We walked across to the airport from Bewley's Hotel, and headed to the cafe area again. It had rained earlier on, and it was still wet in some places, but the cloud didn't thicken again until later in the afternoon, shortly before we were due to fly. Some of these photos are taken from the cafe area, and some from the departure lounge in terminal 3.
Morning is the best time to see the heavies - the 747s, 767s, 777s and A330s, we saw them all and bagged examples of each type. Later on you see more 737s, A320s and smaller regional jets.
The American 767, don't know where it was going.
An Aer Arann ATR42. This aircraft was pushed back shortly after I took this photo, only to be returned to the terminal a few minutes later, before it had even reached the taxiway out of the "square" near the cafe. Eventually it was taken away, it obviously had quite a severe fault to prevent its flight leaving. Aer Arann fly to destinations in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
An Air France 737. The more common AF equipment on the MAN-CDG service is the A320.
One of the 747s from that day. This is Air Atlanta Cargo.
Air Berlin 737. Taken from the departure lounge.
Finnair. I much preferred their older livery to this one.
British Airways 757 approaching past an Aer Lingus 737. I had not seen this ridiculous nose ring design for years. I thought they had maybe ditched it.
The 757 is a beautiful, photogenic, elegant aircraft, and that nose ring does nothing for it at all
British Airways Avro RJ.
A British Airways 737 sporting a tartan tail. I thought the only aircraft with World Tails were the smaller ones, that shows how often I get chance to spot.
A bmi baby 737 straight after touch down, with the thrust reversers still open. Taken from the departure lounge.
bmi baby heading to the terminal.
Yet another variant of the Star Alliance livery for this bmi A321.
bmi - how many of these liveries do you have?
The title of this photo is "busy scene" because it shows the bustle around that area of the terminal at the middle of the morning. You have Ryanair, British Airways, Eastern and Lufthansa.
CSA 737 taken from the departure lounge.
Emirates A330.
First Choice (formerly Air 2000) 757.
Ryanair 737-200 arriving.
Two Irish airlines!
My first ever Helios!
Lufthansa 737 just after take off.
Our old friend OO-VLV, the nicest VLM aircraft I flew on, owing to its leather seats!
The PIA 777. Last time I captured a PIA aircraft on video it was a 747-200. This is my first sighting of their new colours 777!
PIA and British Airways.
The arrival of SN2173.
The departure of SN2174. We wish we had booked this flight instead of SN2178, then we would have been in Brussels several hours earlier!
Singapore 747-400 just after take off.
The British Airways Dash 8 with a tartan tail after take off. This aircraft is a regular at MAN.
This is my favourite of all the BA aircraft! I first saw G-EMBK on 30th March 2004 in BHX, and I thought it suited its tail very well, as I think the World Tails looked stupid on the main fleet but great on the smaller aircraft! I asked British Airways Virtual if this aircraft was available in Flight Sim, and for ages I had a photo of it as my desktop. I was pleased to see it again, and this time it was operating flight BA1628, the 14:00 departure to AMS.
Thomas Cook 757 after take off.
Turkish Airlines 737 with winglets.
US Airways A330 just becoming airborne.
All in all this was a great day. I just had one (very big) disappointment. I remember sn26567 saying about the Syrian 747SP in MAN on a Tuesday, and I just hoped I would see it because the SP is rarely seen here and I wanted to bag one before they were withdrawn. In the event, the Syrian flight was operated by a very mundane aircraft in comparison and I still have not bagged a 747SP.
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