Miami Air B737 at CHQ?

[Hot Rod]

I saw a Miami Air B737 at Chania airport (CHQ) in Greece yesterday (may 10). Anyone knows what they were doing there?

[alexb757]

I could be wrong, but I'm guessing that it could be one of those operations where the crew work 6 months stateside, 6 months Europe. Apart from the Miami Air markings, did you happen to notice whether the aircraft had an N- tail number or some European registration?
I do happen to know that there is an agreement between Miami Air and Excel Airways of the UK to do this kind of thing. So...it may have been a Miami Air B737-800 operating on behalf of Excel for the UK summer season. I doubt very much if it was a revenue flight all the way from Florida to Greece even for a 737NG!

[tailscrape]

Most likely on behalf of Excel Airways. I think it had a reg of G-XLAG last year or something like that. I remember it being parked next to us at MAN a lot.

[Give a dog a beach]

You are quite correct, Excel do have an agreement with Miami Air to swap aircraft in the summer / winter seasons.

But this summer excel are not taking a unit as Miami Air need all there aicraft. In past years excel have used the reg: G-OXLA for the leased unit.

For this year they Excel have taken a SAA B737-800 with winglets. The reg is staying as ZS-SJP and is in Excel livery.

Hope this helps .....

[kriskross]

I know that Miami Air have some sort of contract with US Gov for flights to Europe, which is why they needed ETOPS from the start on the -800. So if not for Excel, then maybe one of these??

[latinaviation]

It's probably a US CRAF mission. I believe Miami Air has quite a bit of their fleet dedicated to these missions.

[Hot Rod]

It definitely had an N-number, I´m pretty sure it was N733MA.