A visit to the archives, and a call for your requests

As you've no doubt noticed, things have been pretty slow here lately. Most of the blame for that goes to my being out of pocket a good bit recently and not having the time or internet access to post new entries. So in the meantime, I'm going to turn the tables and give you guys an opportunity to make suggestions for future posts. So here's your chance: If you've been wanting to read about something I haven't covered, submit your comments, concerns, requests, and suggestions via the comment form. While I don't publish all reader comments, rest assured that I do read each and every one of them, and some have been (and will be) the impetus for post topics.

In the interim, I offer some shots from my archive. Unlike the spotters guide series, all of these shots feature things no longer seen at LAX:

This photo, from May of 2008, shows the Northwest "red top" livery that was replaced by the all-silver ("silver streak" perhaps?) scheme seen below. Air France no longer brings A340s into LAX either (nor B747s, for that matter); we now see them here exclusively in B777s, and they are beginning to appear with Air France's new livery, which is nowhere near as big a change from the old as was Northwests'.

The last Northwest livery before Delta took over. I think I've heard this referred to as "compass" (although I suggest "silver streak" as an alternative), here modeled by a pair of B757s - one with the new (at that time) winglets.

I caught this Air India B747 in April, 2008; it wasn't too much after that time that Air India disappeared from LAX - the summer of 2008 was not a good time for air carriers. As recently mentioned in another post, we don't see Horizon CRJs at LAX anymore either.

Aer Lingus, seen here in May, 2008, also disappeared from LAX at the end of that summer.
LAN is another carrier that no longer brings in A340s. We see them today in B767s.

Delta's Song brand operated from 2003 to 2006; this shot was taken in September of 2007 after the Song aircraft had been returned to the mainline Delta fleet. The last one was repainted in Delta colors in early 2008. The Delta Connection E145 is also extinct; ExpressJet operated here as Delta Connection from June, 2007, through the end of summer, 2008, after which time ExpressJet shut down its Delta Connection operation as well as its own airline, seen below in early 2008:

ExpressJet still flies as Continental Express (although not at LAX), and is now a subsidiary of Atlantic Southeast Airlines, who is in turn a subsidiary of SkyWest. Delta Connection flights at LAX are now all operated by SkyWest Airlines, using various CRJ models.