Holiday From Hell (by Chris Smith)
The holiday itself was decent enough, the title of this report refers to the aviation aspect of things, which didn't exactly go according to plan!
So the time came for a very well earned two week holiday to Tunisia. I was staying in Sousse, and research revealed my Hotel, "Toure Khalef" (which I wouldn't recommend by the way), was potentially ideally situated for anything arriving from or departing to the North at Monastir "Habib Bourguiba" International Airport. Yet when I arrived at Leeds/Bradford for my Thomson (operated by Sunwing Airlines) flight I realised we'd actually be going into Enfidha-Hammamet International, which I was pleased about, if not a little confused (why fly us into Enfidha when Monastir is right around the corner?!), still, "two airports instead of one" I thought.
I'd known for a while I'd be flying on one of the three Sunwing Airlines aircraft on lease to Thomson for the Summer and when I got to the gate to find C-FYLC waiting I was pleased as C-FYUH had been Leeds-based for the past several weeks which I'd noted multiple times on it's Tuesday visits to Durham Tees Valley, so with two out of three in the bag, as well as two airports to potentially enjoy at the other end, things were going my way.
But that's where my luck ran out.
Upon arrival at Enfidha, the only things of note were common British charter traffic, with the one aircraft that may have been of interest, a Tunisair Airbus, being the one aircraft that was unreadable. A sign of things to come. When I got to the hotel, I soon confirmed my suspicions about being right underneath the approach to Monastir, on average though there was only between two and four flights per day that would swing by my way, still, better than a kick in the teeth. So Plan A was to use the Plane Finder Android App via the free hotel WiFi to pick off these overflights, but the hotel pool area, which is where the bulk of our time would be spent, was outside the range of the WiFi which was limited to inside the buildings (when it worked!). So Plan B - the aircraft were good for photos, so the camera started accompanying me to the Pool, yet much to my annoyance, for the remainder of the holiday the aircraft seemed to wait until I was in the pool, or the sea, at lunch or otherwise separated from my camera before passing overhead!
I thought things might be back in my favour on the second Tuesday when a trip to a Safari Park took me right back past Enfidha, the coach was even good enough to develop a minor tech fault which meant pulling over at a point where I had an ideal view of the ramp which had an Air Berlin and Nouvelair Tunisie parked, but sadly, a sand storm kept the registrations from me! Had the Safari Park had WiFi, I would have been able to pick off three or four departures over the course of the day as well. Luckily the 'playback' feature of Flightradar24.com bagged me the two parked aircraft as well as some of my hotel overflights.
The Safari trip did yield some fruit however, as during the coach ride, much to my delight, I noted a small collection of aircraft on the road side!! So, on the following Friday, when the rest of my family went off to some market which isn't my thing, I seized my opportunity, determined not to go home empty handed, I jumped in a taxi and made my way back to the roadside aircraft (had it not been an Arabic (i.e. anti-spotter) country, I'd have got a taxi to Monastir Airport as well on a couple of occasions). When I got there, I found most aircraft had their markings maticulously removed, I wasn't too concerned though, surely a collection like this so accessible to the public would be well documented on the Internet?! Turns out the collection was part of a museum, I don't know why, but I just didn't expect this to be a museum, simply someone's private collection. As museums go, this was poor, only five or six aircraft with nothing but memorabilia and a random photo of a battered and bruised Bruce Willis from Die Hard 4 inside, yet for a coincidental discovery in a place like Tunisia, it was gold dust, especially when I followed a hunch and looked round the back on the off chance there might be more, only to find a crashed Boeing 737 in bits scattered across a lawn!! Upon looking around further, it was actually quite impressive what they've done with various parts of the mangled wreck, such as made statues to go in front of the adjacent shopping centre, and in a clothes shop inside of said shopping centre, shirts and trousers can be found hanging on a piece of landing gear! The airframe appears to be SU-GBI, an Egyptair 737-500 that crashed into a mountain on approach to Tunis in 2002, sadly killing 11 passengers and 3 crew. From my photos, the wreckage and livery matches the crash photos perfectly and one of my shots of the wing appears to show part of the registration, 'BI'.
A couple of days later it was time to go home, Sunday is British day at Enfidha so you still get mostly common charter traffic, it comes in all at once and likewise all goes out at once. Enfidha is a new airport, opened in December 2009, and was built as a second hub for Tunisair, but the airline decided to operate only occasional charter flights. Anything of any interest, such as cargo or executive traffic, still goes into Monastir. My eight year old Nephew is a member of Cubs and had an 'Aviation Badge' to achieve which involved noting registrations, types and operators, so knowing he would look a lot less suspicious to the Arabs than I would, he was given the spotting duties whilst I just observed. On the previous Tuesday I'd looked at DTV Movements on my mobile, and much to my delight, the Leeds-based Sunwing aircraft had changed to C-FTLK, which is apparantly considered the rarer one of the three and is in a hybrid Hapag Lloyd scheme. Anticipating my third and final UK-based Sunwing, I was horrified to discover that two days prior, some ground crew ass hole decided it would be a good idea to slam a vehicle into the fuselage, meaning I had to settle for G-TAWD!! I didn't even have the consolation of it being in the new livery. Unlike the Sunwing however, it did boast the new Boeing Sky interior, designed for the Dreamliner, and was actually a much more pleasant ride than the Dreamliner itself had been a couple of weeks prior! Flight deck access and a canny haul upon landing at a very busy Leeds (even if I didn't need most of it) took the sting out of the whole farce. I was also able to break my "holiday curse" - on my previous three holidays I've been brought home by the same aircraft that flew me out, despite the airlines having multiple examples of the types in service, these were G-THOO, TC-OAF & G-CELF respectively.
Leeds/Bradford International Airport (LBA / EGNM)
21/07/2013
| REG | A/C TYPE | OPERATOR | NOTES |
| C-FYLC* | Boeing 737-8BK/W | Sunwing Airlines | Operating for Thomson Airways - my flight |
| EI-DPH | Boeing 737-8AS/W | Ryanair | |
| EI-EBN | Boeing 737-8AS/W | Ryanair | |
| EI-EKK | Boeing 737-8AS/W | Ryanair | |
| G-CELB | Boeing 737-377 | Jet2.com | "Yorkshire" titles www.jet2.com |
| G-CELF | Boeing 737-377 | Jet2.com | |
| G-CELG | Boeing 737-377 | Jet2.com | |
| G-CELI | Boeing 737-330 | Jet2.com | "Manchester" titles |
| G-GDFB | Boeing 737-33A | Jet2 Holidays | |
| G-GDFJ | Boeing 737-804 | Jet2 Holidays | |
| G-GDFM* | Boeing 737-36N | Jet2 Holidays | |
| G-GDFN* | Boeing 737-33V/W | Jet2 Holidays | |
| G-LSAB | Boeing 757-27B/W | Jet2.com | |
| G-LSAI | Boeing 757-21B | Jet2.com | |
| G-LSAN* | Boeing 757-2K2/W | Jet2 Holidays | |
| G-ZBAA* | Airbus A320-214/S | Monarch Airlines | |
| G-ZBAB* | Airbus A320-214/S | Monarch Airlines | |
| PH-KZT | Fokker 70 | KLM Cityhopper |
Enfidha-Hammamet International Airport (NBE / DTNH)
21/07/2013
| REG | A/C TYPE | OPERATOR | NOTES |
| G-FDZA | Boeing 737-8K5/W | Thomson Airways | New c/s |
| G-FDZF | Boeing 737-8K5/W | Thomson Airways | New c/s |
| G-JMCD | Boeing 757-25F | Thomas Cook Airlines | |
| G-OOBB | Boeing 757-28A/W | Thomson Airways | Old c/s |
| G-OOBE | Boeing 757-28A/W | Thomson Airways | |
| G-TAWK | Boeing 737-800/W | Thomson Airways | |
| G-TCDA | Airbus A321-211 | Thomas Cook Airlines | Egypt c/s |
| TS-IM? | Airbus A320-21? | Tunisair |
Monastir Habib Bourguiba International Airport (MIR / DTMB)
| REG | A/C TYPE | OPERATOR | NOTES |
| TS-IMH* | Airbus A320-211 | Tunisair | 23/07/2013 |
| TS-IEG* | Airbus A319-112 | Syphax Airlines | 25/07/2013 |
| TS-INF* | Airbus A320-214 | Nouvelair Tunisie | 30/07/2013 |
| 9A-CTF* | Airbus A320-211 | Croatia Airlines | 31/07/2013 - operating for Syphax Airlines |
| VP-BRD* | Airbus A321-232 | Nordwind Airlines | 31/07/2013 |
| TS-INL | Airbus A320-211 | Nouvelair Tunisie | 03/08/2013 |
Enfidha-Hammamet International Airport
30/07/2013
| REG | A/C TYPE | OPERATOR | NOTES |
| D-ABMG* | Boeing 737-86J/W | Air Berlin | |
| TS-INL* | Airbus A320-211 | Nouvelair Tunisie |
New Fly Aviation Museum
02/08/2013
| REG | A/C TYPE | OPERATOR | NOTES |
| 9163 | Classic Fighter Jet | Egyptian Air Force | Mock-up |
| OO-GCA* | Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee | Private | |
| SU-GBI* | Boeing 737-568 | Egyptair | Various parts located in and around museum |
| TS-AKI* | Socata MS892E Rallye 150GT | Private | |
| TS-BAA* | Piper PA-25-235 Pawnee | Private | Dumped around the back |
| Classic Airliner | Unknown | Possibly a mock-up, attached to wall inside museum | |
| Classic Helicopter | Private | ||
| Classic Prop | Private | ||
| Light aircraft | Private | ||
| Piper PA-25-235 Pawnee | Private | ||
| Space Shuttle | NASA | Probably fake, but seen hints that suggest otherwise |
Click here for New Fly Aviation Museum photos.
Enfidha-Hammamet International Airport
04/08/2013
| REG | A/C TYPE | OPERATOR | NOTES |
| F-HJUL* | Boeing 737-8Q8/W | XL Airways France | Operating for Luxair |
| G-FCLA | Boeing 757-2Q8 | Thomas Cook Airlines | |
| G-FCLI | Boeing 757-28A | Thomas Cook Airlines | |
| G-FDZE | Boeing 737-8K5/W | Thomson Airways | |
| G-FDZJ | Boeing 737-8K5/W | Thomson Airways | |
| G-FDZW | Boeing 737-8K5/W | Thomson Airways | |
| G-DHJH | Airbus A321-211 | Thomas Cook Airlines | |
| G-OOBB | Boeing 757-28A/W | Thomson Airways | |
| G-OOBC | Boeing 757-28A/W | Thomson Airways | |
| G-TAWD | Boeing 737-8K5/W | Thomson Airways | My flight |
| G-TAWO* | Boeing 737-8K5/W | Thomson Airways | |
| G-TCBC | Boeing 757-236 | Thomas Cook Airlines | Egypt c/s |
| G-TCCB | Boeing 767-31K/ER(W) | Thomas Cook Airlines | |
| OO-JAF* | Boeing 737-8K5/W | Jetairfly | |
| TS-IME* | Airbus A320-211 | Tunisair | |
| TS-INH* | Airbus A320-214 | Nouvelair Tunisie | |
| TS-IOG* | Boeing 737-5H3 | Tunisair | |
| TS-IOL* | Boeing 737-6H3 | Tunisair | |
| TS-IOQ* | Boeing 737-6H3 | Tunisair |
Click here for Enfidha-Hammamet photos.
In-flight just north of Amiens, France:
| G-EUPP | Airbus A319-131 | British Airways | Milan Linate - London Heathrow |
Leeds/Bradford International Airport
04/08/2013
| REG | A/C TYPE | OPERATOR | NOTES |
| CS-DFR* | Cessna 560XL Citation Excel | NetJets Europe | |
| G-CELB | Boeing 737-377 | Jet2.com | "Yorkshire" titles |
| G-CELG | Boeing 737-377 | Jet2.com | |
| G-CELZ | Boeing 737-377/QC | Jet2.com | |
| G-CFGB | Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign | Keepflying LLP | |
| G-DLAL | Beech E90 King Air | Aerodynamics Ltd | |
| G-EUOA | Airbus A319-131 | British Airways | |
| G-GDFG | Boeing 737-36Q | Jet2.com | |
| G-LSAH | Boeing 757-21B | Jet2.com | |
| G-MAJF | BAe Jetstream 41 | Eastern Airways | |
| G-ZBAA | Airbus A320-214/S | Monarch Airlines | |
| G-ZBAB | Airbus A320-214/S | Monarch Airlines | |
| N380CR* | Cessna 525A CitationJet CJ2+ | Corporate |
Click here for Leeds/Bradford photos.
* = required
Thanks for reading if you got this far! My next report at the time of writing should be a short visit to Edinburgh at the end of this month.
Click here for more photos.
