Part IV continues the series on my recent Plane Spotting in Frankfurt. This installment focuses a bit more on European regional carriers as well as on Lufthansa metal and a couple of United birds. To get caught up on my previous posts for this series, please use these links: Part I, Part II, Part III. To visit my plane spotting index, please click here.
More from my Plane Spotting while in Frankfurt in late November. As in Part I and Part II, I spent most of my time at the Affenfelsen observation platform that is located approximately half way down Runway 18 which is of course a North/South runway and is only used for departures. A few highlights for this part include one of Lufthansa Cargo’s 777 Freighters, a Kuwaiti A340, Etihad’s Formula 1 A340 and a few others unique birds.
We all know that traveling for the Holidays can bring with it a certain level of stress. Weather, unruly children (aka unions) and large crowds all focused on getting to their destinations can quickly take the spirit out of the Holidays.
To help get Holiday travel off to a positive start, Lufthansa’s team in Frankfurt has come up with a novel way to greet passengers that will be traveling during the next 2 weeks.
Specifically, LH has ‘rebuilt’ one of the departure gates in the ‘A-Plus’ terminal and turned it into quite a Christmas scene. Passengers departing from Gate Z62 /64 will be welcomed with Christmas Carols instead of boarding announcements. Christmas Trees and Red Carpets will cover the area around the gates and bring with them an obvious Holiday feel.
Lufthansa’s Holiday Spirit is quite obvious…….
For those of you not familiar with the A-Plus terminal in Frankfurt, the Z gates are non-Schengen gates for most Lufthansa’s international long-haul departures. Z62/64 is located near the end of the A-Plus terminal but should be worth the walk to see it dressed up for the Holidays!
The ‘Christmas Gate’ will be in place between now and December 29.
A few weeks ago while in Frankfurt as part of the FlyerTalk / Vielfliegertreff ‘Advent-Do’, I had arranged for our group to take a tour of Lufthansa’s Cargo facility. The tour gave us on a thorough behind the scenes look at their operation. We were able walk through their warehouses as well visit the ramp where we had the opportunity to board one of their newest 777 Freighters prior to it being loaded. I’ll have much more on the event, including photos from the 777-F, over the next few days as I get caught up.
For now, as a ‘teaser’, I’ll share a video that I was able to take while on the LH Cargo ramp. The video shows the arrival of an MD-11F to her ramp in Frankfurt and I had a chance to stand right next to her as she came in…..
Here is Part 2 of my Plane Spotting series from my latest trip to Frankfurt. As in Part I, these photos were taken from the Affenfelsen observation deck located at the mid point of Runway 18 which is used only for departures. To see the photos from Part I, please click here.
