Last week, Brussels Airlines sent their last ‘Jumbolino’ into retirement when aircraft ‘OO-DWD’ landed in Brussels after a short flight from Geneva.   This last touchdown put an exclamation point on a long and successful career for the ‘AVRO RJ100’ aircraft type in the ‘SN’ fleet.

According to Brussels, the Jumbolino was part of their fleet for 15 years.   32 of them transported 31.5 million passengers over the course of 606,000 flights to 89 destinations.

A friend of mine, FlyerTalk & VFT member ‘Claudi STR’ was fortunate to be on the final flight of the Jumbolino and was kind enough to share some of her photos from the ‘Retirement’ flight.

 

a woman holding a plastic bag

The last safety briefing aboard the Avro’s last flight

a keychain with a blue square with white text

Passengers received a souvenir to mark the retirement flight.

a plane on the runway at night

‘OO-DWD’ prepared for boarding her final passengers…

a large airplane with large engines

The Avro got its ‘Jumbolino’ nickname due to the fact that it has 4 jet engines, not unlike her much larger relatives like the 747, A380 and A340 aircraft…..

the tail of an airplane at night

 

In the past, retired Jumbolinos have found new homes with other airlines as well as being repurposed to serve as fire-fighting aircraft around world.   Though she won’t carry any more passengers for Brussels, there are a lot of hours left on her engines.

 


a close-up of a sign