Friday Night With the Flagships and Brickyards

After work, I decided to head over to Metro Airport to get some shots of the airplanes.

 A JetBlue Airbus 319 taking off.  I can't really make out the tail number, so I'm not really sure where it's headed.  JetBlue was founded as a low cost airline in order to compete with some of the larger airlines.  However, it followed some of Southwest's ideas, so it wasn't necessarily low frills.  The company was founded in 1999 and was originally named NewAir.  Originally it was going to be called Taxi and have yellow livery but that idea was dropped due negative connotations of taxis and possible confusion with air traffic commands.  Currently, the airline flies to over 96 destinations in the United States and recently was granted permission to offer service to Cuba.

 Even though this plane doesn't belong to Republic Airlines, I figured this would provide a good opportunity to clarify the title.  As I was listening to air traffic control, I heard the callsign "Brickyard" and I thought it was unusual.  Most airlines use their airline name as the callsign (with some exceptions).  It turns out that Brickyard belongs to Republic Airlines.  This however is not to be confused with the Republic Airlines that used to operate out of Metro and was bought by Northwest.
This particular version of Republic was founded in 1998 and served as the operator of some of the American Eagle commuter flights.  The company has headquarters in Indianapolis and Brickyard is a tribute to that.

 American Airways flight 408 to Charlotte, South Carolina.  Roughly one hour after landing in Charlotte, it will continue on to Florida.  This particular aircraft is an Airbus A319-132.

 Spirit was originally founded as Clipper Trucking Company in 1964.  The Airline was founded in 1980 as Charter One which was a charter service with flights to Atlantic City, Las Vegas and the Bahamas from Detroit.  In 1990, scheduled service was started and in 1992, it brought jet equipment and became Spirit Airlines.  In 2007, Spirit became an ultra low cost carrier and began to charge for things which used to be complimentary.  Currently it served 57 destinations with 85 aircraft.

 Delta Flight 2761 Heavy with service to San Francisco.  When you hear heavy after the call sign, it typically indicates an aircraft with a takeoff weight greater than 300,000 pounds in the United States.  It is basically a warning to aircraft that may be following of vortices that could disrupt their flight.  While the 757 is smaller than that, it has the designation heavy because it has some of the same flow characteristics of the heavier aircraft.

 I can't quite make out the designation of this aircraft but I'm pretty sure it is a 767.

 Flagship 4176 is a flight operated by Endeavor Air for Delta Express.  It was service to Des Moines, Iowa.  In the morning, this plane will return to Detroit.  Endeavor Air was founded as Express Airlines in 1985 and changed to Pinnacle Air in 2002.  It originally served as the regional carrier for Republic and continued with Northwest.  Like so many regional carriers, it services many smaller airports.  Flagship is the call sign used by them.

 This particular aircraft was on it's way to O'Hare Airport.  It flew back to Detroit tonight and will be on it's way to Cleveland in the morning.

 An Airbus 320 on its way to Minneapolis-St Paul.

And we end the evening with an MD-88 that was flying to Madison, Wisconsin, I think.