Friday, September 11, 2009

Who's That? Part 14 - Anniversaries revealed

Commemorative paint schemes are usually pretty sharp; these anniversary liveries occasionally liven up what can otherwise be a monotonous parade of airplanes that all look the same. Enjoy!

In 2002, SkyWest Airlines observed its 30th anniversary with this specially painted CRJ2. SkyWest was the first US airline to operate the CRJ, in 1994. They now have some 140 of them, flying for Delta, Midwest, and United. Here at LAX, SkyWest flies as United Express, as seen here, as well as Delta Connection, as seen below.

This CRJ9 is painted for SkyWest's 35th anniversary. That same year (2007) marked 30 years of SkyWest service at LAX. With 140 departures a day (United Express and Delta Connection combined), I believe SkyWest has more flights at LAX than any other carrier. Southwest is probably next, with 119 departures per day.

Trans-Canada Air Lines was started in 1937, and became Canada's flag air carrier. Canada being a bilingual country, the airline was known as "TCA" in English, and "Air Canada" in French. An act of Parliament changed the company's name to Air Canada in 1965. This anniversary livery appears on an A319.

'The Party Plane' flies for Horizon Air, whose 25th anniversary was in 2006. Horizon has over three dozen of these Dash 8's, which are also known as Q400's.

This one was cheating a little, as it's not an airline anniversary, but instead Disneyland's 50th anniversary being commemorated. Known as 'Magic of Disneyland', this Alaska Airlines B737-400 is hard to photograph.

'Starliner 75' is Alaska's 75th anniversary aircraft, and features their original paint scheme. This is a B737-800.

Like SkyWest, Air Canada has more than one anniversary paint scheme flying around. This A320 is painted for their 65th anniversary, in 2002. Seems like there should be a 70th by now, but if so I haven't seen it yet. Come to think of it, I haven't seen this one lately.

3 comments:

  1. I have a cow that looks a little like the Air Canada A320!

    The color, not the shape.

    N

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  2. Marc -

    Yes, the SkyWest CRJ-900 is really sharp. I saw it fly overhead this morning, on departure out of Long Beach. I also really like the Horizon Dash-8; it's another eye-catching airplane.

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