Qatar Airways has announced that it will introduce its Boeing 787s on services from Doha to Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm Arlanda.

The flights commence on 1st August to Stockholm, and 1st September to both Copenhagen and Oslo.

Flights will operate daily.

Keep an eye on our 787 Routes Page for destinations you can see the Dreamliner.

Norwegian plans to use its new Boeing 787 Dreamliners on routes to European destinations from both its Oslo and London Gatwick bases.

Routes from Oslo include Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga, and Nice. Various destinations from Gatwick will also be used.

787 Dreamliner summer schedule: 
Oslo – Malaga – Oslo: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday
Oslo – Alicante – Oslo: Monday and Friday
Oslo – Barcelona – Oslo: Monday and Friday
Oslo – London – Oslo: Thursday and Sunday
Oslo – Nice – Oslo: Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday

These flights will aid in crew familiarisation training ahead of the type beginning long-haul flying for Norwegian (see 787 Routes Page for more info)

SAS Scandinavian Airlines has announced that it will retire its last McDonnell Douglas MD-82 aircraft in October.

It will reduce its remaining fleet of nine aircraft between now and 26 October, when the final flight will take place between Stockholm Arlanda and Copenhagen Kastrup.

Prior to this final flight, a special tour of the three Scandinavian capitals will depart from Copenhagen, and include flying over the Arctic Circle in Norway and a fly by of Bodø Airport. A farewell ceremony will also be held at Copenhagen.

TUI Travel, which operates leisure airlines in the UK, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Scandinavia, and France, has announced a commitment to purchase 60 Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 9 aircraft.

This order will allow the company to expand and upgrade the fleets of its various airlines, and will primarily be used for flights to Europe and Africa.

“Boeing and TUI Travel airlines have a relationship which goes back almost 50 years” said Todd Nelp, vice president of European Sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “TUI Travel’s airlines currently operate more than 135 Boeing airplanes and the commitment for 60 737 MAXs marks the next chapter in their continued fleet expansion, ensuring unrivalled efficiencies and superior passenger comfort. All of us at Boeing could not be more proud to see our relationship extended for years to come.”

FlyNonstop is a new Norwegian carrier which is set to begin flights on 25 April from its Kristiansand base.

The airline’s first aircraft – an Embraer 190 leased from CIT Aerospace, and operated by Denim Air crews – was delivered recently, and is resplendent in a really striking purple colour scheme.

FlyNonstop will link Kristiansand with Barcelona, Berlin, Dubrovnik, London City, Nice, Palma, Paris Charles de Gaulle, and Parma.

I’m always fascinated by reminders of the past, and by knowing the former purpose of a historic site. Over the years many airports have been superseded by newer sites and closed down, and naturally many are redeveloped and lost for good.

But it’s surprising how many little hints of these airports you can still see if you look hard enough. Here are five examples in Europe:

Croydon Airport
Formerly the main airport for London, UK. Croydon is a town to the south of the city, and in the early days of air travel it became a busy hub for some of the classic airlines and their early aircraft. But space became a problem, and pretty soon the new London Airport (what we know today as Heathrow) was opened. With other London airports also at Blackbushe, Gatwick and Northolt, Croydon closed in 1959.

Today, the original art deco terminal building and control tower survive in the middle of an urban landscape. Outside, a preserved DH Heron aircraft is a reminder of its former purpose.

Oslo Fornebu
Formerly the main gateway to Norway’s capital, Oslo. Fornebu was located much closer to the city than the current Gardemoen airport which replaced it in 1998. Fornebu was built on an area of land surrounded by water. It had two runways and a single terminal with three satellites. Due to constraints in expansion, it was decided to close Fornebu. Today the site has been redeveloped, but there are a couple of buildings remaining from the old airport.

Munich Riem
The main airport at Munich, Germany, was opened near the village of Riem in 1939. It had one main runway and a shorter runway for smaller aircraft; its single passenger terminal had been extended to cope with growth. Riem was also the location of the famous Munich Air Disaster in 1958 which claimed the lives of a number of Manchester United’s players when their Airspeed Ambassador crashed on takeoff.

In 1992, Riem was replaced by the much larger new Munich Airport, which has grown to become Germany’s second largest. The old airport was gradually transformed into a Convention City Riem development. Today, the control tower, original terminal building, and a small section of runway are all that remain.

Berlin Tempelhof
Another example in Germany, Tempelhof is the most recent airport in our list to have closed, with its final flights on 30 October 2008. It is also one of Europe’s most significant airports, with its unique Nazi-era design, and the part it played in the Berlin Airlift.

The airport still exists pretty much intact, with its huge terminal and hangars building which allowed aircraft to park under cover. The runways have been turned into public spaces which you’re able to walk along. There are also a few aircraft still present on the site, used in various memorials and training roles.

Nicosia
The capital of Cyprus had the island’s main international airport, handling flights from all over Europe and the Middle East, until its dramatic closure in July 1974. Following years of tension between Turkey and Greece, Turkish troops invaded the island and focussed on the airport as one of its targets, bombing it heavily. A number of aircraft were caught on the ground, including Cyprus Airways’ fleet of Tridents. One was destroyed, another later repaired and flown to the UK, and another is still on the ground today.

Nicosia is a fascinating ghost of an airport trapped in time. Today it sits in the UN exclusion zone which divides the island. Its runway, hangars and terminal building still standing – with slowly decaying interiors – as a testament to the past.

The Douglas DC-9-20 was one of the rarer variants of the type, and only ten were ever built.

It was developed for Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) and their requirements for short-field takeoffs in remote airports around Norway and Sweden.

The DC-9-20 featured the fuselage of a DC-9-10, but the improved engines and wings of a DC-9-30.

Following service with SAS, some of the examples flew with airlines such as Aeropostal, Spirit Airlines, and Valujet Airlines. However, today only one example is still flying – and believe it or not, you could have a chance of flying on it!

N127NK currently flies as a platform for skydiving with Skydive Perris. It is based at Perris Valley Airport in California. Skydivers make use of the DC-9′s rear stairs, allowing them a clear drop from the aircraft. You can find out more about Skydive Perris here: www.skydiveperris.com

The remaining DC-9-20′s are:
N952VV – Fuselage remains at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ
YV-11C – Stored at Caracas, Venezuela
YV-12C – Stored at Caracas, Venezuela
N129NK – Active, Skydive Perris, Perris Valley, CA

For more information about flying on the DC-9-20 and many other rare types of aircraft, see our ebook Last Chance to Fly. Details below…

Last Chance to Fly 2012 – ebook
Our latest book, Last Chance to Fly, is available to buy online now. The digital version of this book lists the world’s rarest passenger aircraft types, and where to find them and fly on them.

Click here to find out more and buy a copy.

If you’re sat at home or in an office somewhere and dreaming of being sat at an airport, watching the aircraft come and go, then I’ve got a new site for you to bookmark.

Stavanger Airport in Norway now has a page with two webcams, looking both directions down the main runway, showing all of the comings and goings. It is run by Aftenbladet.no.

From giving it a go, I can say that the live streaming is very fast.

The site also shows a live ATC map centred on Stavanger, taken from the excellent FlightRadar24 site. Below this, there’s an arrivals and departures board from the airport, showing what movements are due.

You can view the Stavanger Airport webcams here: http://www.aftenbladet.no/webkamera/flyplassen/

I just love these time-lapse videos showing aircraft being built, painted etc. So forgive me for posting another one here, but I hope you’ll enjoy all the same.

This one shows a brand new Boeing 737-800 being built for Norwegian.no, and then painted and performing its first flight. It’s fascinating to see how these aircraft are put together, and so quickly on the moving production line!

Here’s a video for you this week. After I visited the Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Heathrow, it flew the next day to Oslo Gardermoen Airport for demonstration to Norwegian. It arrived in glorious sunshine and there were naturally a lot of spotters waiting by the runway to capture the arrival. And here it is – what a smooth landing!