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St Maarten and other delights Dave Rose 21/4/11 - 6/5/11

It was time for another "non spotting" holiday, a cruise around the Caribbean followed by some time in Florida was booked and we headed over to Manchester Airport. After a night in a hotel we dropped the bags at T2 and headed for the gate, the first leg being the daily US Airways A333 service to Philadelphia. Our steed was at the gate (N278AY) and we boarded on time, runway 23R was in use on single runway ops and we made our way to the holding point. I turned on my "on-board" scanner to find the departure would be via WAL then towards BEL to then join the NAT tracks over the pond, it was nice to see both of Virgins new A333s parked at T2 along with a few other bits.

LX	STA	Airbus A320	212	Strategic Airlines	446
G	EZTY	Airbus A320	214	Easyjet	4554
TC	JRM	Airbus A321	231	THY - Turk Hava Yollari	4643
G	VSXY	Airbus A330	343E	Virgin Atlantic	1195
G	VKSS	Airbus A330	343E	Virgin Atlantic	1201
C	GTSO	Airbus A330	342	Air Transat	132
N	278AY	Airbus A330	343E	US Airways	388
N	537US	Boeing 757	251	Delta Airlines	26484
N	172DN	Boeing 767	332	Delta Airlines	24775
9V	SWM	Boeing 777	312ER	Singapore Airlines	34578
N	403ND	Cessna 525B			525B-0250

7 hrs and 12 minutes later we arrived at a sunny Philly, the terminal is sectioned off with fingers and cul-de-sac areas. International flights arrive at section "A" with the main runways spread out in front of you. I wandered through the fingers and settled in "C" which gave a good view of the activity, which is brisk. Dominant carrier is US Airways but most other US carriers fly to Philly and a few european ones. The hub concept means that US Airways affiliate carriers feed into here, mostly painted in the current livery or versions of the old "dark" colours, although some keep a "token" aircraft in the liveries of Republic, PSA, etc etc. Photos are possible through glass but only into the cul-de-sac due to APU haze etc, but it is a place worth visiting, Biz is parked on an easterly apron with its own arrival runway but is seen on departure from the main runways and some commuter stuff lands on the cross runway, again they depart on 26L in the main. Basically you need to be alert at all times!!