Yet another B777

China Eastern is the latest carrier to operate the B777 at LAX. Not only is it a new airplane, it's wearing a new livery with a new version of the swallow. A reader alerted me to the coming of the first one this past Thursday. I didn't catch the arrival, but here it is on its way out to Shanghai.

The B777 has nearly as many seats (316) as the A346 it replaces (322). China Eastern only had five of the big Airbuses, but plans to acquire twenty B777s. Unlike the B777, which is becoming ubiquitous at LAX, we don't see that many A340-600s. China Eastern only brought in one per day; we still see one each from Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic; and during the summer months we sometimes have another from Iberia. 

The China Eastern A346s actually left the LAX scene last year; in the interim China Eastern has been using A330-200s on the Shanghai - Los Angeles route. For a time, we were getting two per day:

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:

Another critter

Last week, we hosted a dragon:

 This week, it's a mouse:

More construction photos

Last time, I showed you construction at the TBIT. But that's not all that was happening this past weekend. We had a runway (24R/06L) closed for the entire weekend. This presented some photo opportunities for arrivals on 24L. For each of the ones I got, I missed at least one more, but then the American tax payer isn't paying me to take pictures; I am expected to do some actual work occasionally! And, as usual, there's something sneaky about one of these pictures. Guesses are welcome!

Nippon Cargo has this one plane with a green nose; I haven't noticed it in quite some time, but recently it's been through several times

I was hoping this was going to be the yellow-tailed Polar

Even when it was sunny, the June gloom wasn't far away

Submitted as proof that I am able to take a picture of something that isn't a heavy jet!

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.