Sochi - July 2007

Sochi, the Black Sea resort, is situated only a few kilometers north of the border of Georgia. The city will host the Winter Olympic games in 2014. Till then a lot has to be done, especially with the traffic situation.
Aviation wise the traffic is still very much in "the hands" of Tupolevs and Ilyushins and the terminal buildings date back to the 70s. A new terminal has been finished recently but not yet been openend for public.


Vladivostok Avia comes in low over the outskirts of Adler with their Tupolev Tu-154M RA-85689 arriving from over the sea heading for runway 06.



Rossiya operates a daily flight from Mosow-Vnukovo. The Ilyushin Il-62M RA-86466 is seen taxiing out of her stand in front of the little VIP terminal.



Samara Tupolev Tu-154M RA-85817 is thundering out of runway 24 heading out to the sea.



UT Air is seen several times a day operating Tupolev 134s and 154s to Sochi, mostly connecting St. Petersburg and Moscow-Vnukovo with the resort town. Built in 1976 for Interflug, RA-65609 is still going strong. She is seen taking off runway 24 in front of the huge radar dome erected on one of the surrounding hills.


S7 - Siberia is also using the russian workhorse Tupolev Tu-154M to Sochi, but sometimes the mighty Ilyushin Il-86 as well. While the 86 has to offer generous seating the Tu-154 feels rather cramped inside. Behind RA-85611 you'll find the city name on the hill in case you forgot where you were flying to..



To manage the huge amount of construction material used for the building of the different olympic sites helicopters are used. Sturdy Kamov Ka-32A RA-31090 of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations (MChS Rossii) is perfectly suited for this task.

Barcelona - January 2007

Barcelona El Prat may not have as many longhaul flights as Madrid, but some nice specials might be seen as well. Iberia low-cost daughter Click and based Vueling add to the scene. Another plus is the growing presence of Russian carriers serving the capital of Catalonia.


Fokker 100 EC-IPV of GirJet is painted up as a new logo jet promoting the real estate company Grupo Taradellas as well as Barcelona soccer club Real Club Espanyol. She's leaving El Prat for the first time for a postioning flight to Palma.



One of a few heavies serving BCN is Aerolineas Argentinas. Contrary to the 747s you encounter in Madrid, Barcelona is about the only place besides of Rome where you might be able to get pictures of those rare Argentinian Airbus A340s. LV-ZPO started live with Cathay Pacific as VR-HMR and served with Philippine Airlines before ending up in Argentina.


Promoting Rias Baixas, Galicia, a tourism region in northwest Spain, one of 32 Boeing 737-800's in service with Air Europa, comes in to land on runway 07R. EC-IYI, a Boeing 737-883, originally built for SAS, went to Italian Air One in 2002 before joining Air Europe in 2004.


Bravo Air was founded in the Democratic Republic of Congo with the idea of connecting the country with the outside world. Something seems to have gone wrong, as the airliner has been flying around Europe for other carriers in need, in this case for Egypt Air. EC-JOZ has had a long history after having been delivered to Air New Zealand in 1988 as ZK-NBE. She saw service with carriers like Polynesian Airlines, Transbrasil, AeroContinente and shortlived SweFly.


Cargo carriers only recently started to drop in with Jade Cargo for sure one of the more exotic (and photogenic..) ones. The flight was delayed for a couple of hours which gave the opportunity to see this regular nighttime-visitor during perfect conditions leaving BCN for Brescia.



Bulgarian Air Charter operating a flight for Airlines 400 (now renamed to RedWings). LZ-ACQ rotates rather late and shows the new terminal under construction in the background. Tupolev Tu-154M LZ-LCQ spent a great time in the Far East for Baikal Airlines, China Nortwest and China Eastern and even flying for Iran Air Tours for a while before turning up in Europe.