Does anyone remember a rather big influx of Antonovs (both 12's and 26's) into MST and HHN a few years ago? There were like 4-6 daily flights for a span of a few months. Were they charter-related? Sounds a bit silly, but I sure miss the sound of them overflying my town at 20.000ft. One of the few things that made me happy by waking me up at night.

MST? and HHN? Please next time provide the name of the city airport. I have to look it up. Maastricht , Netherlands is MST. Frankfurt, Germany of Hahn Airport is HHN.

Thanks.

Q

Yeah, sorry about that. Will do (next time)

Q wrote:

MST? and HHN? Please next time provide the name of the city airport. I have to look it up. Maastricht , Netherlands is MST. Frankfurt, Germany of Hahn Airport is HHN.

Thanks.

Q

I remember the old forum software allowing a tooltip with airport name on hover over of the IATA code, surely that could be added with todays coding technology.

Were those perhaps the NATO charters to Afghanistan?
Close to a few military bases in the area.

Just a few years back into fall 2018, MST airport implemented more stringent noise regulations particularly affecting elderly Antonov models such as the AN12 & AN26 from landing & taking off from its airstrip. Ever since then, there has been slim to no flights operated by those models in Maastricht. Hypothetically, the Antonov's could still operate out of MST but not without incurring hefty fines relating to noise. It doesnt make operational sense to breach these regulations when LGG is a hands reach & thus immune from restrictions. Alas, I have no clue for the latter.

Euroflyer181 wrote:

Does anyone remember a rather big influx of Antonovs (both 12's and 26's) into MST and HHN a few years ago? There were like 4-6 daily flights for a span of a few months. Were they charter-related? Sounds a bit silly, but I sure miss the sound of them overflying my town at 20.000ft. One of the few things that made me happy by waking me up at night.

The only time that there were multiple Antoov 12 departures at MST were at the time one couldn't move cattle between mainland Europe and the UK by road. However, that was many many years ago (at least 15). AFAIk the flights went from AMS initially, but moved to MST eventually

LJ wrote:

Euroflyer181 wrote:

Does anyone remember a rather big influx of Antonovs (both 12's and 26's) into MST and HHN a few years ago? There were like 4-6 daily flights for a span of a few months. Were they charter-related? Sounds a bit silly, but I sure miss the sound of them overflying my town at 20.000ft. One of the few things that made me happy by waking me up at night.

The only time that there were multiple Antoov 12 departures at MST were at the time one couldn't move cattle between mainland Europe and the UK by road. However, that was many many years ago (at least 15). AFAIk the flights went from AMS initially, but moved to MST eventually

Now there are many shots in the database from MST in 2017 and 2018, far more than the years before and after...

LJ wrote:

Euroflyer181 wrote:

Does anyone remember a rather big influx of Antonovs (both 12's and 26's) into MST and HHN a few years ago? There were like 4-6 daily flights for a span of a few months. Were they charter-related? Sounds a bit silly, but I sure miss the sound of them overflying my town at 20.000ft. One of the few things that made me happy by waking me up at night.

The only time that there were multiple Antoov 12 departures at MST were at the time one couldn't move cattle between mainland Europe and the UK by road. However, that was many many years ago (at least 15). AFAIk the flights went from AMS initially, but moved to MST eventually

I was curious and it seems that there was a series of Antonov 12 flights in September 2018. This eventually resulted in the stringent noise regulatins later that year. Note that that was not the same series as I was talking about above.The flights in September 2018 were transporting high tech goods which had to be transpoted to mainland Europe as there was fire damage in a factory in Germany (which couldn't produce the goods)

Links (in Dutch)
https://www.maa.nl/serie-vluchten-met-antonov/

LJ wrote:

LJ wrote:

Euroflyer181 wrote:

Does anyone remember a rather big influx of Antonovs (both 12's and 26's) into MST and HHN a few years ago? There were like 4-6 daily flights for a span of a few months. Were they charter-related? Sounds a bit silly, but I sure miss the sound of them overflying my town at 20.000ft. One of the few things that made me happy by waking me up at night.

The only time that there were multiple Antoov 12 departures at MST were at the time one couldn't move cattle between mainland Europe and the UK by road. However, that was many many years ago (at least 15). AFAIk the flights went from AMS initially, but moved to MST eventually

I was curious and it seems that there was a series of Antonov 12 flights in September 2018. This eventually resulted in the stringent noise regulatins later that year. Note that that was not the same series as I was talking about above.The flights in September 2018 were transporting high tech goods which had to be transpoted to mainland Europe as there was fire damage in a factory in Germany (which couldn't produce the goods)

Links (in Dutch)
https://www.maa.nl/serie-vluchten-met-antonov/

Exactly! It was from mid-June (this time around) till late October and I remember quite vividly seeing at least 3 of them every single day! If that really is the reason to enforce higher restrictions for these flights, then I guess there is no other choice but to head down to Liege. But I also remember some of them not just going to Hahn and Maastricht, but also to other nearby airports like Ostend and Luxemburg, so I guess it was a huge logistics operation to carry those components.