Lao Airlines ATR 72
Lao Airlines was founded in 1976 when Royal Air Lao and Lao Air Lines were merged. At that time, the new airline was known as the Civil Aviation Company. In 1979 the airline’s name was changed to Lao Aviation and retained that name until more recently when it was formally changed to Lao Airlines. The company is based at Wattay International Airport in Vientian, Laos and is fully owned by the Laos government.
The airline operates four ATR-72-500s and four Xian MA60 aircraft. Lao Airlines previously operated an Airbus A320 from 2003 to 2005 and now plans to take delivery of an Airbus A319 in November to start flights to Singapore.
The livery is simple and works. Although many airlines wear flowers on the tail, this livery has a blue background and titles clearly on the front of the aircraft. The livery looks a bit plain on the larger A320, but might work better on the smaller A319.
Image: Shmat
What airline or charter company or private person does this orange livery belong to? Photo by JL Johnson. Click for larger.
I have a mystery for you. Who owns/owned this orange Boeing 737 that was sitting in Wichita Kansas on August 6th? This was taken and sent by reader JL Johnson who was hoping I could help, but I am not familiar with the livery and we didn’t get any hits via Twitter. From JL:
“What we did see was a KC-135 running touch-and-go maneuvers and these three unidentified planes. As best I can tell they are on the Spirit tarmac although it is possible they may be on Boeing or even McConnell AFB property. To be honest I’m not sure where one ends and the other begins. In any case these were on the east side of Oliver street. Google and other searches yield no results for any of the planes listed. We were particularly interested in the tan 737 because of its unique livery. It appears that it has an N-number that begins with a 2 followed by what might be 9. The pictures were taken on August 6 just before 4 PM local time as indicated by the exif.”
I am hoping you fine folks can give us a hand. Yes, the photo isn’t going to win any awards, but this was the best angle to get the shot. Any ideas or information, please leave in the comments.
If you ever run across an airline livery you are not sure of, let me know and if I am not sure what it is, we can work together to find out!
Here is N29SW in better days with a bright orange livery. Photo by Paul Kanagie.
UPDATE: Although many folks have helped track down this plane, I have to give uber kudos to @t0eknee who got the answer in a matter of minutes. This plane is N29SW, a Boeing 737-200 that was first with Southwest Airlines, then sold to Ryan International Airlines. At one time the aircraft actually had a very bright orange livery, but today it is a bit more faded. The 737-200 now belongs to the Kansas Aviation Museum, where 80% of the original plane was built.
UPDATE2: Got an email from Jim Armstrong giving a bit more information on the other two planes: “The shiny one toward the left is a Boeing B-47E model, one of a very few left in existence. The tall dark tail aircraft toward the right is a Boeing B-52, probably a “D” model. Having grown up in Wichita from 1950 to 1962, I’m pretty familiar with both aircraft.”
An Adam Air Boeing 737-200 (PK-KKF).
Adam Air started operations in 2003 with its main base of operations in Jakarta, Indonesia using two Boeing 737s. It seemed the airline might have a bright future, offering cheap fares, combined with higher end service. At one point they operated 22 737s to over 20 different destinations. Unfortunately, Adam Air was plagued by multiple accidents, safety violations and corruption.
The worst incident occurred on January 1, 2007 when Adam Air Flight 574, a Boeing 737-400, crashed into the ocean, killing all 102 people on-board. The airline was heavily criticized for their safety practices and were forced to shut down their operations in June 2008.
Although the airline had a lot of issues, at least they did the livery right. They made good use of the color orange on the fuselage, but I am not a huge fan of the green “AIR.” I think the livery even makes this older Boeing 737-200 look newer. There really should be more airlines that make orange their main color (ie easyJet).
Image: Bob the airplane nut
Europe Airpost Boeing 737-300 (F-GIXJ).
Europe Airpost is the world’s largest operator of the Boeing 737-300QC (Quick Change) aircraft with 14 in the fleet. That aircraft allows the airline to quickly change (hence the name) from cargo to passenger service quite quickly. Europe Airpost also operates two passenger only Boeing 737-700s, two all cargo Boeing 737-300s and four all cargo Fokker 27s.
The airline was founded in 1991, although its roots can be tracked back to L’Aeropostale in 1927. Europe Airpost is based out of Bà¢timent Le Squoia in France. They operate cargo operations and charter passenger services.
Their livery is unique and just looks cool, but I have always been a fan of yellow. It is hard to have so much solid color on a livery and make it look good and the swooping lines of gray and blue make it work.
Image: EL-RJD
The livery on this Jet2holidays Boeing 737-800 (G-GDFD) looks mighty similar to Allegiant Air's livery.
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it has to be a duck right? Not always. The image above is for a Jet2holidays Boeing 737, but that livery looks mighty familiar doesn’t it? It seems to have a lot in common with Allegiant Air’s livery, but for good reason.
Allegiant Air has leased two of their Boeing 757s (current registered as G-LSAL and G-LSAM) to Jet2holidays and they are flying them with a modified Allegiant livery. It appears they have now painted their 737 in a similar, but not exact same livery — which has become their new livery.
It is not bad looking, but I think Allegiant’s looks better. It does give you an idea what Allegiant’s livery would look like on a Boeing 737.
I tried to emails Jet2holidays to get some more information on the livery update, but to date, I have not received a reply.
Image: Ben Allsup
