While at Chicago-O’Hare Airport earlier today, we were fortunate enough to enjoy an airfield tour, courtesy of the airport’s Operations department. The morning arrivals bank had just come in, but there was plenty to see during our hours on the field.
Here are the tracks for the flights we were able to take photos of while on the field.
We hope to be back out on the field in the future for special events, but until then, please enjoy the photos from today’s tour.
Virgin Atlantic A330-343 | G-VSXY
Inbound from London, Virgin Atlantic operates seasonal service to Chicago as VS39/40. In the past, Virgin Atlantic has operated the London-Chicago flight with an A340-600, but it has now switched to A330-300 service. Today’s flight was operated by G-VSXY.
Air Berlin A330-223 | D-ALPI
Air Berlin operates one daily flight to Chicago, seen here about to touch down on Runway 28C, one of O’Hare’s A380 capable runways.
All Nippon Airways 777-381ER | JA779A
ANA operates two daily flights from Tokyo to Chicago. The first flight arrives early in the day and departs mid-morning. Here, JA779A, operating the first return flight, departs O’Hare’s Runway 28R for Narita.
Austrian Airlines 777-2B8ER | OE-LPD
Austrian Airlines recently refreshed their livery and OE-LPD has already been repainted. Austrian previously sent a 767 on their Vienna-Chicago route, but recently up-gauged to a 777.
United Express (TransStates Airlines) ERJ-145XR | N18102
While O’Hare sees its share of large aircraft, the airport actually deals with far more smaller jets. In fact, almost 60% of the airport’s total daily movements are Bombardier and Embraer regional jets. This Embraer ERJ-145 is landing from Wichita, Kansas, after 90 minute flight.
EVA Air Cargo 747-45E(BDSF) | B-16406
Chicago’s O’Hare also supports an extensive air cargo operation. The South Cargo area (pictured) hosts major parcel carriers FedEx and UPS as well as air cargo operators, like EVA Air Cargo, NCA, Turkish Cargo, China Airlines Cargo and many more. This EVA Air Cargo 747 was delivered new to EVA Air in 1995 and flew in passenger configuration until 2007, when it was converted to a freighter. The BDSF suffix on the aircraft type refers to the Bedek Special Freighter, which is the name given to 747s converted to freighter configuration by Bedek Aviation Group.
We hope you enjoyed the tour as much as we did and we’ll have more airfield tours coming very soon. Look for us at Heathrow Airport in London next week! For more information about our Heathrow Tour and live (hopefully) video, watch our twitter.
