Today's special movements page

As of today I will be starting to post all the important movements of each day for Athens airport on a page, so people to know in advance what to expect. Unfortunately these info are not available many hours in advance so you would have to check back regularly.


You can access the page at anytime by clicking the "Today's special movements - DATE_HERE @ UPDATE_TIME_HERE(L)" that you see below the blog's header or by following this links:

http://athensairport.blogspot.com/p/todays-special-movements-16092010.html
or shorter
http://bit.ly/d2yQXh

The page will be updated whenever new info come for an upcoming special movement and the page title would be changed with the new updated time so that you know when there is something new posted. The previous day's movements would be kept for one more day at the end of the post. This service is still in beta and might be stopped at any time.

Lufthansa B747-400M registered D-ABTC on the Frankfurt-Athens flight

The scheduled LH 3382/3383 Lufthansa flight from FRA (Frankfurt, Germany) to Athens was operated today, out of a sudden, by a Boeing Boeing 747-430M registered D-ABTC instead of the usual Airbus A321! If I am not mistaken this is the first Lufthansa B747 to visit Athens airport.


Boeing 747 / D-ABTC / departing from rwy 03R back to Frankfurt

U2 arrived in Athens on Blue Line MD-83 registered F-GMKL

U2 arrived in Athens from NCE (Nice, France) on a Blue Line MD-83 registered F-GMKL as BLE910. The plane landed at 17:05L on runway 03L and the band left the airport on 6 limos for the place where the concert will be held tonight.


MD-83 / F-GMLK / U2 arriving in Athens

Extra present to the U2 fans, a picture of Bono as he was leaving on one of the limos:

Live broadcast of U2 plane arrival in Athens airport (Blue Line MD-83 F-GMLK)

This is going to be an attempt to broadcast live the arrival of U2 in Athens onboard the Blue Line MD-83 registered F-GMLK that they use for their flights throughout the European portion of the "360" tour.
The plane is scheduled to arrive around 17:15L in Athens airport and to land on runway 03R. Through the embedded player below you can watch live the arrival of the plane. The broadcast will begin a few minutes before the landing of the plane. The exact time of the broadcast will be posted on our twitter page along with a link to this post in order to be able to see it. If you don't see the live stream at that time, try to refresh the page by hitting F5.


Live streaming of U2 plane arrival in Athens

U2 "360" tour support crew arrived in Athens on Niki A319 registered OE-LED

The support crew and the rest of the people involved in the U2 "360" tour arrived in Athens today at 16:50L from Vienna onboard a charter flight operated by Niki Airlines. The plane, an Airbus A319 registered OE-LED, arrived as HG 1150 from VIE (Vienna, Austria) and landed on runway 21R before parking on stand A43 on the southern apron.


Airbus A319 / OE-LED / about to land on rwy 21R carrying the support crew and other people from the U2 "360" tour


Airbus A319 / OE-LED / taxiing to stand A43 at Athens airport

Athens International Airport movements - Facebook page

It has been a while since the last post, the blog will still be running on "reduced power" as I am not ready yet to go "full throttle". In the mean time there has been a new page available on Facebook where all the important movements of Athens International Airport are recorded by up to the minute photo coverage!
Those who are interested to keep track of all that unusual, rare, interesting movements please take a look at this page here:

Athens International Airport movements

or

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Athens-International-Airport-movements/108540755869690

The page is not a replacement of this blog. It is just a photographic coverage of the important movements of LGAV/ATH. When the blog returns in "full throttle" it will still have all the latest news and stories as it used to have in the past!

Blog unserviceable due to dream interference

The following "NOTAM" was issued from the blog author:

A9999/09 NOTAMN
Q) LGGG/QBGAS/IV/NBO/A/000/999/3756N02356E020
A) LGAV
B) 0911190000
C) 1009010000 EST
E) BLOG OPR REDUCED PWR DUE CREW SHORTAGE

Plain language:

Effective 2009/11/19 00:00Z until 2010/09/01 00:00Z estimated the blog will be operating on reduced power due to crew shortage.

The blog will "operate on reduced power" for the following 10 months, at least, for personal reasons. Nothing bad has happened, it is just the time of one's life that you go and follow your dreams and have to set some other things aside.
I want to thank everyone who has contributed in one way or another to this blog, by sending pictures, by letting me know of news before anyone else finds out, by writing on this blog and so on. I also want to thank all the visitors, new and returning, for embracing this effort and using it as a valuable resource for the aviation news in our area.
As the time of the next post is not known, i would suggest that you subscribe by e-mail to the blog in order to be notified when a new post will be made. Just follow this link or click on the "Subscribe via Email" link on the top right.
Those who want to contact me in the meantime, are welcomed to do so by sending an e-mail or using the "Contact me" form on the right (middle of the page).

A farewell with my three favorite quotes:
"To most people, the sky is the limit. To those who love aviation, the sky is home." (anon)
"To invent an airplane is nothing. To build one is something. To fly is everything." (Otto Lilienthal)
"You haven't seen a tree until you've seen its shadow from the sky." (Amelia Earhart)

Canadian Air Force Airbus A310-300 registered 15001 arrived in Athens to pick up the Olympic Flame

Canadian Air Force Airbus A310-300, designation CC-150 Polaris, registered 15001 arrived in Athens today in order to pick up the Olympic Flame that was lit in ancient Olympia for the winter Olympic Games which are held in Vancouver. The plane landed at 15:15L on runway 03R coming from OSI (Osijek, Croatia). After landing a short ceremony was held on stand B17 and 3 Mirage 2000 planes did a low pass over the runway 03R.


Airbus A310 / 15001 / arriving in Athens to pick up the Olympic Flame for Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games (photo 27/10/2009)

Olympic Air took delivery of Airbus A320 registered SX-OAM in Athens

Olympic Air took delivery of another Airbus A320 today in Athens. It is registered SX-OAM (c/n 3990) and was delivered from TLS (Toulouse, France) to BOD (Bordeaux, France) where it was painted to full Olympic Air colors. It arrived tonight at 20:05L in ATH from BOD.
Thanks to Alex for the following photo.

Airbus A320 / SX-OAM / just arrived in Athens from BOD

Thai Airways changing aircraft on Athens route using Airbus A340-500

Since today Thai Airways is changing the aircraft type using on the Bangkok - Athens route. From now on an Airbus A340-500 will be used instead of the Boeing 777-200ER. The first A345 to arrive in Athens today was registered HS-TLD.
Thanks to Alex for the following photo.

Airbus A340 / HS-TLD / first Thai A345 in Athens