Just got back from a four-week stay in Portugal. We usually fly with TAP, whose Airbus fleet craft all have individual names (usually named for famous or otherwise notable Portuguese historical folk -- Amalia Rodrigues was there at Lisbon).

 

I thought this was unusual but, waiting for the flight home at Lisbon, what should I see hooked up to one of the jetways but an Aer Lingus plane bearing the name 'Eunan', so it appears that AL do the same thing (and www.planespotters.net confirms this -- it's Airbus EI DEK, St Eunan).

 

Anyone know of any other companies that do this?

FDX names some planes from a random draw of employee's children.

Pan Am used to. Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, was Clipper Maid of the Seas. RIP.

From memory Virgin Atlantic and QANTAS also name their aircraft. Here are a list of QANTAS aircraft:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_of_Qantas_aircraft

 

I am sure their are more as well.

At Island Air we have names as well. We actually have a paper in our pilot kits that describe the names the aircraft were given.

KLM names all their planes according to a theme: the 737s are named after birds, the 747s after cities, for the T7s, A332s and A333s they used bridges, national parks, and famous squares (e.g. Piazza Navona), but I forget which is which.

 

Qantas has named their A380s after Australian aviation pioneers, don't know about their other planes.

I thought this was unusual but, waiting for the flight home at Lisbon, what should I see hooked up to one of the jetways but an Aer Lingus plane bearing the name 'Eunan', so it appears that AL do the same thing (and www.planespotters.net confirms this -- it's Airbus EI DEK, St Eunan).

Yup, indeed all aircraft are named after Irish saints. If I can remember them all we have;

 

A330:

St. Patrick, St. Rónán, St. Aoife, St. Mella, St. Columba, St. Caoimhe, St. Munchin and St. Aoife.

A321:

St. Enda, St. Aodhán and St. Dervilla.

A320:

St. Malachy, St. Macartan, St. Albert, St. Mollig, St. Caimin, St. Colman, St. Brigid, St. Pappin, St. Flannan, St. Ciara, St. Jarlath, St. Emer, St. Aideen, St. Mel, St. Eugene, St. Oliver Plunket, St. Kealin, St. Mobhi, St. Schira, St. Ultan, St. Fachtna, St. Fidelma, St. Declan, St. Fergal, St. Naithi, St. Conleth, St. Killian, St. Canice, St. Eunan, St. Ibar, St. Kieran and I'm forgetting one... :rolleyes:

A319:

St. Davnet, St. Fergus.

 

We are required to know 10-12 lines off by heart on each of these Saints as a kind of party piece as part of our companies policy.

 

The other big airline that comes to mind when naming aircraft would be Norwegian, who not only name their aircraft, but paint a massive portrait of the person on the aircraft tail.

 

Lufthansa also name their aircraft after cities if that counts, SAA also name aircraft, Austrian Airways, Jet blue sort of name their aircraft, just not after people. There's many more out there that I'm just not thinking of... Personally I certainly prefer knowing aircraft by name over just as a reg, or not even knowing them at all as is probably the case in larger airlines...

 

Regards,

Ró

The other big airline that comes to mind when naming aircraft would be Norwegian, who not only name their aircraft, but paint a massive portrait of the person on the aircraft tail.

 

Was going to mention that but you beat me to it! See loads of them coming in and out of Gatwick.

Anyone know of any other companies that do this?

 

Not sure about their present policy but Air France used to name planes :

 

- Caravelles after French "provinces" (regions) : Alsace, Lorraine, Provence etc.

- B707s after French "châteaux" (palaces or castles) : Château de Versailles, Châteaux de Chambord, Château de Chenonceau etc.

 

I don't know if the tradition still exits (I'll check).

 

Today, small companies like Air Austral (serving mainly the French territories in the Indian Ocean) still name their aircraft after local celebrities.

 

Interestingly, Corsair International (a French subsidiary of the TUI group) played with the registration numbers of their ac. :

 

Three of their B747s were registered : F-HSEA, F-HSEX and F-HSUN (after a song of the 1970's) and they continued the trend with F-HKIS and F-HLOV, then two A330s registered F-HCAT and F-HBIL...

 

Bruno

Interesting info there -- thanks! I'd forgotten about Clipper Maid of the Seas; a truly terrible event. Lockerbie isn't all that far from where I live and I'd driven through a few times prior to that date, so the news on that day really hit home.

 

Agree with Ro about individual names; it makes the company at least appear less bland & corporate, and of course plane-spotters will find real names a lot more interesting than reg numbers.

Not sure about their present policy but Air France used to name planes :

 

- Caravelles after French "provinces" (regions) : Alsace, Lorraine, Provence etc.

- B707s after French "châteaux" (palaces or castles) : Château de Versailles, Châteaux de Chambord, Château de Chenonceau etc.

 

I don't know if the tradition still exits (I'll check).

 

Today, small companies like Air Austral (serving mainly the French territories in the Indian Ocean) still name their aircraft after local celebrities.

 

Interestingly, Corsair International (a French subsidiary of the TUI group) played with the registration numbers of their ac. :

 

Three of their B747s were registered : F-HSEA, F-HSEX and F-HSUN (after a song of the 1970's) and they continued the trend with F-HKIS and F-HLOV, then two A330s registered F-HCAT and F-HBIL...

 

Bruno

 

Doesn't Virgin Atlantic do something similar? One of their 744s being G-VBIG rings a bell...

Doesn't Virgin Atlantic do something similar? One of their 744s being G-VBIG rings a bell...

 

Yes they name their aircraft as well G-VBIG is Tinker Belle LOL - Nice Pun BTW :lol:

 

Here is another one of them:

 

 

Surfer Girl is pretty cool too:

 

Oh to be in the boob window :wub: :lol:

Oh to be in the boob window :wub: :lol:

 

:LMAO:

 

Bruno

Oh wait, I totally forgot... I actually have Tinker Belle sat here on my desk as I type :wub:

 

And if you don't believe me I have attached a picture of her...