Apologies for the delay in posting this, caused by a loss of connectivity yesterday evening.
VISITORS
A promising start to the month with another four newcomers today. This morning we played host briefly to Seagle Air B733 OM-HLB (25011 ex PP-SOF, N227AW, OO-LTO, VH-OAN, OO-LTO, F-GRSA, SX-BBT, G-STRI), Rossiya A319 VP-BIQ (1890 ex N917FR) & Netjets Europe Beechjet CS-DMY (RK-556), while this afternoon saw a first visit from Ryanair B738 EI-DYP (37515). B752 N741PA (24737) remains at Gatwick either inside or outside of the Virgin hangar (see Fleet News below).
FLEET NEWS
British A/W B735 G-GFFD (26419) became the latest of that breed to leave the fleet when it was ferried to Norwich this afternoon as BAW9268. Its last revenue-earning flight was undertaken this morning as SHT2906/7 to/from Manchester, having flown BAW8080/1 to/from Dublin earlier in the day.
EasyJet B737 G-EZJG (30239) eventually made it to Lasham at lunchtime today as EZY8002. There are now enough airliners down there to start your own small to medium-sized airline!
Euro Atlantic. Further to yesterday's fleet notes, B752 CS-TLX (24176) was noted at Dublin recently operating for Jetx.
Flybe DHC-8 G-ECOY (4022 ex LN-RDG) was registered yesterday & positioned from Exeter to Birmingham this afternoon. G-ECOE (4212) was withdrawn from service last Friday prior to being leased to Wideroe & is due to be ferried back to Exeter from Norwich on Sunday. The prospective G-ECOZ (4034 ex LN-RDR) was outside Hangar 2 at Exeter this evening & is due to be prepared to enter service shortly. Future DHC-8 deliveries this month to Birmingham are expected be G-ECOG (4220) on 13th October & G-ECOH (4221) on 20th October, while the next EMB195, G-FBEN (c/n not yet known) is scheduled to arrive at Exeter on 19th October. Credit to Anthony Hutchings/Exeter Group rw26 for this information.
Flyglobespan B763 G-CEFG (26264) is understood to be the aircraft going to operate Falklands flights on behalf of the MoD (it is actually chartered to Chapman Freeborn). B763 G-CDPT (29388) appears to have finished its lease period with Air India & will be leased to Garuda for the Hajj between 5th November this year & 4th January 2009.
Virgin Nigeria. Thanks to John Creasey for the information that B752 N741PA (24737) will commence a two-month wet-lease to the airline from next Saturday, following interior reconfiguration at Gatwick. Will this replace one or both of the Latvian registered B763s?
ROUTE NEWS
Ryanair today announced another massive seat sale with flights from now until the end of the year for one euro (including taxes & charges) - see www.ryanair.com for details.
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
Taking my customary look back at the previous month, September saw a further sixty first visits to Gatwick - a big improvement on August's thirty-seven. This comprised thirty-eight airliners, five twins, fifteen biz jets, one helicopter & a PC-12. As well as our first CL605 (G-OCSE), the most noteworthy new visitors were probably Gomelavia An-12PS EW-245TI, Brazilian A/F B732 2115, Citation 525B OM-VPT & Rak A/W B752 N741PA. Unusually, we had no less than six Greek registered airliners making their first appearances - Astra Air BAe 146 SX-DIZ, Hellas Jet A320 SX-BVL, Hellenic Imperial B742 SX-TIE, Olympic B734 SX-BKU & Viking MD-80s SX-BTF/BTG.
On a sad note, this was the month that we lost XL A/W, an event that has directly affected some of our list members, & we also saw Futura go out of business. Central Wings stopped operating scheduled flights to Gatwick, Olympic ceased its Thessaloniki service (SX-BKF operated the last one on 21st September) & Continental reduced their daily flights from four to two while announcing that they would pull out of Gatwick altogether later this month. British A/W continued retiring B735s during September & the expected mass delivery of seven new B738s to Ryanair was reduced to a trickle, thanks to the Boeing machinists' strike, with just two arriving at Dublin. Finally, US A/W switched its flight code from USA to AWE & started using the old America West callsign "Cactus".
********ADVANCED WARNING********
Adding information from Malcolm Baldry to that already posted from Stephen Lane, Martin Stephen, Paul Mutton & gathered from other sources, we now seem to have the following due tomorrow (subject to all the customary warnings like change without notice, cancellation, acts of God, plagues of frogs, earthquakes, civil strife, the end of the world, etc, etc, etc).
BLE711 F-???? Fk100 eta 02.10 (from Cluj)
ROT3319 YR-??? B737 eta 02.20 (from Cluj)
N708SP Learjet 45 eta 06.55 & etd 09.15
NOS4530 I-NEOT B738 eta 06.30 & etd 07.45
FPO1167 F-???? B733 eta approx 17.45 (from Inverness)
XLF931M F-GZHB B738 eta 18.05 (from Inverness)
BLE513 F-???? Fk100 eta approx 18.15 (from Inverness)
JAF9541 OO-JBG B738 eta 19.10 & etd 19.15 (from Inverness)
CREDITS
Malcolm Baldry, Steve Pigg, Anthony Hutchings, Gary Jones, John Creasey, Paul Mutton, Brendan/Collinstown Lad, Allan Huse, Paul Giblin, rw26, Jethro, GINFO, Skyliner, Elton John & anybody else that I have forgotten.
Happy spotting!
John (& "Mad" Max)
MOVEMENTS SUMMARY (most from SBS)
AAW912 - A320 5A-ONB
ADR450 - B735 S5-AAM
AHY107 - A319 4K-AZ03
AMC116 - A320 9H-AEI
AMC1122 - A319 9H-AEH
AUI501 - B735 UR-GAK
AUI503 - B733 UR-GAL
AWE730 - B752 N202UW
AWE732 - A333 N270AY
BLE542P - MD80 F-GMLI
BMM312 - B734 CN-RMF
BRU851 - B735 EW-253PA
BTI651 - B735 YL-BBH
BTI655 - B733 YL-BBI
CGL350P - B733 OM-HLB (first visit)
CLI1038 - A320 EC-KCU
CLI1255 - A320 EC-KDX
CNO623 - B736 LN-RCW
COA034 - B764 N78060
COA116 - B752 N18112
DAL012 - B764 N837MH
DAL036 - B763 N184DN
DAL058 - B763 N1605
DAT2121 - B463 OO-DWK
DAT2129 - B734 OO-VEP
EIN242 - A320 EI-DEM (also EIN248)
EIN244 - A321 EI-CPC
EIN246 - did not operate
ELL101 - B733 ES-ABK
EZS8469 - A319 HB-JZQ (also EZS8471)
EZS8473 - A319 HB-JZI
EZS8475 - A319 HB-JZH
GSM152 - B738 G-DLCH
ISS3531 - A319 EI-DFP (also ISS3535)
KNI715 - B733 EI-DJK
LIL452 - B735 LY-AWF (callsign displayed as LIL461 on SBS)
LZB495 - B735 LZ-BOY (callsign displayed as LZB410 on SBS)
LZB497 - B733 LZ-BOV
MAH612 - B736 HA-LOI
MAH614 - B738 HA-LOH
MGX720 - F100 4O-AOM
MPD230 - A320 EC-KIK (also MPD232)
NAX1318 - B733 LN-KKG
NMB385 - A343 V5-NMF
NWA032 - B752 N546US
OMA905 - A310 CS-TEI
QTR075 - A333 A7-AEC
RYR112G - B738 EI-DHF (also RYR114G)
RYR116G - B738 EI-DCF (also RYR118G)
RYR1124 - B738 EI-DYP (first visit)
RYR1126 - B738 EI-DAR
RYR1182 - B738 EI-DAG (also RYR1X)
RYR9852 - B738 EI-DPG
SDM297 - A319 VP-BIQ (first visit - still using hex code for N917FR)
SNB157 - did not operate
SNB335 - B737 OY-MRR
SNB337 - B737 OY-MRI
SNB429 - B738 OY-SEJ
SNB431 - B735 OY-MAE (also SNB433)
SNB735 - B737 OY-MRF
SNB737 - B738 OY-SEK (callsign displayed as SNB373 on SBS)
TAP332 - A319 CS-TTG
TAP334 - A320 CS-TNE
TAP342 - A319 CS-TTP
TAP348B - A320 CS-TNN
TCX71L - A332 OY-VKF
TSC202 - A310 C-GTSI
TSC222 - A310 C-GTSD
TSC296 - A310 C-GTSH
UAE009 - A332 A6-EAN
UAE011 - A332 A6-EAR
UAE015 - B773 A6-EBW
VIK872 - MD80 SE-RDI
VIK874 - due at 23.55
BIZJETS, ETC
CS-DMY Be400XP (NJE224C - first visit)
N622SV Galaxy (arr 28/9 & dep today)
ZS-AOL Gulf 5 (arr 29/9 & dep today)