Ostend, Kortrijkt, Charleroi, Namur, Liege & Maastricht

Hello

I have spent a few days travelling round several airports in Begium, Holland, Luxembourg and Germany.

Day One of my trip took me to Maastricht, with the first stop being at Ostend. I’m probably not the first English spotter to start a European trip here, and I doubt I will be the last, as the stop was very worthwhile. Driving towards the airport, the two stored MK 747s are easily visible, getting the trip off to a good start by filling two embarrassing gaps. Here is G-MKBA trying to hide in the bushes:-

G-MKBA by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

Moving round to the terminal, views could be obtained of the apron from the packed restaurant – unfortunately the terrace has closed since my last visit 19 years ago. Continuing beyond the terminal, I found DC-8 9G-BAN:-

9G-BAN by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

This aircraft arrived at Ostend back in 1999.

My next stop was at Kortrijk / Wevelgem. It was windy,and the drive down from Ostend had been accompanied by a couple of heavy showers, so it was no surprise to find most hangars closed. However, Falcon 2000 OO-OFP arrived during the 15 minutes I was there in a stunning livery, more that justifying the stop:-

OO-OFP by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

The next stop with airliners was Charleroi. It was no surprise to see how Ryanair dominated the airport, but they didn’t have the place to themselves, with a couple of Wizz Air aircraft as well, including HA-LPI

HA-LPI by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

Namur was just a short drive away. It was getting late so it was no surprise that the airfield was largely locked up, but paradropping was still taking place from OO-NAC;-

OO-NAC by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

Liege is somewhere I had wanted to visit for sometime. As expected, with it being late Saturday, there were plenty of TNT aircraft around that were easy to see. However, the double fence and how closely they were parked precluded good photos. The only movement during my stay was Kallitta 747 N746CK arriving from Tel Aviv:-

N746CK by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

My final stop for the night was Maastricht. It is a pity that they don’t cut the grass a little shorter:-

5A-AGR by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

My hotel was at the airport – during the 15 hours or so I was there, apart from two Ryanair 737s, the only movement was the vastly more interesting ULS A.310 TC-LER:-

TC-LER by IndiaEcho Photography, on Flickr

I hope the photos are of interest – more can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/indiaecho/ and I’ll post pictures from Day Two, Luxembourg, shortly.

Neil