The Mediterranean island nations of Cyprus and Malta are both under-represented in 1:400 scale. Both have only had four 1:400 releases to their names, which is a shame considering both their national airlines are of long standing and have worn attractive liveries. Both also operated the A310. Cyprus had 4 series 200s from 1984 until late 2003 and they could regularly be seen at major European gateways like Heathrow. Two attractive schemes were worn. Air Malta operated a pair at different times from April 1994 until December 1995. One was leased from Lufthansa and the other from SABENA but they both wore the full Maltese livery. SABENA itself was an early customer of the A310 and flew 2 series 200s and a series 300 between 1984 and 1997. Surely a worthy candidate for a release and I'd prefer the cheatline delivery scheme over the later white one. Slightly more exotic but no less worthy is Kenya Airways. The recent Kenyan DC-9 gives hope that we may yet see one of the 3 series 300s they owned from 1986 until 2002. White tail scheme please rather than later red tail. Staying in Africa and Air Algerie was another early operator taking a quartet of series 200s in 1984. Moving to South America and the type saw extensive service in Ecuador with Ecuatoriana (3) and SAETA (2), Bolivia with LAB (3) and Argentina with Aerolineas Argentinas (5). The Ecuatoriana and Argentine examples have multiple available schemes. Back to Europe and A310s saw service in the charter market with Condor (7) and Hapag Lloyd (14) of Germany, Air Liberte (3) of France, and Balair / Balair CTA (4) of Switzerland. The A310 also made significant progress behind the Iron Curtain and I’m sure Interflug and CSA examples would be welcomed. To the Middle Eastern region and of course THY was a major operator whilst MEA leased several frames too. The type also showed up in Kuwait Airways fleet and I hadn’t realized they’d operated 17 A310s during the 1980s and 90s. Again two schemes are available but I prefer the earlier 90s livery as seen here: To keep the Aussie contingent happy I should mention the single Compass A310 (VH-YMI) and perhaps more importantly the pair flown by Air Niugini. For an outsider the Air Maldives scheme would be nice. They operated a trio between 1998 and 2000. For something even more obscure but just as worthy I'd take an Air Djibouti A310 too: Personally, I think that all 23 of these have decent sales potential especially since most of them represent major flag carriers or colourful liveries. Hopefully Aeroclassics agree and will bring back the A310 soon.
3 Comments
Paul Morley
26/9/2018 06:27:55 pm
I fully agree Richard. I'd love to see the pair of Cyprus 310's, Turkish old c/s, Kenya, and Kuwait made in particular!
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Glen DG
28/9/2018 09:38:28 am
A revised well researched and exquisitely done mould ( like the 757) of an A310 would be awesome!
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Kuuixng W
22/9/2021 04:34:55 pm
Old version of Airbus House colors please !
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I'm Richard Stretton, an aviation enthusiast and major collector of 400 scale model aircraft. This blog discusses ongoing events in the world of 400 scale. This site is free. Please donate to keep it going.
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