasn’t been a success by modern standards and production has now ended. This provides much glee for some people for some reason. I’m not sure why they feel the lack of success for a plane makes their life better but whatever.

I have flown on the A380 a couple of times and it was a great experience. I always like seeing them. Variety is sadly lacking in modern aviation and anything different is welcome as far as I am concerned. The onset of the pandemic resulted in many airlines parking all sorts of types and the A380s were clearly a target. If there are no passengers, the largest capacity jet is not going to be helpful. The death of the A380 was widely proclaimed. However, it turns out that this was a bit premature.

A few airlines have been reinstating their fleets and more are coming back out of storage. British Airways has their fleet back in action. Emirates is using theirs heavily. At Heathrow, I also saw Qatar and Qantas using theirs again. (Qatar might be more related to their spat with Airbus over A350s and the need for any capacity they can get.) It is good news that they are still around. We shall see what the future brings for some of the other jets that are still stored.

Emirates’ Latest on Test

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An Emirates 777-300ER is hardly a rarity. They have a huge fleet of them and, since this one is a new build aircraft on test at Boeing, the fleet is going to grow. What made this one fun was the light. Some stormy weather had been in the area and the sun was out on the white fuselage while the background was still looking rather mean. Both on the runway and on the approach, it shone brightly against the background and that is why I am sharing it today.

LA Dodgers and Emirates Have a Thing

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Emirates A380s are a regular feature at SFO. They usually look pretty much the same with maybe the occasional graphic added for an event or other. This one was a bit out of the ordinary though. Apparently Emirates must have some sort of promotional tie in with the LA Dodgers. The side of the jet was adorned with a large graphic about the team. The side of an A380 is pretty sizeable so there is plenty of real estate to adorn with whatever you want to include. In this case, they made good use of it.

The Early Emirates

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If you were to ask someone to name one of the dominant global airlines these days, it wouldn’t be long before the name Emirates came up. The rapid growth and large fleet of wide-bodies makes Emirate a familiar sight around the world. It is easy to forget that is was not always thus. I first saw Emirates in 1988. At the time, I had a small book of airliners around the world and it listed the planes that were potentially going to be seen in the UK. It didn’t include short haul jets from the opposite side of the world but it did have something that could conceivably be seen. At the time, Emirates were listed as having one A300 and two A310s. A far cry from what they have now.

They used to fly in to Gatwick with the A310s. While working for the CAA, I got to spend a bunch of time under the approach to Gatwick recording noise levels of the passing jets. I did manage to get the occasional shot too! Here is a scan of a slightly rough negative of an Emirates A310 passing the middle marker. This plane would now be considered a bit too small for their regular operations!

Rainy and Dark at SeaTac

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In the past I have been able to get some reasonable shots of departing aircraft at SeaTac from the pier of the terminal that Southwest operate from while I am waiting for my flight. I was heading home in the evening and thought I would have little luck because the sun would be on the wrong side. Turns out, the sun was nowhere to be seen – this is Seattle so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Instead, it was raining (shocking news) so, even though the light should not have faded, it was pretty bleak. Normally, I would have thought this meant I would no be getting any shots. However, I decided to have a go anyway. Sometimes, the bad weather shots can come up with something a bit special. I did not anticipate getting this but it would have been frustrating to watch and miss something cool.

As it turned out, things weren’t too dramatic. I did get a few shots of the jets and turboprops as they headed out. Sometimes there would be puffs of vapor over the wings or clouds in the inlets but nothing too good. An Emirates 777 took off which meant a fair bit of spray behind it as it powered away. Sadly it rotated just as it went out of sight so the real clouds of spray were not visible from where I was.