According to the El Salvador planespotters Facebook group there is an MS 773 due to land tomorrow night (09JUN) in SAL . It's a nonstop flight all the way from CAI. WHAT could possibly be the purpose of such a big aircraft flying to my home country from Egypt of all places? I highly doubt that president el-Sisi would be paying an official visit to his fellow Arab, El Salvador president Nayib Bukele. That's pretty much the only plausible explanation I can come up with.

No idea but I had a friend that was stuck in India. Was able to hitch a ride with a Mormon repatriation flight from Delhi to Cairo to Salt Lake.

It’s most likely Coronavirus-related aid or repatriation.

It’s a little late for repatriation flights, but I know some are still going on (take for example PIA, currently flying repats to the US). Another explanation could be a chartered cargo flight. They are no stranger to sending jets on seemingly odd routes (caught their A332 and 789 at SBD (2 hr East of down town LA)).

Could be cargo via CAI. MS is operating limited flights to CAN, for example. Or it could be repatriation. They have run some of both to IAD. I do not see any mention on the Salvadoran Foreign Affairs Ministry, so if that is the case, my guess is they're picking up stranded Egyptian and neighboring country citizens from Central America. I would not think there are many, but maybe enough to run a flight. Who knows.

There have been some very interesting flights operating in the last few daysy, i spotted a Kuwait 777 flying from their home base to Havana, and a Kam Air A340 from Afghanistan to Brazil, via Nairobi

UA was running a repatriation flight if I'm not mistaken to PTY within the last week. It was mentioned on the Embassy page.

VCVSpotter wrote:

It’s a little late for repatriation flights, but I know some are still going on (take for example PIA, currently flying repats to the US). Another explanation could be a chartered cargo flight. They are no stranger to sending jets on seemingly odd routes (caught their A332 and 789 at SBD (2 hr East of down town LA)).

Philippine Airlines several repatriation flights last week...Manila to Miami and LAX to Bridgetown Barbados both with 777's.

gdg9 wrote:

UA was running a repatriation flight if I'm not mistaken to PTY within the last week. It was mentioned on the Embassy page.

Right. Most Latin American countries locked down hard. This may be the first opportunity for some to get out.

Boof02671 wrote:

Aeroman has an MRO at SAL, could be a ferry flight for heavy maintenance visit.

That could be it actually. But if so, I wonder how the crew gets home. There are very limited flights at this point.

Boof02671 wrote:

Aeroman has an MRO at SAL, could be a ferry flight for heavy maintenance visit.

While it's not known if MRO Aeroman SAL does maintenance for wide-bodies, this is probable the best answer to why MS will fly one of its planes to SAL.
If, by any chance, that also happens to be a cargo flight, that's a good use for a very long odd flight.
And also if next stop for that B777 is Los Angeles, then there could be a repatriation flight Los Angeles - CAI.
Latin America is not known to have large numbers of Egyptian immigrants as some European and U.S. cities (like Los Angeles).

2travel2know2 wrote:

Boof02671 wrote:

Aeroman has an MRO at SAL, could be a ferry flight for heavy maintenance visit.

While it's not known if MRO Aeroman SAL does maintenance for wide-bodies, this is probable the best answer to why MS will fly one of its planes to SAL.
If, by any chance, that also happens to be a cargo flight, that's a good use for a very long odd flight.
And also if next stop for that B777 is Los Angeles, then there could be a repatriation flight Los Angeles - CAI.
Latin America is not known to have large numbers of Egyptian immigrants as some European and U.S. cities (like Los Angeles).

So far no Egyptair is scheduled into LAX (as of 8:45AM LA time).

Looks like it didn't take off, so it certainly won't be arriving today.

FWIW, Aeroman doesn't purport to work on anything bigger than a 757. They are interested in expanding their widebody business, but they have a nice niche and deep experience in the 737/A320 series aircraft. With everything scaled back so dramatically, it could be that they would undertake the challenge of a new type just to have the revenue. Seems a little strange, though. Egyptair should have its pick of MROs right now, and with good prices to boot.

American Airlines was sending the A330 to El Salvador for maintenance and Azul has also been there in the past for the A330.

No idea if that's the reason for the flight or not though.

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miguel0881 wrote:

gdg9 wrote:

UA was running a repatriation flight if I'm not mistaken to PTY within the last week. It was mentioned on the Embassy page.

Right. Most Latin American countries locked down hard. This may be the first opportunity for some to get out.

SJO also has quite a few recurring repatriation flights, operated mostly by UA, with other flights by NK. I dunno if the current date for an official reopening of PTY can be kept, but as far as SJO is concerned, it is likely that the border closure gets extended yet again (beyond the current end date of June 30) as many cantons in the north of the country have harsher restrictions in place than the rest of the country because they have become a focus for the Coronavirus. The CNE (Costa Rica's version of FEMA) has most of the country officially on sanitary yellow alert, while said cantons up north and one on the east coast are at orange alert.

LTU932 wrote:

miguel0881 wrote:

gdg9 wrote:

UA was running a repatriation flight if I'm not mistaken to PTY within the last week. It was mentioned on the Embassy page.

Right. Most Latin American countries locked down hard. This may be the first opportunity for some to get out.

SJO also has quite a few recurring repatriation flights, operated mostly by UA, with other flights by NK. I dunno if the current date for an official reopening of PTY can be kept, but as far as SJO is concerned, it is likely that the border closure gets extended yet again (beyond the current end date of June 30) as many cantons in the north of the country have harsher restrictions in place than the rest of the country because they have become a focus for the Coronavirus. The CNE (Costa Rica's version of FEMA) has most of the country officially on sanitary yellow alert, while said cantons up north and one on the east coast are at orange alert.

What is the current planned reopening date for PTY? Also June 30?

Boof02671 wrote:

wjcandee wrote:

FWIW, Aeroman doesn't purport to work on anything bigger than a 757. They are interested in expanding their widebody business, but they have a nice niche and deep experience in the 737/A320 series aircraft. With everything scaled back so dramatically, it could be that they would undertake the challenge of a new type just to have the revenue. Seems a little strange, though. Egyptair should have its pick of MROs right now, and with good prices to boot.

Not true at all they have done heavy maintenance on US/AA’s 330s.

"Purport to work" means "say they work". They don't "say they work" on anything larger than a 757. Look at their web site. https://mroholdings.com/facilities/aero ... facilities

If they haven't updated it, swell. Good for them.

I know places like Panama and El Salvador have people that came from Palestine, Lebanon, and other Arab countries.

Boof02671 wrote:

wjcandee wrote:

Boof02671 wrote:

Not true at all they have done heavy maintenance on US/AA’s 330s.

"Purport to work" means "say they work". They don't "say they work" on anything larger than a 757. Look at their web site. https://mroholdings.com/facilities/aero ... facilities

If they haven't updated it, swell. Good for them.

No need to be argumentative. Aeroman has worked on US’ 330s for years. It’s a fact. They are even had two 330s there when AA parked them all. The checks were finished and the planes ferried SAL-ELP-ROW

Here is a link to a pic and shows the plane ferried CLT-SAL. Then ferried out to retirement

https://www.flightera.net/en/planes/N272AY

Pot. Kettle.

But the photo and info was helpful. Thanks!

Funny thing is that no MS 77W showed up at SAL yet....

miguel0881 wrote:

What is the current planned reopening date for PTY? Also June 30?

It was supposed to reopen May 22, but if I read this correctly, it was extended another 30 days, all subject to change.