On the heels of Interjet, our latest arrival at LAX is really a return from the past. Scandinavian Airlines was last seen at LAX in 1994, after having flown here since 1954. That first flight in 1954 (in a DC-6) is noteworthy for being the first commercial flight to use the trans-polar route between Europe and North America. Scandinavian arrives several times a week from Stockholm, Sweden. So far, I've seen both A330-200 and A340-300 aircraft in the Scandinavian colors. The fuselage is not white, by the way; instead it's a very light beige or gray (Pantone Warm Gray 2, according to Wikipedia).
I was passing through LAX yesterday and I saw a LAX 787 on the south side, I was wondering if there was any reason why it was parked there. I saw it was just repositioned on flightradar 24
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of parking spots on the south side next to the Flight Path museum; these spots, along with others scattered around the airport's periphery, are sometimes used for aircraft that are going to remain on the ground for a while. The most likely scenario is an aircraft that is going to remain overnight or even a day (or longer). Gate space at LAX is way too valuable to leave an aircraft parked on a gate if it isn't getting ready to board and depart. You can see this happen all the time at LAX: An arriving aircraft parks at a gate while the passengers deplane and their luggage and any freight is unloaded. If the aircraft is not going to be immediately serviced and loaded for an outbound flight, it will be repositioned to some other location so that the gate can be utilized by other flights. The Qantas A380s and Virgin Australia B777s do this every morning. A little later, the El Al and Saudi B777s do likewise. Sometimes a Korean A380 will do this as well. Later in the day, they're brought back to the terminal to load for the departing flight. In the case of the Qantas and Virgin Australia aircraft, they will spend all day on the ground at LAX, usually at the new West Airport Maintenance Area (WAMA).
DeleteThis doesn't just happen with heavy jets; nearly all of the Terminal Two and Three operators do this as well. Virgin America, Air Canada, West Jet, Allegiant, TACA, and Hawaiian all do this, and others that I don't remember probably do it as well. In the case of your Dreamliner, the most likely candidate is Avianca, who has a B787 remain overnight at LAX.
It's a very nice airplane, but I think I've looked at it enough. What's next?
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