Operator Representativeness
Suppose you need a photo of an aircraft belonging to a particular airline. You don't know what aircraft types the airline currently operates, but you want the photo to be up to date. At the same time you'd rather not simply select a recent photo by date, because this would exclude some nice images which fit your page layout needs perfectly.
This is where the operator representativeness feature comes in. When you click on a thumbnail, the image display window will tell you whether or not the aircraft in the photo is representative of the operator's current fleet. In other words you'll know which photos are up to date regardless of when they were taken, and you can take your pick accordingly. This information is regularly updated to reflect fleet changes.
What representativeness means
Where we say that the aircraft in a photo is representative of the operator's fleet, we mean that:
- it represents an aircraft type and sub-type which is still used by the operator; and
- it is in the operator's current colours.
We do not go by individual aircraft ownership, meaning that if the operator has sold off Airbus A330-200 registration F-ABCD, we would still count photos of this plane as representative as long as the operator has other A330-200s which look like it. Conversely F-ABCD might still be in the operator's fleet, but in a new colour scheme which has been applied throughout the fleet. In this case photos of F-ABCD in the old colours would no longer be counted as representative.
The operator representativeness feature applies only to passenger airlines, commercial cargo carriers and military forces. Other operators - air taxi services, flying clubs, non-military government agencies etc. - are not monitored for representativeness.
Operator representativeness entries
A photo can be classified in one of five different ways under operator representativeness:
- This aircraft is representative of the operator's current fleet (as explained above).
- This aircraft is nonstandard in the operator's fleet (it is a nonstandard aircraft type or subtype that has been added to the fleet through a temporary lease, or else it is in nonstandard colours).
- This aircraft is no longer representative of the operator's fleet (it used to be representative, but the operator has adopted a new colour scheme or has retired that aircraft type/sub-type from its fleet).
- This operator has ceased flying or has changed its identity (in this case all photos featuring that operator, even those classified as nonstandard or no longer representative, will have their classification changed accordingly).
- Not applicable (the operator is not in one of the monitored categories, or else the photo does not portray any operator).
Special cases
Some special cases need to be borne in mind. First, an operator may be in transition between old and new colour schemes. Airlines may spend years with both schemes in their fleet as aircraft get repainted during major overhauls. In this case aircraft in the old scheme will continue to be counted as representative until it disappears from the fleet.
Secondly, an operator might not have a standard scheme or it might deliberately paint its planes in different colours. In this case colour variations will not be classified as nonstandard.
Thirdly, one operator might be flying its aircraft in the colours of another under a long-term partnership or franchise agreement between the two operators. Small airlines often enter into such partnerships to fly regional routes on behalf of large airlines. Some airlines operate exclusively in this way, meaning they no longer fly any aircraft in their own colours. Aircraft flown by one operator in another's colours under such an arrangement are counted as representative.
However, this does not apply to situations where one operator leases a plane from another and the plane appears in hybrid colours (for example, with the leasing operator's titles temporarily applied over the owner's own colours). In such a case the aircraft would be classified as nonstandard.