That is Chris Sloan in the cockpit of the Salmon-30-Salmon at Deadhorse / Prudhoe Bay Airport. Image: Chris Sloan / Airchive.com
If you are an airline livery buff, then the Alaska Airlines Salmon-30-Salmon livery is probably on your top ten list (at least it should be). I have seen the outside of the aircraft a few times, but never got to actually fly in it. Recently, Chris Sloan with Airchive.com shared some photos of the interior and I was excited how it had a sea-theme to it and wanted to share.
Alaska Airlines “Salmon-30-Salmon” Boeing 737-400 Flight Deck. Image: Chris Sloan / Airchive.com
From Airchive.com:
Alaska Airlines “Salmon-30-Salmon” Boeing 737-400 Cabin The “Salmon-Thirty-Salmon,” sporting the glimmering image of a wild Alaska king salmon, is among the world’s most intricately painted commercial airplanes. Complete with shiny scales, a dorsal fin and gills, the livery on the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-400 passenger aircraft is the result of a dedicated team of 30 painters working nearly nonstop for 24 days. The Boeing 737-400 aircraft has been in Alaska Airlines’s fleet since 1997 and was originally scheduled to be re-painted with Alaska’s traditional Eskimo livery. It was relaunched as “Salmon-Thirty-Salmon” in 2005. Salmon-30-Salmon in reference to a fluke incident that occurred March 30, 1987. After departure from Juneau, Alaska, a Boeing 737-200 hit a fish dropped by a Bald Eagle. Unlike many logojets, the “Salmon Jet” cabin features logo designs inside, in this case various forms of edible Alaskan sea life on the overhead bins. Alaska Airlines’s Boeing 737-400s feature 12 first class and 132 economy seats. These photos were taken on a Summer 2011 flight from Anchorage to Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay and Barrow.
Plaque in the salmon-30-salmon. Image: Chris Sloan / Airchive.com.
The overhead bins have sea creatures. Image: Chris Sloan / Airchive.com.
In case you do not know what kind of animals these are, they give you their names. Image: Chris Sloan / Airchive.com.
Alaska Airlines New Salmon-Thirty-Salmon, which will be put in service in the fall 2012. Image from Alaska. CLICK FOR LARGER.
The original Salmon-liveried 737 was painted over last year, but soon, the new Salmon-Thirty-Salmon II will be unveiled in Anchorage. Alaska Airlines tells AirlineReporter.com that the new aircraft will have a similar plaque, letting passengers know that they are on the world’s largest fish, but the sea creatures on the overhead bins will not be returning.
I flew on 792 recently, the interior is now back to normal 🙁
What a FUN post. I too have seen S-30-S, but never flown on her. Don’t know her routes, but very sure that I’ve not seen her out side our 49th state. Ha! For personal comfort, I love the Load Factor of the above pic, but Alaska sure does not pay their bills with that kind of load. (That may be the norm for some supported flights in Alaska, but in the lower 48, even the few red-eyes never look like that!)
Lastly, what can you tell us about the aircraft’s TUG in Chris’s first shot? Is this a remote control TUG,, perhaps commanded from the flightdeck? Maybe the angle is a bit off and it is noting more than a GPU. I’ve never seen such a unit before and I’m more than a little curious. WTF is that thing at the nose? Thanks, -C.
That is just a GPU on a sled … Prudhoe Bay is mostly ice and snow in the winters easier to push it around as a sled than on wheels