Tag Archives: twente

Two’s a company, three’s a crowd

Gallery 9 July 2020 Niek van der Zande

After the arrival of the first two Lufthansa Boeing 747s at Twente Airport (see https://niekvanderzande.nl/wordpress/two-cranes-park-in-twente/ ), a third one arrived for storage at Twente Airport on the 29th of June.

Boeing 747 runway lights — D-ABTK approaches the airfield

Because of ongoing cost reductions, Lufthansa has decided to put 6 Boeing 747-430s in long term storage at Twente Airport. In order to facililtate this, several dedicated aircraft parking platforms have been created next to the main platform.

The third Lufthansa 747 to arrive was D-ABTK, which is 18.5 years old. It was initially withdrawn from use at Frankfurt in March 2020. After some rescheduling, it was then ferried to Twente on the 29th of June.

D-ABTKs ferry flight from FRA to ENS (source: www.flightaware.com )

Upon arrival, D-ABTK was initially parked at the former Runway 11 platform. Later that week she was moved to the newly created parkingspots.

Aviation

Two Cranes park in Twente

Gallery 13 June 2020 Niek van der Zande 1 Comment

On the 6th of June two Lufthansa Boeing 747-400s arrived at Twente Airport for long-term storage. More aircraft will follow in the near future.

Lufthansa Boeing 747 parked at Twente Airport — Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 Mülheim a.d. Ruhr parked on the main apron of Twente Airport

Airplane enthusiast faced an early start on Saturday 6 June for the arrival of two Lufthansa Boeing 747-400s that will be stored at Twente Airport. Initial rumours on the ever-reliable internet mentioned that these aircraft would be dismantled with AELS, but AELS was quick to mention that this was not the case.

Boeing 747 Twente — D-ABVO is about to touch down at twente Airport

These two aircraft are the first of in total six Boeing 747s that will be stored at Twente Airport for Lufthansa. Whilst parked here, the Cranes (nickname for Lufthansa aircraft) will be maintained by Lufthansa Technik, so that they can be restored into airworthy condition at any given time.

Due to the loss in demand and the many travel restrictions, Lufthansa has to keep a large part of the fleet grounded. Initially this was done at their hubs like Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg. However, these airports are now slowly starting up their operations again, which means that some of the parking space over there is needed for other purposes.

Because of this, Lufthansa came to an agreement with Twente Airport for the storage of 6 aircraft. Since Twente has a runway that is wide and long enough (almost 3000m), it is able to handle large aircraft like the Boeing 747.

The Airbus 220s that are parked at Twente Airport

Earlier this year, two factory fresh Airbus 220s were already parked at Twente Airport whilst the lease company was looking for a new customer.

The first aircraft to arrive on 6 June was D-ABVO named Mülheim a.d. Ruhr, which landed shortly before 8 am. This 747 arrived directly from Beijing, where it was ferried earlier this year for a C-Check. However, because of the Covid-19 crisis, this check was postponed and the aircraft was flown to Twente. The crew was not that confident that this particular airframe would fly again, as it is already more than 23 years old and the demand for large aircraft is less.

D-ABVOs flight from Beijng (source: Flightaware)

Cockpit Boeing 747 — The Cockpit of Mülheim a.d. Ruhr

Two hours later her younger sister D-ABTL arrived from Frankfurt, which was with a flighttime of 45 minutes a lot shorter. After arrival, she was directly parked at the former runway 11, where Lufthansa Technik will prepare her for the long term storage.

D-ABTL’s much shorter flight (source: Flightaware)

2 Lufthansa Boeing 747s — D-ABTL lands on Twente Airport’s Runway 23, whilst D-ABVO is already parked

After parking, there was a quick moment for a group picture, after which both crews flew back to Frankfurt in a Piper 34. That’s also one of the perks of storing aircraft close to home; you can fly back with a small aircraft.

Lufthansa Crew — The crew of both Boeing 747s before their flight back home

At this moment, it is not yet known when the other 4 Boeings will arrive. In order to park them, first the new parking positions that are currently under construction at Twente Airport need to be ready.

PlaneM ani a made a very nice video report about the arrival of D-ABTL at Twente Airport, you can find it below.

Aviation

Pink Skyvan at Twente

Gallery 16 May 2020 Niek van der Zande

From 12 to 14 May 2020 Skyvan OE-FDI of Pink Skyvan Aviation flew from Twente Airport in order to exercise with the Dutch Army.

https://www.facebook.com/NiekvanderZandePhotography/posts/3153885288003687

Aviation

A short hop to the final destination

Gallery 19 August 2019 Niek van der Zande

After a short flight from Brussels-Zaventem, Brussels Airlines Airbus A330-223 OO-SFY landed at Twente Airport on Monday 19 August 2019.

Brussels Airlines A330 OO-SFY landing at Twente Airport — Flight BEL9901 touches down at Twente Airport

This morning former Brussels Airlines Airbus A330-223 OO-SFY arrived at Twente Airport, coming from Brussels-Zaventem Airport. At Twente Airport, the Airbus will be dismantled by Aircraft End-of-Life Solutions (AELS).

This Airbus with Manufacturer Serial Number (MSN) 229 made her first flight in August 1998 and was delivered to Swissair in September that year as HB-IQA. The aircraft flew with Swissair and its successor Swiss until September 2011 and was transferred to Brussels Airlines under a lease contract in October that year, still carrying the HB-IQA registration.

Brussels Airlines A330 OO-SFY after landing at Twente Airport

She carried the registration OO-SFY since January 2012 and made her final flight commercial flight from Entebbe to Brussels on 17 August 2019.

Today she made her final flight after 21 years of service. Her landing marks the arrival of the 11th aircraft to be dismantled by AELS at Twente Airport.

Technicians from Brussels Airlines will now dismantle the engines, after which the ownership of the aircraft is transferred to AELS and the demolition can start.

The arrival of OO-SFY marks the 11th arrival for AELS and the second arrival of an A330, after a TAP A330 arrived in July of this year. Aircraft parts can be aquired through www.a330stock.com

Aviation

The Dutch-Portuguese Connection

Gallery 30 July 2019 Niek van der Zande

Tuesday 30 July 2019 saw the arrival of the 10th aircraft for dismantling with AELS at Twente Airport.

Airbus 330-223 CS-TOI — CS-TOI on short final for Runway 05

After AELS had already obtained and dismantled several Boeing 747s, 737s and Airbus 340s, it was now a new aircraft type that arrived, the Airbus 330. In this particular case A330-223 CS-TOI from TAP Portugal flew from Lisbon to Twente.

CS-TOIs final flight from Lisbon to Twente

Recently TAP has started to take delivery of the A330-900neo. This newer version of the Airbus 330, equipped with newer engines is more fuel efficient and therefore the “classic” 330s are phased out, with CS-TOI being the first airframe.

The 22 year old aircraft with constructionnumber MSN195 was the second prototype for the Airbus 330-200 subversion, which was developed after the original A330-300 and is shorter. The aircraft’s first flight with registration F-WWKJ took place in December 1997 at Airbus’ Toulouse facility.

In May 1999 Austrian Airlines took delivery of the aircraft under registration OE-LAN with the name Arlberg. TAP – Air Portugal then took delivery of the aircraft in July 2007, where the aircraft got the name Damião de Góis. The last flight in service of this airline was on 29 July 2019 when it returned from Luanda in Angola.

The next day, the aircraft that still carried full TAP colours was flown by a crew of 2 to Twente Airport as flight TP9757. There it joined an ex-Qatar A.340 and an ex-Kuwait Boeing 747 that are already in various stages of dismantlement with AELS.

The crew that ferried CS-TOI from Lisbon to Twente

A nice thing to know is that there actually is a connection between this particular Portuguese Airbus and The Netherlands. As mentioned before, the aircraft is named Damião de Góis. This philosopher lived in the Netherlands between 1523 and 1544 and was also known as Damiaan van der Goes.

CS-TOI after the final engine shutdown at Twente Airports runway

Aviation, Transport

A unique boeing makes her final flight to Twente

Gallery 22 June 2019 Niek van der Zande

On the 24th of May 2019 Twente based company AELS received a unique aircraft; the sole Kuwait Airways Boeing 747-400M 9K-ADE arrived directly from Kuwait.

Boeing 747 9K-ADE shortly before landing at Twente Airport — 9K-ADE shortly before touchdown

Little information was given prior to the arrival of this Jumbo. The reason behind this was that when a Qatar Airways Airbus 340 arrived earlier in May, the nature reserve surrounding the airport was “invaded” by people who wanted to see the arrival. These persons did not stick to the rules and wandered off the paths into areas where birds were breeding.

Since this was an undesirable situation, this time it was chosen not to make any public announcements prior to the arrival of the Boeing .

This was not the first Boeing 747 to arrive at Twente Airport, as AELS had dismantled two KLM 747s before. But why is this Kuwait Airways airframe so special?

Boeing 747 9K-ADE Towed to the AELS platform at Twente Airport

The aircraft is so special because this was the only Boeing 747-400M that was ever operated by Kuwait Airways. From an airline’s perespective, this makes no sense at all. If you have only one example of a particular aircraft type in your fleet, then you will have a rather high operational cost for that airframe. You will have to maintain a stock of spare parts, need qualified engineers and tools, just for this single aircraft.

The reason that Kuwait Airways operated this Boeing 747 (which was delivered in 1994) is that it was previously used by the State of Kuwait. In this role, it was part of the fleet of aircraft that was used to transport the Emir, Royal Family and other government officials. After the Kuwait Government obtained a new Boeing 747-8, this particular aircraft was handed over to Kuwait Airways.

Little was changed on the interior, so that it was still available as a back-up plane, in case needed. The interior therefore sports some special features that you will not find on a regular Boeing 747.

The upper deck, for example, was strictly off limits to regular passengers. This upper deck was reserved for the VIP guests, with a lavish seating area, a bedroom and a bathroom equipped with shower.

Kwait Airways Boeing 747-400 9K-ADE on touchdown at Twente Airport

Passengers on the lower deck could note that there was a large portion of the centre section that was walled off. In a normal 747, this area would house the centre rows of seats. However, in 9K-ADE this area houses an operating room. Surely, that is not something you see every day.

In January 2019, the aircraft made the last commercial flight from Doha to Kuwait City, after which it was withdrawn from use. On the 24th of May Al-Jabriya departed Kuwait City for last time, for a flight of 5 hours and 23 minutes to Twente Airport. There she arrived shortly after 20.00 local time.

After engine shutdown on the runway, she was towed to the AELS platform, where she now awaits her fate next to the Qatar Airways Airbus 340-600.

Boeing 747 9K-ADE parked at the AELS platform at Twente Airport

Aviation, Transport

Last flight of F-GLZI

Gallery 20 January 2018 Niek van der Zande

On Friday 19 January 2018 Air France’s Airbus 340-311 F-GLZI made its last flight to Twente Airport, to be dismantled by AELS.

Airbus 340 F-GLZI after shutting down the engines for the final time.

Long-time Airbus customer Air France is gradually replacing the Airbus 340 with the newer, more cost-efficient Boeing 787 Dreamliner. As a result, the Airbus 340 fleet is slowly phased out. Twente based aircraft dismantling company AELS was able to acquire two airframes, of which the first one was transferred on 19 January.

Airbus 340-311, the 84th A.340 built made its first flight on July 12th 1995 and has since flown with Air France for 22 years. Recently it made the last commercial flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle.

On 19 January 2018 the aircraft was initially expected to arrive at Twente Airport around 11 o’ clock in the morning. This was however postponed to 14.30 due to the weather along the route.

The flight was later postponed further due to availability of tugs at the departure airport and availability of Air Traffic Control slots. Finnaly the arrival time was changed to 16.00 local.

Shortly before 3pm the engines were started and take-off of flight AF370V could be witnessed on Flightradar. The flight then went north and entered Dutch airspace just west of Bergen op Zoom. Above Dordrecht the aircraft turned north-east in the direction of Twente, where it landed at 15.45.

The aircraft was then parked at the Runway 05, where the engines were stopped for the last time. The F-GLZI was then handed over to the new owner, who will slowly reduce it to small pieces.

On Monday 22 January 2018 sister ship F-GLZR will make the same journey.

Aviation, Events, Transport

Keep Them Rolling (and Flying)

Gallery 11 September 2017 Niek van der Zande

During the weekend of 9 September 2017, the Keep Them Rolling association celebrated its 45th Anniversary in the region of Twente. During this weekend a WW2 Airfield was set up at Twente Airport.

Keep Them Rolling (KTR) is a Dutch association that has the objective to preserve and maintain Military vehicles that were built or used during the 2nd World War, more in particular maintaining the historical aspects and background associated with these vehicules as well as preserving and maintaining memories of events during the 2nd World War for future generations.

In order to do this, they have the following activities:

Preserve military vehicles, cars, trucks (softskinned or armoured), boats and planes.

Organise meetings and publish a Club Magazine.

Establish and upkeep contacts with Dutch and foreign associations with the same interests.

Spreading of Newsletters about the activities being held by the members of the association.

Help organise tours and processions or static shows in order to show to the general public the preserved material.

Give support to events organised by foreign associations.

Obtain facilities which might be usefull to the members.

Guide and be helpfull with renovations and work on objects restored.

Do all things possible which can be usefull to the association

(Source: www.ktr.nl)

Because KTR celebrated the 45th Anniversary, a special event was organized. Already 2 years ago, the organisation spoke to the owners of Twente Airport to see if there were possibilities to establish a fully operational WW2 Airfield. The airport management was enthusiastic from the start and soon the first plans were drafted. With the involvement of the Vliegclub Twente a location to create the Airfield was soon found.

During the course of 2017 the invitations were sent to the various aircraft operators and many of them agreed to participate in the event. Amongst others, DDA Classic Airlines would come an perform sightseeing flights during the weekend. Initially the Catalina PH-PBY would come as well, but unfortunately she had a landing accident some weeks before, which prevented participation.

When the 9th of September arrived, Twente woke up to a grey sky with low clouds and lots of rain. This is not the ideal scenario to fly historical aircraft and soon news came through that several participants had to cancel due to this weather. However, towards the end of the morning the meteorological conditions improved and soon the first participants, in the form of two KLu Historical Flight Harvards appeared over Twente’s runway. The aircraft were carefully marshalled onto the airfield and then pushed into the shelter area, where guests could see them up close.

Not much later the Dakota arrived from Schiphol airport, after which various sightseeing flights took place in the afternoon. Finally P-51D Mustang “Trusty Rusty” of the Early Birds Foundation arrived from Lelystad.

Throughout the day, various convoys with Keep Them Rolling vehicles visited Twente Airport, where the visitors could enjoy the whole airfield scenery, listen to live music from marching bands and singers, or just enjoy the sunshine and catch up with fellow enthusiasts. By the end of the ofternoon it was time to say goodbye, but to quote Dame Vera Lynn, maybe “We’ll meet again”?

Aviation, Transport

AOPA Fly In at Twente Airport

Gallery 19 July 2017 Niek van der Zande

On the 8th of July Twente Airport played host to the annual Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) Fly In.

One of the parking spaces at Twente Airport

During this event, more than 100 aircraft found their way to Twente Airport, where they could enjoy lectures, an aviation market and a nice barbecue.

The excellent weather during the day made this a very enjoyable event. Twente had not seen that many visiting aircraft, since the last Royal Netherlands Airforce (KLu) Open House in 2003. This meant that all possible help was needed and provided.

Below is an impression of some of the visiting aircraft

Aviation

Large scale drone testing at Twente Airport

Gallery 16 July 2017 Niek van der Zande

During the first week of July the NLR (Netherlands Aerospace Centre) used Twente Airport to perform the first tests with the XCalibur+ Jet Trainer, a certified drone, according to the ASRPAS1 standards. The jet trainer is being used to gain experience on flying jet-powered drones.

The XCalibur+ is prepared for the first flight

The XCalibur+ jet trainer is based on a model aircraft, where several modifications have been applied to bring the aircraft onto ASRPAS1 specifications. The drone can fly on various speeds and is remotely piloted. It was the first time that the NLR flew this drone. Four NLR employees have been specially trained in Germany in order to fly jet powered, fixed wing, drones. Furthermore, the trials are supervised by a pilot with expertise on real jets and drone jets.

The experience gained with the jet trainer is essential for future NLR big drone activities. For some time, NLR has been working on the development of a large remote controlled jet plane measuring 4 meters in length and 4 meters span and weight over 100 kg. It does this within the framework of the EU Cleansky 2 SCALAIR (SCALed AIRcraft) project, in which a flying scale model of an existing airplane is being developed, built and tested. The purpose of this scale model is to show connection between the scale behavior of the scale model and the full-scale aircraft.

NLR chooses Twente Airport because this location is unique. ‘The NLR has the Netherlands RPAS Test Center (NRTC) in Marknesse, however, for the first flights with the jet trainer and other big drones, Twente Airport is chosen because of the availability of a long hardened runway, an obstacle free environment and relatively little air traffic. In addition, Technology Base, located at Twente Airport, offers the environment where innovative entrepreneurship and a lot of space to experiment together, “said Jan Willekens of NLR. Within the Dutch Drone Platform, NLR works closely with Space53 and the other proposed Drone test locations in the Netherlands to promote Drone development and use.