Completing project A330

There was only one Airbus A330 still not flown, PH-AKD. I got 4 tickets issued within one week, and 3 tickets on 1 single day to fly this bird!

  1. On 18 January PH-AKD was set to fly to Abu Dhabi. On 17 January on 10 AM I booked my ticket burning collected Flying Blue miles. 6 hours later at 4 PM the flight to Abu Dhabi for the next day was cancelled, AKD was rescheduled to Lagos, Nigeria. Because of visa restrictions a no-go for me. The miles got refunded.
  2. On 22 January she was scheduled to fly to Bonaire & Aruba. On 21 January on 2 PM I booked the ticket using airmiles.
  3. On 22 January at 1 AM (I couldn’t sleep) I noticed PH-AKF was going to fly to Bonaire, AKD was changed to fly to Abu Dhabi. I cancelled my Bonaire ticket and booked Abu Dhabi.
  4. Driving 10 minutes out of Schiphol Airport, on the day of departure to Abu Dhabi, I checked schedules and AKD was scheduled for Bonaire again. WHAT? COME ON! I continued my drive to Schiphol Airport, parked my car, called KLM and explained my hobby. The Abu Dhabi ticket got cancelled by me and I got rebooked on Bonaire!

The flight to Bonaire departs 2 hours later than the Abu Dhabi flight, so drove around Schiphol for a short spotting session. Here I saw AKD already waiting in between her flight from Lagos and my flight to the Caribbean.

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Walking in the terminal resulting in some nice photographs, especially of this 747 family meeting 🙂

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Here my last A330-300 and last Airbus A330 to fly, PH-AKD. 5/5 A330-300 & 17/17 Airbus A330 full fleet

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During pushback, from left to right PH-AOD (332), PH-BQH (772), PH-BVP (77W) and PH-BHE (789). Not seen on this picture, but she was really there, PH-BFB (744) at E24.

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Runway of Bonaire seen from the ‘dashcam’

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Always love those airports where you (de)board using a stairs and where the sunlight is perfect to get pictures like these 🙂

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Walking to my hotel (+- 25 minutes from the airport) the Caribbean sunset, lovely!

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Some scenic stuff from/around Kralendijk.

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The next day there was this uhh.. flight home I guess. PH-AKF my return machine. Happy to ride in business today, more comfort to sleep. Now all the A330s have been flown, whats next? Boeing 777? I guess! But for now focus is on the Boeing 737 🙂

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