SpotLAX/Dorkfest 2024 spotting news and notes

Our spotter checklists are a great tool to keep tabs on how the industry changes over time; sadly Lynx wasn't the only airline crossed out on this year's edition. We'll be handing them out this weekend in Los Angeles.

It's the most wonderful time of the year - SpotLAX and Dorkfest are happening in less than a week (Sept 13-15 2024)! I've attended and written about these events since 2018; if unfamiliar, it's an opportunity to meetup with other avgeeks, from airline CEOs to toddlers easily distracted by airplanes, in a minimally structured environment.

As is now tradition, I'll be there (look for the big guy in a dark blue JetTip hat) handing out our custom event keychains and our spotting checklist, and for the first time, JetTip Kid 1 and Kid 2 will also be along to help - they'll be wearing new JetTip t-shirts from Jetset Shirts!

Below you'll find a quick overview of what's changed since last year's event. In a few cases, the notes are a bit confusing - for example MSC Cargo will be new to SpotLAX/Dorkfest this year, despite having been operated to Los Angles for over a year, because they weren't operating there last September.

Fellow spotters, I know we all groove on the most trivial of trivial minutia - please shoot me an email if anything here (or on the checklist once in hand) needs to be corrected, and I'll happily update this post.

New airlines for 2024

• Alaska Air Cargo 737-800F
  Overnight Tuesday / Wednesday
• Air Canada Cargo 767-300F
  Midday Wednesday
• Awesome Cargo A330-200F
  Early Saturday, late Monday
  
• MSC Air Cargo 777-200F
  Midday W/F/Su
• Porter E195-E2
  2x daily midday, after dark arrival M/W/Th/Sa, sunrise departure Tu/Th/Fr/Su
  
• "Swoop" (WestJet)
  This is admittedly a bit of a stretch, but Swoop didn't serve LAX when it was its own operation. Now that it's getting integrated back into WestJet, the livery is regularly making appearances here. WestJet will get these aircraft repainted eventually - catch them while you can!
  

New airline + type combinations for 2024

• Hawaiian 787-9
  Daily, arrives 9:30p, departs 10a
  
• Northern Air Cargo 737
  Appears to be a semi-regular, ad-hoc visitor
  

Returning to LAX in 2024

• Frontier A320
  Perhaps not too exciting for US-based spotters, but Frontier's return to LAX will be a welcome addition for spotters visiting from overseas. Several daily flights.
• Amerijet 767
  Weekly on Saturday afternoons
  
• Sichuan Airlines A350
  Returning to LAX after a COVID hiatus. After dark arrival/departure Tu/F/Su
  

Discontinued / gone in 2024

• A300: AeroUnion, FedEx
• A320: Air Transat, Alaska
• A350: Asiana, British Airways, Lufthansa
• 737: DHL, Hillwood, Lynx
• 747: Cargolux Italia, China Airlines Cargo, Kalitta/DHL, Silk Way West
• 767: AeroUnion, Aloha Air Cargo, MasAir Cargo
• 777: China Airlines Cargo, Emirates SkyCargo, Korean, LATAM
  

2024 checklist errata

Regretfully, a few errors were discovered after this year's list went to print, and I'm confident the community will discover a few more. Please email me with any additional updates and I'll add them them here.

• Aeromexico Connect's E190s were operating daily service from Monterrey (MTY), but route was suspended on August 28, 2023; as such, we shouldn't have listed them as discontinued since the 2023 event, as they had already stopped before the event took place last year.
• AmeriJet's 767s are listed as new, but should be returning; unsure of details, but they've flown to LAX previously, despite being absent during the last few events.
  
• Sichuan's A350s are listed as new, but should be listed as returning, having been on hiatus since COVID started.
  
• MSC Air Cargo's 777s should be listed as new for this year; similar to the Aeromexico E190s, they had been operating to LAX last season, but were not scheduled for September last year.
  

Nick Benson

Nick lives in Burnsville, Minnesota with his wife and three children. He grooves on railroad and aviation photography, politics, geography, weather, and LEGO. He started JetTip's smart flight alert service in 2017, and is now a full-time avgeek. He can frequently be found atop a step ladder at MSP's Aircraft Viewing Area.