Final part… the return journey Dubai-Doha-Kuwait-Dammam-Amsterdam-Glasgow
OK on the sunday it was time to leave Dubai i was flying with FlyDubai who operate from Terminal 2 which is next to cargo & opposite the big plush terminal 1 & 3 and a bit run down tired old terminal.. bag drop was simple enough and immigration was a breeze, it has a faw food outlets and something like 12 stands, all pax get bussed to the aircraft… there are a few airside view windows the aircraft all park nose in fairly near the terminal but there is so much clutter and constant bus movements that shooting becomes an art of timing!!..

my flight was from stand F11,FDB003 Dubai-Doha on Boeing 737-800 A6-FDY

(Was looking forward to going in one of these as i see FDB aircraft regularly at Glasgow!! as they get delivered via GLA) joined the bus which took a half mile trip to cover the 20 feet the nose of the aircraft was from the gate!!! (A 20 second walk, but the serrvice road to cross was like the M6!! so safety first on the bus it is)..

The aircraft pushed back at 1450L to runway 30R and was airborne at 1500L.
The inside of these is very nice… LoCo model, but you would’nt know it… i paid for a specific seat.. seat 32A which was the very last row this cost me AED5 (85 pence!!)


seating is 3-3 i had the row to myself flight had 81 on board so about half full and it is the first 737 i have seen with an IFE.. a very good IFE at that… which offered more choice than the KLM long haul IFE,


the Pre Flight safety message was done using the IFE and was actually very interesting, i made a video of it… cleverly done, as it makes you watch the safety presentation because it is entertaining!! video can be seen at…..http://youtu.be/-rT8cOoEUHM
Food could be ordered using the touch screen IFE too, you choose what you want hit confirm and the crew get the order and bring it to you and take payment..prices looked OK, all i got was a water and a can of coke (AED 5 each)

The flight reached a cruise altitude of 20,000ft and took 44 minutes landing on rw33 at Doha at 1440L

Doha is building a new terminal for the future but for now things are a bit tiresome… once landed taxied straight in to a remote stand, then buses take you on a 10 minute ride passing the departure terminal to the arrival terminal, you join the queue for immigration which goes down fairly fast, but, when i reached the front the immigration officer asked how long i was staying etc…. which i replied just 4 hours as i was leaving later on Kuwait AW, he said i cant clear immigration and was in effect “in transit” so went to the transfer desk explained this and they bussed me back down to the departure terminal where i had to find the transfer desk to sort my onward travel, of course i was only ticketed to Doha, so they spent an hour finding my bag and then getting me a boarding pass, however they only checked me through to Kuwait.. even though i had online checked in to Glasgow..meaning i would have to go through all the same rigmarole at Kuwait… because of this my time in Doha was decimated, there are a fair few windows all along the terminal which look out over the entire ramp and runway and seems to be north facing, so i got a few (thru glass) shots here, for spotting you could log just about the lot fairly easily here…

time came for boarding my Kuwait AW flight KAC618 which happily for me was going to be my first time in an A310..9K-ALA…

when it landed i noticed it parks on the other side of the runway from the terminal, so, joined the bus which has to slowly go the whole way to the end of the runway round it and back down 3/4 of the way and then into a huge remote ramp where the A310 was, boarded and got sat in seat 13A seating inside is 2-4-2 flight was very quiet and had the row to myself, the interior is VERY dated and has “old aircraft” smell to it, but clean enough,


there is a very dated IFE (not in use) and grey leather seats with footrests!!! (Havent seen that in many moons)..


taxied out at 1800 dead on time and departed RW33 at 1810 climbing to a cruise altitude of 28,000. A warm samosa style snack and drinks service was offered
I had a look through the Kuwait AW inflight mag, found some interesting stuff… i come all this way and get an article about SCOTLAND!!

Then found the “Travellers Prayer”:

And also a mention of a new Seoul airport???

flight time was 50 mins landing in Kuwait International RW 33R at 1900L.
I had a few hours here after sorting out my baggage and boarding passes issue again i went wandering to see if there was any views of the ramp possible to no avail, there are windows but only appear to be in the gates waiting area..inaccessable without a boarding pass for the flight, so, had a very nice pizza in the food court of this very dated old terminal while waiting to board my flight to Amsterdam via Dammam. The gate never opened until 20 mins before departure at 2200, boarding was pain free and joined KLM 417 Airbus A330-200 PH-AOB…

flight was already half full with pax from Amsterdam going to Dammam, seating was 2-4-2, taxied out at 2205L to RW 33R
quite a long taxi past many ramps of aircraft, spotters would have a frantic time “poling” things off!! eventually getting airborne at 2215L climbing to 24,000 for the 42 minute flight to Dammam… a place which TBH i had never even heard of, was expecting some tiny wee airport but no… landed on RW34L and taxied to the ramp only to have to wait for 20 mins till a stand became available a Saudi B747 on our stand also in were various Saudi AW airbus, PIA B737,Jet AW B737,Nas Air A320, Air Arabia A320 plus more…. Half the pax got off here and an hour later were replaced by more, the flight to Amsterdam departed at 0025L on RW34L about 3/4 full for the flight back to Amsterdam… IFE was unavailable between KWI and DMM and was same as the B777 IFE, a small snack and drinks service then lights out…. about an hour from AMS breakfast was offered a choice of omelette or pancakes.. i chose the omelette which wasnt too appealing tbh..We arrived at AMS on RW18L and after a long taxi was on stand G16 at 0540L…
There is a decent place here at the end of the G pier at AMS for airside spotting, i went walkabout to try out the other piers and none of the others you could get to the end of, or had no view from the end, once daylight arrived i again breezed through Dutch Immigration and went up to the terrace, light was very poor, stayed an hour and a half before going back airside where i sat in a cafe with a decent ramp view between E & D before heading to stand D6 for my flight back to Glasgow
D6 is a multi gate area for taking pax to remote stands, boarded the bus out to the aircraft which was to be another first flight in type for me a Fokker 70,PH-KZI on KLM1475 i had chosen seat 16F which is directly beside the starboard (VERY noisy) engine seating was 2-3 aircraft was almost full, maybe 3 empty seats, Taxied at 1205 to RW24 and departed at 1215 climbing to cruise at 30,000ft a snack and drinks service offered, before landing on RW23 at GLA at 1235L
My shots once edited will appear in the Commercial Aircraft photos forum in time.
I hope some of you have made it to the end and may find something of use here, any questions please feel free
Cheers.