Manchester - 27/02/13

Over to Manchester for the first trip out of 2013. A bitterly-cold morning was spent in the sodden 'horse field' to the south of the airport, before moving across to the slightly less soggy, but not much warmer, Runway Viewing Park on the north side in the afternoon.

TAP Portugal Airbus A319 CS-TTQ gets airborne from Runway 23R.....

..... closely followed by British Airways' Airbus A320 G-EUYE.

Escaping the cold of Britain for the (hopefully) sunnier weather of Orlando, Boeing 747-400 G-VROM of Virgin Atlantic.

A welcome visitor in the shape of executive Boeing 757-200 SX-RFA, operated by Gainjet.

Another Boeing 757-200, N172AJ of American Airlines.

Philadelphia-bound, US Airways' Airbus A330-300 N274AY.

Heading off to Germany, Lufthansa Airbus A320 D-AIZL is one of the newer examples in their fleet.

Emirates operate three daily flights between Dubai and Manchester and the middle service, EK017, is usually operated by an Airbus A380. Here, the thrust reversers of recently-delivered A6-EEC whip up the spray on the wet runway.

Operating flights for Balkan Holidays, Bulgaria Air Airbus A320 LZ-FBE is about to touch down on 23R.

Monarch Airlines have been gradually introducing a revised livery to their fleet. One aircraft that has received the Makeover is Airbus A320 G-OZBK.

A pair of turboprop airliners. A puffin adorns the tail-fin of Aurigny's ATR 72 G-VZON as it departs for the Channel Islands, while Brussels is the destination for DHC 8-400 G-JECY of, appropriately, Brussels Airlines.

Brazilian-built Embraer 'E-jets' are a common sight at Manchester.  FlyBe operates a sizeable fleet of both E175s and their larger stablemate, the E195. One of the former, G-FBJH, is caught just after take-off. 

Another model in the E-jet line-up is the E190 and Finnair's OH-LKE will be heading for Helsinki after departure from the runway.

Competition for Aurigny on Channel Islands services is provided by another ATR operator, Blue Islands, which is currently operating the smaller ATR42 on flights from Manchester. G-ZEBS is shown in this trio of shots.

Libyan Airlines' flights to Manchester from Tripoli are slowly recovering from the turmoil in the country. On the day of my visit, the early afternoon departure was in the hands of Airbus A320 TS-INN, on lease from Nouvellair Tunisie.

Examples of the smallest and largest models in Boeing's 737NG range were present during the afternoon. SAS Scandinavian's LN-RCW is a 737-600 whereas Turkish Airlines' TC-JYH, shown here after arriving from Istanbul, is a 737-900.

In amongst all the heavy metal, something smaller in the shape of Beech 200 Super King Air G-BVMA.

Snow on the Pennines forms the backdrop as FlyBe's Embraer E175 G-FBJH departs on another short-haul flight, as E195 G-FBEN clears the runway.

Since becoming part of the Lufthansa group, Germanwings aircraft are being increasingly used on services to Manchester. Airbus A319 D-AGWP taxies past the RVP.

British Airways Airbus A320 G-EUYL arriving on a 'shuttle' service from London Heathrow.

Astana Airport in Kazakhstan is the usual base for Air Astana's P4-UAS, an Airbus A320. Today, however, the aircraft had made the slightly shorter hop from the slightly less exotic Southend Airport, where it had been undergoing scheduled maintenance. Once at Manchester, the aircraft would receive attention to its paintwork from Air Livery.

Doubtless arriving from somewhere warm and sunny, the passengers aboard this Monarch Boeing 757-200, G-MONJ, will soon have no doubts they are back in cold and snowy Britain.