Bring Back the 3 TEN: Future A310s

​2018 in 1:400 scale has been the year of the 757 but we shouldn’t forget that prior to the recent 737 MAXs Aeroclassics last new mould was that of the 757’s competitor product the Airbus A310. The execution of some of the releases wasn’t fabulous but the mould itself is and I hope the recent paucity of A310s doesn’t mean we have seen the last of the mould as there are imho plenty of viable options left to do.

The Aeroclassics A310 is a classy mould

​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.

Photo by Tim Rees. From Wikipedia

Photo by RuthAS. From Wikipedia

​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.

Photo by Gordon Zammit. From Wikipedia

​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.

Photo by Michael Gilliand. From Wikipedia

​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.

Photo by Aldo Bidini. From Wikipedia

​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.

Photo by Perry Hoppe. From Wikipedia

Photo by Aldo Bidini. From Wikipedia

​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.

Photo by Torsten Maiwald. From Wikipedia

​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.

Photo by Pedro Aragão. From Wikipedia

Photo by Pedro Aragão. From Wikipedia

Photo by JetPix. From Wikipedia

Photo by Eduard Marmet. From Wikipedia

Photo by Aero Icarus. From Wikipedia

​The A310 also made significant progress behind the Iron Curtain and I’m sure Interflug and CSA examples would be welcomed.

Photo by Konstantin von Wedelstaedt. From Wikipedia

Photo by Ralf Manteufel. From Wikipedia

Photo by Kambui. From Wikipedia

​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:

Photo by Christian Volpati. From Wikipedia

​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.

Photo by John Wheatley. From Wikipedia

​For an outsider the Air Maldives scheme would be nice. They operated a trio between 1998 and 2000.

Photo by Perry Hoppe. From Wikipedia

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.