Virgin Blue E-190 VHZP?

A Virgin Blue Embraer 190 landed at HNL on a cloudy November 17th on its way to Australia. Delivery flights had been staging through LIH, but this one arrived at HNL, met by a platoon of firetrucks. After the uneventful landing about 4:05 PM, the fire crews quickly lost interest. I don't know what kind of problem they had. I also couldn't get a clear view of the registration letters.

The 2nd Mokulele E170 Arrives

The second E170 has arrived from Republic with the registration N869RW. It is parked at Gate 49 right next to N868RW. N869RW arrived on Saturday, Nov 15 as TCF9400 and followed the same route as N868RW. Service between HNL-LIH/KOA will be staring in 3 days (Nov 19).

HA 717-200, N489HA

The next ex-QantasLink 717-26R is now flying with HA. N489HA, Po`ouli, has been in the fleet for a few week now, but only now I was able to take a picture. While flying with QantasLink, this 717 was registered VH-NXB.

It's pretty easy to tell the new additions to the fleet as the tails are not faded. Two added to the fleet, two more to go.

Aloha Air Cargo's N840AL Unveiled

Adhering to a request from Aloha Air Cargo (KH/AAH), here are two shots I got from the official unveiling on October 15th.

N840AL (c/n 23124), a 737-2X6C, was named "Ho‘omaka‘ana Hou" (Hawaiian for "New Beginning") was unveiled to Aloha Air Cargo employees, family, business partners, and the media in a gala presentation set in the KH hangar. The new colors also represents a new corporate identity for the cargo division of the former Aloha Airlines (AQ).

The top photo shows the new livery in its entirety, anf the above photo shows the new tail logo, which may feature different colors on the subsequent re-branding of the other four 737-200Cs in the KH fleet.

ANA 747-200, JA8174

For today's edition of a pre-blog classic, here's a 747-281B from ANA. This aircraft operated as an extra section flight during the end of the New Year's period back in 2005. Here it is parked at Gate 17 in the Centre Concourse instead of the Ewa or Diamond Head Concourses.

ANA retired all their classic 747s in Fiscal Year 2005, with the last flight being in March 2006.

First Republic E170 for Mokulele

The first E170 from Republic arrived in HNL for Mokulele. Registration of this aircraft is N868RW. They flew this aircraft IND-GTF-ANC-ADK-MDY-HNL. Apparently this route was taken because Republic didn't install any ferry tanks. The aircraft is currently parked at Gate 50. As you can see in the picture, the livery looks exactly like the picture on the Mokulele website with the only difference is the addition of the word "Kapalua" below the logo on the tail. The second E170 is also on its way to HNL on the same routing.

Qantas VH-EBU "Nalanji Dreaming"

As we wait for the deliveries from Boeing to begin again, here's another pre-blog rarebird for everyone. In late 2004, Qantas switched their schedule to arrive and depart HNL during the late morning instead of the middle of the night. This was most definately a response to Hawaiian's entry into the Australian market and their daytime flights. It was great to be able to see Qantas' 747-338s during the day.

In December of 2004, VH-EBU paid a visit to HNL. This aircraft featured an Aboriginal art livery and named "Nalanji Dreaming." A few months after visiting HNL, VH-EBU went to Avalon (AVV), Australia for maintenance. However, she never made it back out. She ended up having her lovely livery painted over and parted out.

Canadian Airlines' C-FCRE

Today's edition of HNL RareBirds Classic goes back to 1997, and Canadian Airlines' (CP/CDN) DC-10-30, C-FCRE (msn 47868), which bore the signatures of many Canadian Air employees, and was named "The Spirit of Canadian". It's seen above at Gate 26 between segments of the YVR-HNL-YVR flights.

Sadly, C-FCRE was broken up in 2002 as N305FV in the Arizona desert. It began life as I-DYND for Alitalia (AZ/AZA) in 1975. It also flew with Pakistan International Airlines (PK/PIA) as AP-BBL, then onto VASP (VP/VSP - Brazil) as PP-SON, before going to Canadian Airlines. CP was eventually acquired by Air Canada in 2001.

A CP Air (CP/CPC) 747-217B (c/n 20929) previously was registered C-FCRE. CP Air was the predecessor to Canadian Airlines.

Billabong Grumman SA-16A Albatross, N121FB

To celebrate the ratification of the new IAM contract with Boeing, here's a special rarebird that spent quite a bit of time at HNL. This Grumman SA-16A Albatross arrived in HNL in the middle of December 2005 to start a promotional surf tour sponsored by Billabong and Hawaiian Airlines. This aircraft kept in the maintenance hangar for about a week. It then was moved over to Elliott on Christmas Eve, where I took a special ride out to get this shot.

Billabong got this aircraft to do a special 2 year tour to find the best surf spots around the world. It actually spent a lot of time in HNL before leaving the state. I remember the aircraft still being at HNL, parked by the HCC aviation school on the South Ramp when I went on my trip in May 2006.

Strike At Boeing Ends

Striking Boeing machinists have ratified a new contract, and will return to assembly plants around the country, to resume aircraft assemblies and delveries.

Lufthansa Cargo MD-11F D-ALCB

A couple of years ago, Lufthansa Cargo used to fly a MD-11F between HNL and AKL as part of a codeshare with Air New Zealand. This flight was part of a round-the-world routing that passed through HNL 2 or 3 times a week. The flight usually just stopped over in HNL for a couple of hours before leaving. Here D-ALCB is seen taxiing out for takeoff back on October 31, 2004.

Hawaiian 767's Passing On Taxiways G And L

With HA parking more 767s at the Interisland Terminal, it was only a matter of time when I would see 2 767s would be passing each other on taxiways Golf and Lima. Well, that's what happened this past Saturday when N596HA was towed out and N591HA was coming in. The grass area between Golf and Lima is quite wide, but doesn't look it from a distance.

However, there is a fence along Golf that is really close to the taxiway. The wingtips won't hit the fence, but there is a light pole at the end of the taxiway that would cause some major damage if the aircraft was more than a few feet off the center line. The wingtip is probably 10-15 feet from the fence line.

I don't know why they did it, but 591 was not taxiing into a gate in the Interisland Terminal. In the first picture, the aircraft was stopped at that point even though there was more than enough space for it to taxi past 596. Holding an aircraft and blocking the taxiway to the interisland ramp didn't seem to be the best thing to do since they sat there for around 10 minutes. Apparently, 591 was holding for a gate in the Overseas side since after I took the second picture and turned off my camera, it made a u-turn at the end of Golf onto Lima. Too bad I didn't get a picture of that as it was quite cool to see it happen and the fact that the jet blast was deflected up and hit me in the face 3 stories up.

BTW, for those who haven't seen it, check out the new Aloha Air Cargo livery in the background. (Sorry, but it was just there.)

NW & DL Merger Finalized

The merger of Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines was completed when the federal government approved it this week. The merger will carry on the Delta name and branding, while the Northwest name and branding will fade away the same way Western Airlines did when Delta bought them in 1986.

What will this mean for Hawai‘i? Flights may be consolidated (LAX and SFO?), and we will begin to see NW aircraft in hybrid DL colors within a few months.

Guess we will get to see NW 744s and A333s in full DL colors within a year or so. Get you NW shots while you can!

Top photo: Delta's 767-432ER, N837MH (c/n 29710), is seen rotating from Runway 22L.

Above photo: Northwest's A330-323X, N805NW (msn 552) is seen at Gate 12 being readied for its return to NRT.

Japan Coast Guard's GV - JA500A

This ultra-long-range maritime search and surveillance GV variant was delivered to the Japan Coast Guard on January 17, 2005. Known as the “Umi Washi” (Sea Eagle), the aircraft is one of two, equipped with a Thales high performance maritime surveillance radar and FLIR system.

It dropped in to HNL this morning and after a quick visit by Customs was whisked into Castle & Cooke's hangar.

Garuda's MD-11

In the mid-90s, Garuda Indonesian Airlines (GA/GIA) used to fly to HNL from CGK as a re-fueling stop on its way to LAX, using MD-11s. The one seen above, is seen taxiing on Taxiway RT to Runway 26L. I don't remember which destination it was flying to, nor its flight number.

One of GA's MD-11s was involved in a tail-strike while landing on Runway 4R, back in 1997. Late one evening, I was at home listening to my scanner, while having a cigarette on my lanai, I watched flights make their over-water approach for 4R. A GA flight was cleared to land, and made a normal final. However, the pilot requested to go around, and immediately throttled up to gain altitude. The MD-11 made a wide right turn that overflew my building before heading back out over the ocean for another try at landing. The pilot reported to the controller after the second landing, that there was a tail-strike on the first attempt. That MD-11 was parked on the south ramp, next to the CO hangar, for almost three weeks while technicians and mechanincs from McDonnell-Douglas inspected the bird. Scaffolding was erected around the rear section of the fuselage, and tarp was placed over the damaged section. The wounded bird was eventually ferried to LGB for repairs.

JTA's JA8954

Today's HNL RareBirds Classic features JTA, Japan TransOcean Air (NU/JTA), it is a subsidiary of Japan Airlines, that is a regional carrier based in Naha, Okinawa, and serves the southwestern region of Japan. Before being acquired by JAL, JTA was known as Southwest Air Lines, and is not to be confused with USA's Southwest Airlines (WN/SWA), though both operate an all-737 fleet.

JTA's JA8954 (c/n 24130), a 737-4K5, seen above in front of the Circle Rainbow Aviation hangar, on its delivery flight. It remains with JTA and flies in the current JTA/JAL colors. JA8954 was orignally delivered to Hapag-Lloyd (Germany) as D-AHLQ in 1990, then sold to JTA in 1998.

JAL MD-11 JA8582

This pre-RareBird blog post features an MD-11 from JAL. This photo from September 24, 2004 as one of the few times that JAL has flown the MD-11 to HNL. This also happened to be the last time JAL used the MD-11 to HNL.

The MD-11 has had performance issues and as a result, poor sales for the passenger version and a short service life as a passenger aircraft with most airlines. This has also meant that very few have visited HNL from the carriers that have operated the passenger versions, which is a big turn around from all the airlines that have used the DC-10 to HNL.

China Yunnan's B-2640

Today's HNL RareBird Classic goes back to 1998, when China Yunnan Airlines (3Q/CYH) took delivery of B-2640 (c/n 29913), a 737-7W0. It's seen here being readied for departure on the 8L side of the south ramp.

China Yunnan Airlines was taken over by China Eastern Airlines in 2003, and B-2640 wears the MU colors.

Saudi Arabian Royal Flight's HZ-HM5

Dating back to 1994, is today's HNL RareBird Classic, a Saudi Arabian Royal Flight L-1011-385-3 "TriStar 500", HZ-HM5 (msn 193G-1250). This TriStar was used by the Royal Saudi Family, and it spent several days on the HNL south ramp. It's seen above wearing the classic Saudia (SV/SVA) colors, and has been re-painted in the current colors.

A few years after this photo was taken, other Saudia airliners have been seen at HNL, once there were a pair of SV 747-300s, along with a Gulfstream G-IV, and a Lockheed L-100 "Hercules", occupying HNL's south ramp. The 743s were actually parked on Taxiway F parallel to Runway 4L (similar to the AQ parkings in March). In August 2006, an SV 777-200 was at HNL for a few days.

F-16s in HNL

Took this slightly blurry shot while taxiing for the "Reef Runway", on the morning of 24 Oct.