Holiday: A Euro 737-300 Wishlist

15/4/2020

The Panda Models 737-300 mould (once used by Aeroclassics also) is massively under-used. Panda has shown some interest in it, most recently with some easyjet and Jet2 examples but frankly they could be a lot more active. There are many series 300s left to be made and most exciting of these for me are the European charter airlines that took people to the sun and snow during the 80s, 90s and, with LCCs, even into the 2000s.

I am a huge fan of the Panda 737-300 and would love to see Panda wise up to the mould's potential. 35 of my 60 737-300s are Aeroclassics releases using this casting, whilst another 18 are Panda or Skywings. There are so many obvious 737-300s to be made but in this wishlist I focus only on European charter airlines and LCCs. I'll cover others in subsequent wishlists. Even with that stricter criteria there are still 34 examples in this wishlist and more if you include all the Go varieties. No doubt I've also missed some others desire. If so shout out in the comments.

UK Charters

The 737-300 was a popular type with UK charter operators who needed to replace old BAC One-Elevens or put a fuel efficient twin in to start operations. Most charter airlines rarely operated large numbers, most preferred 757s, but 737-300s got into the fleets of most at one point or another:

Konstantin von Wedelstaedt [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

Pedro Aragao / CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL

Rob Hodgkins / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

Britannia Airways Boeing 737-300; G-BOWR, June 1989/ ATD

Ken Fielding/https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

Pedro Aragão / CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL

Rest of Europe Charters

737-300s also saw service with a wide range of European charter airlines in some really attractive and colourful liveries:

Pedro Aragão / CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL

Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

Gary Watt [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Eduard Marmet / CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL

Konstantin von Wedelstaedt [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

JetPix [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Konstantin von Wedelstaedt [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

Pedro Aragão / CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL

Lauda Air Boeing 737-300; OE-ILG@GVA, July 1998/CSZ

Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

PH-HVF Boeing 737-300 Transavia BHX 13-02-93

Transavia | PH-HVV | 24329 | Boeing 737-300

Sobelair Boeing 737-300; OO-SBZ, April 1992/CWC

Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

Low Costers

In the early years of the LCC revolution, before the A319s and 73G/Hs swamped the scene the 737-300 was the aircraft of choice for LCCs. Some of the smaller operators kept them going well into the 2000s:

Debonair Boeing 737-300; G-DEBZ, August 1999

Oliver Pritzkow / CC BY-SA (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

Konstantin von Wedelstaedt [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]

There are obviously quite a few Go livery variations, which I won't list here but you get the idea:

Konstantin von Wedelstaedt [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) or GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)]