Short Ecuador tour + flower season spotting - February 2024
Late January and early February are moments of high activity in Quito’s “Mariscal Sucre” international airport. This is due to the fact that tons of Ecuadorian roses are exported just in time for St. Valentine’s day on February 14th.
Our yearly Spotter Day takes place during this time inside Quito’s airport. For this, we organized a short tour before the Spotter Day in which we had a few people from Germany visit us.
We were able to visit different locations in Quito, its surroundings and Latacunga to see military and civil aviation, as well as various preserved aircraft.
It was that time of year again when Quito’s skies begin to crowd with cargo planes. Yes, it is normal to see Boeing 747s flying over Quito to approach the airport, it is also common to see the 777 freighters, 767s and A330s. However, it’s the amount you get to see daily that lets you know that flower season has arrived.
Quito’s airport exports tons of roses to different corners of the world. February 14th, St. Valentine’s day is the export climax for flower producers in Ecuador, and for the last weeks of January and first weeks of February is when the majority of flowers get exported so they can reach the various flower boutiques in the other side of the world.
Also in February is Quito’s new “Mariscal Sucre” International airport’s anniversary. To combine both landmarks, we normally organize our annual Spotter Day in Quito’s airport on the first weekend of February as it is almost guaranteed that a great amount of cargo planes and heavy jets will be seen.
Our Spotter Day brings many people from different parts of the world, and we’ve been happy to have people from Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Costa Rica, Germany, Spain, the UK and Ireland participate.
Given that many foreign spotters would be traveling a long distance just to attend our Spotter day, we organized a short tour before the event so that visitors could make the best and see a bit more that just the traffic at Quito’s airport.
Our tour would take place 2 days prior to the event and would show our visitors the best of what Quito’s aviation has to offer, as well as a trip to Latacunga, a very important place for Ecuador’s aviation.
By early January a few spotters from Germany had confirmed their assistance both to the Spotter Day and tour. We were looking forward to others to confirm, when things took a bit of an unexpected turn.
A series of unpleasant events took place in Ecuador that shook society to a state of uncertainty in fear. In response, the government took a few measures that altered the order of things in the country.
Fortunately, these measures worked and in a few days things were back to normal.
However, Quito’s airport decided to play it safe and just as a precautionary measure postponed our Spotter Day. By then, our friends from Germany had already booked their tickets, so we decided to continue this tour, and the day the Spotter Day was programmed offer some plane-spotting at great spots outside Quito’s airport.
Surely enough, our friends arrived in Quito and we began our tour. The first stop would be at the 15th army aviation brigade, “Paquisha”. This is located in Los Chillos valley, southeast from Quito. The 15th army aviation brigade is home to a great amount of the Ecuadorian army’s helicopters. The Mil Mi-17s and 171s are based here as well as the AS-332 Super Pumas, AS350B2 and B3, and SA-315B Lamas. At one time the army’s SA341 Gazelles also operated from here, but they have been retired from service. We were able to visit the facilities and see the helicopters.
The tour continued nearby where there is a preserved Lama in a nearby park, as well as preserved Lockheed T-33 at the air forces mechanic’s club.
After this we head back to Quito. Once in the city we stopped by La Carolina park where there is a preserved Douglas DC-6. Then we continued to the Mariscal Sucre air base where we visited the museum and static park. The static park has 25 preserved aircraft, and the museum has 3, including the Macchi-Hanriot HD.1 “Telégrafo 1”.
Our final visit of the day was Parque Bicentenario, where Quito’s old airport used to be. Now, only the national police and Quito’s fire department operate their helicopters here. The police operates some AS350 and the fire department an AW-109.
The next day we head out southward, towards the city of Latacunga. Latacunga is the capital of the Cotopaxi province and has an air force base and international airport with the same name. Our first stop was at the ETFA or Air force technical school. This school trains mechanics, engineers and other staff of the Ecuadorian air force. In their premises there are a few preserved aircraft: Mirage F1JE (tandem configuration), Mirage 50, Gloster Meteor, A-37 Dragonfly, and a T-33.
Our next stop was at the DIAF hangar in Cotopaxi’s international airport. The DIAF is a maintenance center operated by the air force. Originally, it was meant to do all maintenance for aircraft of all three branches of Ecuador’s armed forces. However, with time they’ve done maintenance for Tame and other local airlines. Airlines from other countries such as Venezuela, Peru and Angola have sent their aircraft to the DIAF for maintenance, and recently, Flair Airlines sent a 737-800 for maintenance before being transferred to Flysafair in South Africa. Here, we were able to see the aircraft currently undergoing maintenance as well as the civil and military aircraft that are based in Latacunga.
While we were in Latacunga we also got to visit the ESPE (Armed forces university) campus in the Belisario Quevedo district. This university has the aeronautical mechanic career, and they have various preserved aircraft used for teaching and training.
Among the aircraft found here are: Fairchild F-27, Beechcraft F90, HS-125, Cessna A-37, Cessna 150, SA-342 Gazelle, and the nose of a Boeing 727-200 that is used as a flight training device for 737-500.
We then head back to visit a very special plane. In Puembo, near Quito’s airport is a private property whose owner, a former aviation mechanic, purchased a Vickers Viscount 798D. It is perhaps Ecuador’s best preserved aircraft.
Back in the time, Aerolíneas Cóndor, SAN and Saeta operated the Viscounts in Ecuador. This Viscount was purchased by Saeta, but never flew for the airline as it was only brought for spare parts. By the time Saeta stopped operating the Viscounts the plane had no reason to be, and was sold. Its new owner managed to move the plane from Quito’s old airport to its final resting place in Puembo. The exterior has undergone a few liveries, but the interior has remained the same since it was preserved.
Certain details have been changed to become more comfortable: An air conditioning unit has been installed, it has electricity, and the toilet has been modified. Other details take you back to the past such as its flight deck, the seats, its finishings, etc. The plane also has the seat where Pope John Paul the II sat when flying within Ecuador during his visit in 1985.
The next day was the day that our Spotter Day was meant to take place. Instead, we went to the eastern side of the airport to catch the different arrivals and departures from Quito’s airport.
Here we could observe a few of the local and foreign traffic that regularly operates in Quito as well as the special visits. Avianca Ecuador was visible with its fleet of A320s and A320 NEOs as well as Latam Ecuador with their A319s. Aeroregional also was visible with their 737s.
Air Europa departed with a 787-9 with the hybrid Norse livery. Copa Airlines later arrived with its 737-800.
During the morning we could also catch some of the cargo activity.
Avianca Cargo arrived with one of its regular Airbus A330Fs. This was followed by the Aercaribe Cargo Boeing 737-400 coming from Bogota, always an interesting catch. A Latam Cargo 767-300F departed Quito, followed by a Cargojet 767-300F. Mascargo later arrived with one of its A330s.
We now took a break for lunch and head to the other side of the airport as the sun was too high in the sky, resulting in unfavorable light for photos. Our afternoon angle was going to be the terrace at the Avianca Ecuador hangar in the southwestern part of the airport. This angle is nice as you have a clear view of the approach and is great for touchdowns and departures from runway 36.
A short stop was made before lunch to observe a preserved Lockheed T-33 outside a school in the Otón de Vélez neighborhood, as well as a drive to see the two former Tame Embraer 190s which were going to be dismantled shortly to be preserved at private locations.
The afternoon was exciting as we could catch lots of the arrivals of the flights we saw departing in the morning, as well as the departures of the flights that arrived while we were having lunch. One of them was a SkyLease Cargo Boeing 747, one of the few 747s that arrived that day.
That afternoon we got to see various Boeing 767 freighters: UPS, and LATAM Cargo, including the one wearing the “Avión Solidario” colors. An unusual visit was a Copa Airlines Cargo 737-800 converted freighter.
International scheduled flights were also seen that afternoon such as the Iberia Airbus A350, Copa Airlines 737 MAX 9, American Airlines with their MAX 8, among others.
The location we were at gave us a vantage point to Quito’s general aviation platform where that afternoon we saw a private Cessna 340 and a Beechcraft F90 belonging to Endecots air taxi. To top off the day, an Atlas Air Cargo Boeing 747-8F touched down at Quito’s runway 36. With this the spotting session and the tour came to an end. We dropped off our friends from Germany as the next day they were flying to the Galapagos islands to enjoy a 5-day cruise.
Though this was a short tour, it was without a doubt a very complete and interesting one. We hope you enjoyed this trip report and look forward to having you on one of our future adventures.
For more information about our aviation tours, feel free to contact us at eap.aviation.tours@gmail.com.