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Exclusive: PlaneSpotting in Casablanca with Royal Air Maroc

Exclusive: PlaneSpotting in Casablanca with Royal Air Maroc

Three Royal Air Maroc Boeings caught while PlaneSpotting in Casablanca. Note the Mohammad V Airport sign in the background.
Three Royal Air Maroc Boeings caught while PlaneSpotting in Casablanca. Note the Mohammed V Airport sign atop the terminal in the background.




Last month I found myself with a full-day layover in Casablanca, Morocco. I was on my way to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire to cover Royal Air Maroc’s oneworld celebration. My flight from JFK arrived mid-morning and the ABJ flight wouldn’t depart until late evening. Armed with this knowledge, I had a jam-packed, prearranged agenda which included PlaneSpotting in Casablanca. For a relatively small airline like RAM, this was a chance to see all of the airline’s fleet types in the same place at the same time. Exciting!




PlaneSpotting in Casablanca, up close and air-side




A RAM 787-9.
CN-RGY, the 787-9 which brought me to Casablanca from New York




They take

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United Snuck a Flight Simulator Onto Its App. And It’s Surprisingly Good.

United Snuck a Flight Simulator Onto Its App. And It’s Surprisingly Good.

Last week, without any fanfare, United Airlines updated its app. No big deal, right? Well this new update includes a flight simulator game! We played it. And while it’s no Microsoft Flight Simulator, for an app-within-an-app it’s pretty great.

Flying the friendly (virtual) skies

Once you get your app updated, you hit the “More” button on the bottom tab, go to the Game Center at the bottom of the “For your flight” section … and voila there it is, sitting next to Sudoku.

The game puts you in a Boeing 787 Dreamliner in the skies above San Francisco — the only plane and setting the game offers (for now). But the terrain graphics are solid and the aircraft model itself looks great. The game starts with a set of tutorials, which get you used to the controls. You pitch and roll by tilting and angling your phone. As the

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A Trekkie Reviews Alaska’s New Star Wars Livery

A Trekkie Reviews Alaska’s New Star Wars Livery

Alaska Airlines new Starwars themed 737-800
The new Star Wars themed Alaska Airlines Boeing 737, registration N538AS

I might as well get this out of the way right at the start: I am a Trekkie. I have tried to love Star Wars and I can appreciate it for what it is. But I have just never been able to get into it and I know not too much about the franchise (spoiler alert: I think Darth Vader is Luke’s father and Luke is Princess Layla’s sister which caused some family awkwardness all around).

However… when you put a nice looking Star Wars livery on a 737, I can sway my sci fi space nerd alliances for one morning. This week (on what was appropriately May 4th), Alaska Airlines unveiled their newest special Disney livery. 

Live long and prosper! It is a positive saying, no matter what universe you are in.
Live long and prosper! It is a positive saying, no matter what universe you are in.

It has an eye catching black

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Flying history – we ride on a B-29

Flying history – we ride on a B-29

Looking out the nose of a B-29 over Seattle – Photo: Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren

Typically we cover airlines and airliners here at AirlineReporter, but occasionally an opportunity in the non-airline[r] worlds pops up that we just can’t pass on.

So when the Museum of Flight here at our Seattle HQ announced that Doc, one of only two airworthy Boeing B-29 bombers, was planning to visit in mid-May, we jumped at the chance to see her up close. Even better, we got to take a short ride around Seattle.

The airplane arrived earlier this week (May 17). Its Star Wars-esque nose, four engines, and incredibly shiny fuselage made it easy to spot on the horizon. The pilots eased the bird onto the runway and taxied down to the Museum of Flight ramp as a crowd of onlookers gathered to watch.

While the B-29 was originally produced in Seattle, Doc is not a

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Air Force One visited Seattle and we were there

Air Force One visited Seattle and we were there

Air Force One approaching the ramp at SEA
Air Force One approaching the ramp at SEA

It’s arguably the most iconic livery on the most iconic aircraft in service. It’s blue-and-white livery is instantly identifiable to both AvGeeks and those who view planes as simply flying buses.

Officially designated the VC-25 by the U.S. Air Force, two heavily-modified Boeing 747-200s have been in service since 1990.

Air Force One moments from landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
Air Force One moments from landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

By now, most AvGeeks know that any aircraft can be designated as Air Force One – the callsign is only active if the president is on board. Thus the modified 757s (officially C-32As) can also carry the callsign when the president is aboard.

The Seattle area sees C-32As fairly regularly, as high-ranking officials other than the president often visit the region, such as the vice president. The VC-25 hasn’t been in these parts since 2018, and we last wrote about a visit

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