Friedrichshafen basks in first-time Arch of Triumph glory – and south German sunshine!

Basking not only in the south German sunshine, but also in the glory of winning last week’s Arch of Triumph were the team from Friedrichshafen: Andreas Niederquell, Firefighter; Tobias Bregenzer, Firefighter; Roman Osswald, Firefighter; Bettina Natterer, Manager Marketing, Traffic Development; Tobias Weber, Supervisor Fire Department; Andreas Humer-Hager, VP Marketing and Communication; Wolfgang Harm, Firefighter; and Roland Straub, Firefighter.

It should not come as a surprise that nine of the top 10 airports in this year’s Arch of Triumph competition are European, with Lisbon securing two berths on the leader board after this week’s win. The region has delivered 20 out of 27 winners (74%) in 2017, with only Asia having mustered more than one win (two) from the six other parts of the world which have provided a weekly winner. With 68% of all entries (168), Europe is actually outperforming the other regions, achieving a higher share of the total victories than its share of total FTWAs. With five entries this week and 33 overall (13%), North America is putting up a fight, but it has only supplied a single win – Tampa in third spot in the top 10. Time to step-up rest of the world. Keep Monitoring!!

Aeroflot Moscow Sheremetyevo to Lisbon 15 July

Close Encounters of the FTWA kind…

Judge’s comments: This FTWA from Lisbon looks eerily like something from legendary Steven Spielberg sci-fi movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind (released in 1977). In fact, we have had a water arch very similar in style to this in just the fourth week of the competition way back in 2013!! Last time, it was an FTWA in Volgograd in Russia, that looked like there had been some alien intervention…this time its at the home of 2016 Arch of Triumph champions Lisbon…spooky…cue the music…pom, pom, pom, pom, pommmmmm…

Jonny: 9.2; Kerry: 9.4; Marc: 8.4; Ralph: 9.0.

Eurowings Cologne Bonn to Seattle-Tacoma 11 July

Yes they do happen…a blue sky day in Seattle…

Judge’s comments: This is one airport where you never expect to have a ‘dry’ FTWA. Famous for having 11 months of the year when rain is the norm, they are making the most of the fact that this route launch is taking place with some rare Washington State sunshine…

Jonny: 8.1; Kerry: 8.0; Marc: 7.9; Ralph: 8.0.

Elite Airways Portland to Halifax 13 July

Opportunity to get up close and personal to the CRJ 200 was missed in Canada…

Judge’s comments: Perhaps Halifax Airport’s fire service was expecting a larger aircraft on the inaugural service from Portland, given the cavernous gap between the two tenders and the CRJ 200 used by Elite Airways. Unless they thought the flight was coming in from Portland, Oregon (and not Maine), a 4,500 kilometre transcontinental sector which would be probably flown by a 737-800 or A320 rather than the regional jet used on actual the 560-kilometre city pair…

Jonny: 7.1; Kerry: 6.2; Marc: 6.5; Ralph: 6.6.

Interjet Mexico City to Montreal 13 July

Clearly there was a lot of rain in the east of Canada on 13 July…

Judge’s comments: The same grey rain-filled skies seem prevalent in Montreal as they did in Halifax on July looking at the soaked aprons that welcomed both first flights. Even the FTWAs look pretty similar, with the right-hand sides being perkier than the saggier left-hand sides…

Jonny: 6.5; Kerry: 7.0; Marc: 6.2; Ralph: 6.6.

Spirit Airlines Pittsburgh to Los Angeles 13 July 

A ‘Kardashian’ style FTWA in Pittsburgh…or should that be Buttsburgh…

Judge’s comments: For those of you new to the FTWA styles that are prevalent around the world…the rear-facing arch…where you see the rear of the aircraft rather than the more traditional nose-on aspect…is named after Kim Kardashian…who also seems to prefer having her picture taken this way too…for some reason…

Jonny: 7.1; Kerry: 6.9; Marc: 7.5; Ralph: 7.2.

WOW air Reykjavik/Keflavik to Chicago O’Hare 13 July 

The tenders only come out for the big routes in the Windy City…

Judge’s comments: Chicago O’Hare tends to only get the fire tenders out for a ‘big’ launch…and by that we mean a new intercontinental route. In the past they have blown the marketing budget for the likes of Emirates (August 2014), Finnair (June 2015), China Eastern Airlines (March 2016), Icelandair, (March 2016) and EVA Air (November 2016). Given that the Reykjavik/Keflavik route is already served and that WOW air is ‘only’ a low-cost carrier, the airline should consider itself pretty privileged to receive the works in the Windy City…  

Jonny: 5.9; Kerry: 6.1; Marc: 5.0; Ralph: 5.7.

Qeshm Air Tabriz to Hamburg 14 July

Qeshm Air gets a ‘wet’ FTWA for its latest European route launch…

Judge’s comments: Having recently received a ‘dry’ FTWA at Brussels (due to an unprecedented dry period in Belgium) its nice to see that the Iranian airline received the full route launch treatment in Germany…where clearly there has been more rain this summer. There is even the hint of a little rainbow on the right-hand side of the arch too…perhaps to make-up for the lack of water last time the airline started a European route…

Jonny: 6.1; Kerry: 6.2; Marc: 5.3; Ralph: 5.9.

TAP Portugal Lisbon to Cologne Bonn 15 July

Different tenders yields different sides of this FTWA…

Judge’s comments: It is quite often the case that when different fire tenders are used for a new route baptism that we tend to get two markedly different halves of an FTWA. Its almost like the left-hand tender…which looks more like a ‘classic’ piece of kit…is trying to proof to the young buck on the right that it has still got it where it counts…

Jonny: 7.0; Kerry: 7.2; Marc: 6.1; Ralph: 6.8.

Qatar Airways Doha to Skopje 17 July

Don’t get the red carpet wet…

Judge’s comments: We’ve had plenty of things in the foreground of FTWA images in the past…it has tended to be the general apron clutter…cones, GPUs etc. …but we’re pretty sure we’ve never had red carpet in the picture before…unless of course the member of apron staff insists on it be laid down for him wherever he goes on the airport…part of his new contract…

Jonny: 8.1; Kerry: 7.8; Marc: 7.6; Ralph: 7.8.