New ‘Dolphin Park’ livery for Zagros Airlines A322

New "Dolphin Park" livery observed on Zagros Airlines Airbus A320-214, reg. EP-ZAT (cn 999)

[photo: Ata Tavanaei]

 

View of entire livery on EP-ZAT, as photographed 09OCT15 at Mashhad - Shahid Hashemi Nejad International (MHD / OIMM)

[photo: Ata Tavanaei]

Operator history for EP-ZAT, source: Planespotters.net (click to enlarge)

This aircraft's new livery reference of "Dolphin Park" is an interesting one. According to UntoldIran.com:

Dolphin Park or Dolphinarium located in Kish island is the first dolphin park in Iran.

The huge recreational and tourist complex with 100 hectares area is located in the southeast of the island. The complex includes green space with a variety of different species of plants, bird garden, and the first and the only Dolphinarium in Iran. In this complex, different species of marine mammals, including dolphins, northern sea lion, southern sea lion, northern sea cat, dolphin and penguin are kept and tourists can watch their master strokes of those trained by Iranian instructors. A total of 21 marine mammals are kept in pools with a volume of 18,000 cubic meters filled with sea water.

The green space of Dolphin Park has more than one hundred plant species including thousands of palm trees, very large Benjamins, Hornbeam (Lur) trees (banyan), Eucalyptus, Acacia, Myrtle, Prosopis cineraria, Marshmallow, Callistemon, Tecoma ,Conocarpus, Junipers and more than 25 species of cactus and other plants that is unique in its kind considering the climatic conditions of the island and its coral soil.

In the bird garden more than 50 species of various birds like pelicans, ostriches, parrots of Macau, peacocks, various types of stork, toucan, tauraco, swan and other types of aquatic animals like crocodile are kept from all around the world. Due to the proper environment these animals can breed and live naturally.

COMMENTARY: Zagros Airline, based at ABD with main hub at THR, lists two flights to Kish, weekly.

Dolphin performance with touchscreen at Dolphin Park on Kish Island

Dolphin ball trick performance at Dolphin Park on Kish Island

Dolphin ball trick performance at Dolphin Park on Kish Island (as referenced on Zagros Airlines EP-ZAT livery)

Spectator interaction with dolphins at Dolphin Park on Kish Island

Sea lion performance at Dolphin Park on Kish Island

Trained sea lion at Dolphin Park on Kish Island

Photos: UntoldIran.com

UAE, Qatar Airlines Order 526 New Passenger Planes

Dubai - The Dubai Airshow is under way this week and the announcements by Gulf airlines are wild. Following is the list of new airplanes that were put on order today by UAE and Qatari airlines:

Emirates: 150 Boeing 777Xs and 50 Airbus A380s, with the staggering price tag of $100 billion for Emirates alone!

Qatar and Etihad: 109 Boeing 777Xs, 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 87 Airbus A380s.

Flydubai: 100 Boeing 737MAX

This is 526 newest aircraft ordered in one day by the four airlines in the UAE and Qatar!

Photo credit: Boeing Chairman James McNerney at a news conference at Dubai Airshow to officially launch the new 777X, in front of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. (Reuters)

Another wet-lease aircraft for Iran commercial aviation carrier

 

Above: Iran Air McDonnell Douglas MD-82 (DC-9-82), UR-CJZ (cn 49506/1400) at Mehrabad International (THR / OIII), August 2013 [Shahram Sharifi / Airliners.net]

Iran Air has added to the fleet its first MD-82. This aircraft operated by Ukraine's Bukovyna Airlines was previously wet-leased to Iran Air subsidiary Iran Airtour Airline. Iran Airtour operates three MD-82s itself and leases another ten from Bukovyna (as well as a single MD-83). [Source: ch aviation]