CS-TEB returned from C-check

CS-TEB, msn 293B-1240, owned by euroAtlantic airways, returned from Amman last 21st October, where it performed a C-check, with MMZ301P callsign.

The aircraft also received the billboard titles of the revised livery of euroAtlantic airways, but only on the left side.

CS-TEB © Tiago Palla

CS-TEB © Tiago Palla

The 23rd October, CS-TEB departed to Ilorin in Nigeria, with 'Med View' MEV3333 callsign, but it seems to be operating Kabo Air's Hajj flights to Jeddah from there.

CS-TEB © Tiago Palla

Portuguese TriStar fleet status 10/09

MSN 1206 euroAtlantic CS-TMX - scrapped at Lisbon (LIS)
MSN 1240 euroAtlantic CS-TEB - ferried to Amman last 12th September for C-check
MSN 1241 Luzair CS-TMR - stored at Victorville (VCV) / for sale
MSN 1248 Luzair CS-TMP - stored at Aqaba (AQJ) / withdrawn from service

Privilege Jet Airlines L-1011 re-registered HR-AVN

MSN 293B-1242, an L-1011-500 from Privilege Jet Airlines, has a new registration: HR-AVN. The aircraft was previously registered TL-ADW.

CS-TMR stored at Victorville

A very recent photo (June 2009) of CS-TMR is available at Planepictures.net

(click here for the full picture) 

CS-TMR is owned by Luzair but it's listed for sale in SpeedNews website since October 2008.

Airliner World - Lockheed TriStar Classic Trijet

A very interesting article about the Lockheed TriStar (its history, present and uncertain future) was published in the current issue of Airliner World magazine. It seems the next issue will also have an article about military TriStars.

Portuguese TriStar fleet status 06/09

MSN 1206 euroAtlantic CS-TMX - scrapped at Lisbon (LIS)
MSN 1240 euroAtlantic CS-TEB - active and based at Lisbon (LIS)
MSN 1241 Luzair CS-TMR - stored at Victorville (VCV); future unknown
MSN 1248 Luzair CS-TMP - stored at Aqaba (AQJ)

Thanks to Privilege Jet Airlines information, the current status of MSN 1242 TL-ADW (an ex-TAP L-1011) was changed from 'Unknown' to 'Active' in the site's Fleet section.
It's nice to see some of these old boys still kicking around.

TAP/VASP codeshare agreement

This press-clip from brazilian Flap magazine (Issue 226, Feb. 1991) states that VASP leased TAP L-1011's to increase their capacity in the RIO-SSA-RIO route, taking advantage of the long parking time that these aircraft had at GIG airport: the flight from Lisboa arrived early in the morning and the aircraft wouldn't make its return until evening.

However it seems the real deal was a little bit different. TAP used to make a stop at SSA (Salvador) in their route to RIO two times a week. So VASP bought a block of 60 economy seats on the legs between SSA/RIO/SSA. VASP's marketing sold these seats with the following slogan in portuguese 'RIO - Salvador e Salvador - RIO, pela VASP com sotaque português' which means 'Rio-Salvador and Salvador-Rio, fly VASP with portuguese accent'.

This press clip was found via AeroFórum.

TAP Air Portugal - Just the right size!

It was added to the site's Memorabilia section a rather old TAP brochure from my childhood entitled "Big enough... Small enough...".

After some years with the slogan "An airline should be big enough to have 747's", TAP had to change its marketing strategy when it phased-out the 747's, so the L-1011 was "just the right size" for a 'new' airline which had lost significant traffic from its old ultramarine colonies.

This brochure marks a new era of TAP-Air Portugal which superseded this one:

It is also available in the Articles section a new incident report (portuguese only) about a TAP L-1011 which had a double engine flameout just after landing from a flight from Rio de Janeiro due to fuel starvation, in 1983. Many thanks to GPIAA.