VeeOne's Old Palma Pics – 1983

your dad must have some nostalgic Orion pics then to share !

He might! I’ll ask him when I next see him; I’ve got a Orion Picture of their first 737 which was given to all the Pilot’s I think… Only 200 copies and personally signed by the chairman or someone 🙂

your dad must have some nostalgic Orion pics then to share !

Nice Pictures! Really like the Orion Airways 737 🙂 It was the first Airline my Dad flew for as a Pilot and he really enjoyed his time there!

Joemicroman

Great images Sarah. For me, its nice to see the Conairs, Scanair, Sterling, having had so much to do with them in my job. I always had a soft spot for Busy Bee, I really liked the ‘cheeky’ looking Bee on the fin. He did have an official name, but I can’t remember what it was. Courtesy of one of the Captains on the BB, I have a very nice BB desk flag made from silk, with a chromed ‘pole’ and marble base. It’s one of my most precious souvenirs of my time at STN. I believe that the aircraft crashed in India some years later, it was being operated by an Indian airline at the time. The very last time I set foot at PMI, was a round trip STN-PMI-STN, on the flightdeck of a Dan Air 727-100. Previous to that, it was a family hol, with the flights being on a Transeuropa Caravelle

Hi Sarah,

The viewing area was reached by steps outside one end of the original terminal.All before security checks were the norm !! AKA the good old days !!

Condor 747-200’s were the highlight, plus all the DC-8’s, happy days.

Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

Great photos, both past and present. Thanks for posting them. Last time I passed through PMI was with a very bad dose of food poisoning, so I didn’t take any photos at all.

The pic of the Orion 737 brought back many happy memories. They still are the best airline I ever flew on. I was on one of the first flights of their nice and new 737-300s. Great airline, sadly missed.

Lovely pics. Nostalgic. Any of UK operators in PMI in the same era ?

I just love these old aeroplanes too, guys.

I recall a Condor DC-10 taking off in sparkling silver fuselage and with just a yellow fin. Pamla must have been an amazing place in the late 1960s with the Spantax and other Douglas pistons based there. I suspect all those DC4, DC6 and DC7 aircraft came to Gatwick and Heathrow on some summer days. I lived near Heathrow and we heard a regular (newspaper) Iberia flight trundle over into the airport about 11pm when everyone else had just about gone to sleep. I believe that was one of the Spantax DCs or another Palma based DC operator. 🙂

We only photographed 2 UK operators as we were only there a couple of hours and it wasn’t so busy as it is today (but the airlines and types were better IMHO. 😉

Palma was pretty deserted of all but a handful of families who’d come to watch the aeroplanes, as I recall. Sounds like it is now as busy around the perimeter as on the runway. lol

SMXFAN… I had no idea there was a viewing gallery to go and watch from. It looks like the old one that Gatwick used to proudly have. I saw those people and thought they were just pax waiting to depart.

Sarah

Orion 737-200 – I thought this had a nice livery

Dan-Air London 737-200

Lovely pics. Nostalgic. Any of UK operators in PMI in the same era ?

OMG VeeOne

DC-8’s, Caravelle’s, Coronado’s……

Takes me back a bit, I see the viewing gallery on top of the terminal, many happy hours spent there !!

Thanks very much for sharing, you’ve made a happy man feel old !!

Such memories !!:):):)

Here is Palma from 1983. The airport has changed a lot, as have the aircraft types and airlines that visited it.

Spantax, Hispania and Aviaco were the two main spanish airlines that were based there with CV990s, DC8s, DC9s, Caravelles and F27s. Quite a wide set of aeroplanes to see in one place. Visiting types were BAC-1-11, Caravelle, DC9, DC-10, DC8, 707, 727 and 737. Air Berlin were using a B737-200 and I see they are using a 737 still.

Finnair operated their DC8 on charters during 1983

Caravelles were operated from Palma by Hispania

Regional scheduled routes were by Aviaco Friendship

Euralair was a French charter operator

Iberia operated shedules to Pamla

Sterling had recently begun using 727s instead of Caravelles

The old runway had aircraft that were retired (Spantax CV990s and TAE DC-8s

Hapag Lloyd used A300 and 737s

Conair Boeing 720b jets were in a great livery

Busy Bee 737 livery from a time when fin markings were PAINTED on!

Braathens SAFE operated a fleet of 737s

Some Spantax Convair 990s were still in use