Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2015! I'll start the new year off with a collection of noteworthy heavy jet shots taken over the holidays. These first don't seem so notable at first, until you consider that we hardly ever get Delta or United B747s at LAX anymore. These two both showed up and then left again on the same day.

KLM still brings in a daily B747. This one is marked to commemorate their 95th anniversary:

Next, the latest carrier to replace their B747s at LAX with B777s:

China Airlines (callsign: Dynasty) has recently started operating B777s between LAX and Taipei

Air Canada's Rouge normally operates A319s at LAX, but during the holiday season they've also shown up in a B767:

Besides the Rouge B767, also notable in this shot is the TACA Airbus; we don't see this livery at LAX much anymore; most of the TACA aircraft we see now bear the new Avianca paint scheme

Gratuitous dragon photo:

Air New Zealand bids farewell to the B747

Air New Zealand B747s disappeared from the LAX scene over a year ago, and today was the type's final day with the carrier. The final revenue flight was from San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand. Air New Zealand has operated B747s since 1981, but has opted (like many other carriers) to replace the type with newer, more fuel-efficient B777s and B787s. According to The New Zealand Herald, the aircraft utilized for the final flight is the same one (ZK-NBV, seen here) that made the last LAX appearance, in the summer of 2013.

References:

USA Today article

The New Zealand Herald article

The New Zealand Herald photo series 

More Eurowhite

After my post from earlier this month, one might suppose that I don't like the current trend of airline liveries. But as always, there's the exception that proves the rule, and this is it. Above and immediately below are Iberia's new colors on an A340-600. I apologize for the poor photos, but you get the idea.

And now, take a look at the livery that is being replaced by what you've seen above:

A definite improvement, wouldn't you say? Meanwhile, from the department of Just Because, another shot of the new Air New Zealand livery, this time modeled on a B777-200, which we don't see very often at LAX in New Zealand colors:

Another critter

Last week, we hosted a dragon:

 This week, it's a mouse:

Finally!

As no doubt happens to anybody with a camera, there are those times when the desired subject and the camera are not present at the same time, or they are but conditions are not conducive to actually getting a usable picture. Today, I get to show you three of my recent elusive subjects.

The first is this new Air New Zealand B777-300 in "All Blacks" livery. It's reportedly the largest commercial aircraft to be painted black. We've been seeing this aircraft at LAX for the last couple of weeks, but up 'til now I've only seen it parked at the terminal (see the opening shot) or at night (what's the point of trying to photograph a black airplane at night?!?). We have previously gotten to see this livery at LAX, on a couple of new Air New Zealand A320s as they passed through on their way to New Zealand. Funny thing is that this livery kinda looks like fish bones to me (it's not - those are fern fronds).

Since around Christmas, we've had two cargo carriers bringing in the new B747-8F, but they tend to do so after dark. This Cathay Pacific is the first B748 I've been able to catch with the camera during daylight. For comparison, the Polar seen in the second shot is a cargo B747-400.

I actually saw pictures of this Volaris A319 on the web long before my camera caught it at LAX; Volaris started flying into Chicago's Midway airport in December, 2010.

And here's my next target: Air China has started to bring in B777-300s, but so far I've only see them on their evening flight; the mid-day flight has so far continued to be a B747-400.

Birds of a feather

LAX serves as a hub or focus city for a number of airlines, and so it's not anything special to see a number of one airline's aircraft here at once; Air Canada, Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, Fedex, Qantas, Southwest, United, US Airways, and Virgin America all regularly have a gaggle of airplanes here. But for some of our other carriers it's not so common to have more than one plane here at once, or it may only happen once during the day. Here are some: