Glasgow Airport Movements 2016
March
There didn`t appear to be a dramatic increase in airline traffic over the Easter holidays with the locally based charter aircraft of Jet2, Thomson and Thomas Cook covering most of the flights. Sunday 27th saw a welcome return to British Summer Time (BST) albeit not warm summery weather. March has been particularly mild with the only significant snow visible being that on the distant hills at the beginning of the month. On Easter Sunday, Air France Airbus A318-111 F-GUGR (above) kicked-off a daily Paris Charles de Gaulle - Glasgow summer service when it landed around 0815hrs plus two Danish-registered Jet Time Boeing 737s, namely OY-JTY and OY-JTT (below) were drafted in to cover some BA Shuttle services from London Heathrow.
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March 2016
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Visiting aircraft not caught on camera included Beech 200 King Air M-WATJ (1st); G-XAVB Cessna Citation Mustang and Beech 200 King Air G-IASA, the former a first-time visitor (2nd); Thomas Cook A321-211(WL) G-TCDL, Boeing 757-256 TF-ISJ of Icelandair and CitationJet CJ1 D-ITIP all made their first visit to Glasgow. Challenger CL300 G-KALS also put in an appearance (3rd); G-PDGN Aerospatiale SA365N Dauphin (4th); Cessna 208B Caravan N265CZ (7th); Cessna Citation Bravo G-CGEI (8th); Citation Mustang G-FFFC, Fokker FK100 YR-FKA of Carpatair landed about 1735hrs and night-stopped and Piper PA-28 Warrior G-EVIE took up residency at the flying club (9th); Piaggio P-180 M-GCAP, Beech King Air 200 G-WVIP and yet again Citation Mustang G-FFFC (10th); King Air 200 G-MEGN, F-HGOD Piaggio P-180 and Prestwick-based HM Coastguard Sikorsky S92A G-MCGL (11th)...
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Icelandair Boeing 757-256W TF-ISV made its first appearance (13th); Gulfstream 4SP N478GS arrived around midday. PH-EZX Embraer 190 KLM in Skyteam colours (14th); Learjet 40 OE-GHF arrived around midday. Another first-timer was Triple-Seven A6-EPF which worked the evening Emirates flight to Dubai (15th); 9H-VJL Bombardier Global 6000 arrived at 1745hrs and night-stopped. Beech 100 King Air N948HB made a brief visit in the morning (16th); Monday`s arrivals included a first visit by Emirates Triple-Seven A6-EPK and Air Charter Scotland`s Cessna Citation Excel G-IPAX. Cessna CitationJet 3 G-YEDC departed having been here since the 19th (21st); Challenger CL604 D-ABCD and Challenger 850 9H-ILV (22nd); Germania A319-112 HB-JOG arrived just before 1000hrs to take the Scotland team to the Czech Republic for a friendly football match. It was dark by the time Wizz Air`s A321-231W HA-LXB landed, the larger Airbus variant brought in to cope with additional passengers over the Easter holidays. Another aircraft showing at Glasgow International for the first time was Dornier Do328Jet N11UJ (23rd); Blue Air`s Boeing 737-86N(WL) YR-BME made its debut on the Glasgow-Bucharest route (24th)...
A319 HB-JOG returned with the Scotland football team after their 1-0 victory in a friendly held in the Czech Republic and Eastern Airways Saab 2000 G-CERZ showed for a rugby charter. A busy executive park with VistaJet`s 9H-ILV Challenger 850 bringing Adele for her gig in the city, CS-PHH Embraer EMB-505 Phenom 300, CS-DNS Dassault Falcon 2000, CS-DXR Citation XLS, G-PFCT Learjet 45, D-CGBR Learjet 55, King Airs HB-GJU and G-JOTA all calling in (25th); SP-ENI Boeing 737-43Q Enter Air (26th); Transavia Boeing 737s PH-HZN (above) and PH-HZX called in to transport locals to Lourdes on an Easter pilgrimage (27th).
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On the 28th, Easter Monday, flight schedules at airports throughout southern England were badly affected by `Storm Katie` with dozens of planes and thousands of passengers ending up in the wrong places. No doubt a British Airways Boeing 747-436 turned a few heads in the morning when it diverted in to Glasgow from Heathrow around 0900hrs due to extremely high winds at London`s main airport. Now the oldest Jumbo in the BA fleet, G-BNLJ had been en route from Johannesburg. At Gatwick, some flights tried to land but were forced to abandon their attempts, while at LHR air-traffic controllers took the decision to increase the distance between arriving aircraft which is known as reducing the flow rate. Heathrow is the busiest two-runway airport in the world, and at the morning peak for arrivals there is little slack in the system to cope with disruption. As well as the 747 sent to Glasgow, other `heavies` ended up at Manchester, Birmingham and Shannon in the west of Ireland.
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Other Glasgow arrivals on Easter Monday included Air France A318-111 F-GUGQ and ATR 72-500 OY-CLY of Alsie Express (above) with Denmark`s international football team for a `friendly`against Scotland. Executive traffic included CS-PHH Embraer EMB-505 Phenom 300, G-CHUI Cessna Citation XLS+ and Learjet 31A5 D-CGGG (28th); N888HJ King Air 200, Eurocopter AS.350-B3 G-DJSM, G-FBKB Citation Mustang, and Saxon Air Charter`s Raytheon Hawker 750 G-TWIY (29th); F-GUGN A318-111 of Air France made its first showing and one of the KLM flights to Schiphol was served by Boeing 737-9K2 PH-BXO in Skyteam livery, plus G-FFFC Citation Mustang made another appearance (30th); PH-BXO and G-FFFC were back on the 31st as were both Jet Time 737s.
Jet Airliners
United Airlines Boeing 757-224(WL) N14120 in Star Alliance colours is seen here taxiing for a Runway 23 departure on Saturday 5 March.
HA-LWD A320-232 Wizz Air touching down on Tuesday 29 March.
Jet2`s Boeing 757-21B G-LSAH appeared on Tuesday 22 March on a flight to / from Leeds Bradford Airport.
G-LCYI BA CityFlyer Embraer ERJ-170STD.
Boeing 777-31H(ER) A6-EGJ on finals for Runway 23, Monday 7 March 2015.
Air France Airbus A318-111 F-GUGQ taxies out for a Runway 23 departure on Tuesday 29 March.
A6-EPA Boeing 777-31H(ER) Emirates.
In May 2011 easyJet became the world's youngest airline to reach a fleet of 200 Airbus aircraft. To mark the occasion, its 200th jet, A320-214 G-EZUI, was painted in a special 'inverted' livery, affectionately dubbed 'the flying carrot' by the airlines` staff and travelling public alike. In June 2013 the company announced its intention to purchase a further 35 current generation A320's and 100 of the new A320neo aircraft with options on a further 100. Deliveries of the new aircraft are due to begin in 2017. This shot was taken on a gloomy and wet Friday 11 March.
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Not too far from the airport, on the Hillington Industrial Estate, is a nose section from Boeing 737-500 which was saved from the scrapyard and brought to Scotland last October from Cotswold Airport (formerly known as Kemble) to form a striking frontage to `The Experience`, a new entertainment, training and activity centre housed in the former Rolls Royce aero engine factory. The project will include a `history tunnel` which tells the story of aircraft building on this site. After a 24 year career flying under the flags of Air France and Yamal Airways the aircraft, believed to be ex-VP-BVR and F-GJNB, will now serve as a dining area at the venue. The remainder of the plane including the wings and engines will be recycled at the Gloucestershire airport. |
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Out for a morning Jog!
Two Jet Time Boeing 737s were drafted in to cover the BA London Heathrow shuttle on Easter Sunday. This is OY-JTT the other being OY-JTY, both first-time visitors. Transavia Boeing 737s PH-HZN (pictured) and PH-HZX were taking locals to Lourdes on an Easter pilgrimage. Airbus A318-111 F-GUGN (below) worked this month`s last Air France Paris - Glasgow route on Thursday 31st.
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Prop-liners
OK-RDA Let L-410UVP-E9 Turbolet Citywing.
Biz-Jets
Immaculate Mexican-registered Dassault Falcon 2000LX XA-DFN arrived mid-afternoon on Thursday 10 March.
About 1130hrs on Thursday 3 March, Gulfstream 3 N103VV was en route from Luton when it diverted to Glasgow after declaring an emergency as a precautionary measure.
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Above: German-registered CitationJet CJ2 D-IEKU, which I`d photographed taking off on the 14th, returned on Wednesday 30 March.
Gulfstream (G550) V-SP N607CH is owned by JP Morgan Chase Bank, New York, and visited Glasgow on Wednesday 9 March. It headed straight for Taxiway `Yankee` to park up on landing.
As soon as the exec` jet had cleared the runway, three Airport Fire Service appliances returned to base after a spot of training at the fuselage simulator.
General Aviation
The National Flying Laboratory Centre`s British Aerospace BAe-3100 Jetstream 31 G-NFLA is used to educate and train industry and postgraduate students in various aspects of aerospace research. The NFLC operates aircraft primarily on behalf of Cranfield University although to date more than twenty UK universities have made use of the unique facility with around 1,200 students flown in a typical year.
On Friday 11 March, Health Secretary Shona Robison officially opened the new £4.5 million air ambulance base next to the Gama Aviation hangar. The Glasgow airport site is home to air ambulance operations in the west and Scottish Specialist Transport and Retrieval Service (Scotstar), a national retrieval service for critically-ill patients. It incorporates the Scottish Neonatal Service, the Specialist Paediatric Retrieval Service for babies and children, and the Emergency Medical Retrieval Service, which re-locates critically-ill adults as well as responding to serious emergencies.
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This is the first time in the UK that multi-disciplinary clinical retrieval teams will operate from a single base. Clinical response teams have an Airbus H145 helicopter, King Air 200 aircraft, specially equipped neo-natal and paediatric ambulances and a fast response car at their disposal. Hampshire-based Gama Aviation which owns and operates the new building on behalf of the Scottish Ambulance Service will be home to about 85 staff. |
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Pilatus PC-12/47E LX-FDI parked on Area `Juliet`, Wednesday 30 March 2016.
Military
Cessna UC-35A Citation Ultra, serial number 99-0102 with `United States of America` titles arrived at 1040 hrs on Wednesday 9 March, using the call-sign `Duke 14`. The twin-engined UC-35A is a medium range executive and priority cargo version of the Cessna Citation 560 Ultra V. This particular aircraft, seen at Glasgow for the first time, is flown by the US Army but the US Marines also operate the type. 98-0010, another `first-show` UC-35A (call-sign `Wing 46`) appeared on Easter Monday (28th March). British Army Air Corps BN-2T Defender AL.2 ZH002 made a brief morning visit on the 25th.
...and to finish, an Interesting Visitor at Prestwick.
Seen here on Monday 21 March is the second prototype Pilatus PC-24 HB-VXB. The corporate jet was designed following feedback from PC-12 customers, who desired increased range and speed, but wanted to retain the PC-12's ability to use very short runways. The aircraft, which has been priced to compete with Embraer's Phenom 300 and Cessna's Citation CJ4, was revealed to the public at the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva on 21 May 2013. The PC-24 first flew on 11 May 2015 with the first deliveries expected during 2017. The Swiss jet will have a range of 3,300 km (2,051 mi) with six passengers on board and a cruise speed of 786 km/h (488 mph). The aircraft has been designed with the capability to operate from unpaved runways and grass strips which is a major selling point reflected in the fact that the company`s order books are full for the first planned three years of production.
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March 2016
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