PAPAGAYO - Equair B737
Some aircraft spend their entire careers flying for one airline.
Others travel from one aviation world to another.
HC-CXS belonged to the second group.
Built in 2008, this Boeing 737-700 began its career in Germany as D-AHXJ.
It flew for TUIfly.
It appeared in Air Berlin colours.
It moved to the Middle East and became T7-WLA with Wings of Lebanon.
Then, more than fourteen years after it first entered service, the aircraft crossed the Atlantic and began perhaps its most colourful chapter.
In Ecuador, it became HC-CXS.
Its name was Papagayo.
Flying in the vibrant colours of Equair, the Boeing connected Quito and Guayaquil with destinations across Ecuador, including the extraordinary Galápagos Islands.
That chapter would last less than a year.
Equair suddenly ceased operations in September 2023.
Papagayo was grounded.
And in 2024, after more than fifteen years and a career spanning three continents, the aircraft itself was dismantled.
But part of its genuine fuselage skin was preserved by Aircrafttag.
Born as D-AHXJ
The aircraft was built as a Boeing 737-7K5 with manufacturer serial number MSN 35277 and Boeing line number 2609.
It emerged from Boeing's Renton production line in 2008.
Powered by two CFM International CFM56 engines, the aircraft belonged to the Boeing 737 Next Generation family.
Its first major identity was German.
D-AHXJ.
The aircraft was delivered to TUIfly in May 2008.
At the time, the Boeing 737-700 was an ideal aircraft for the European leisure market.
It could efficiently connect German cities with destinations across the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands and other popular holiday regions.
D-AHXJ entered exactly that world.
The German Years
For around a decade, D-AHXJ remained connected to German aviation.
Its career coincided with a period of considerable change in Germany's leisure airline market.
TUIfly and Air Berlin developed a close operational relationship, and aircraft moved between the visual identities and operations associated with the two companies.
D-AHXJ became part of that story.
During its German career, the aircraft could be seen not only in TUIfly service but also wearing Air Berlin colours.
For passengers, the aircraft was simply part of everyday European aviation.
Holiday flights.
City connections.
Mediterranean destinations.
Thousands of take-offs and landings across the continent.
But by late 2017, this first chapter was approaching its end.
Leaving Germany
D-AHXJ was withdrawn from use and stored at Hannover on 30 October 2017.
On 27 January 2018, it left Germany for Sofia, Bulgaria.
A few weeks later, another transformation began.
The familiar German appearance disappeared.
On 14 March 2018, the aircraft was photographed at Hannover after repainting for its next operator.
The registration still read D-AHXJ.
But visually, it had already become an aircraft of Wings of Lebanon.
Soon the German registration would disappear as well.
T7-WLA – A New Life in Lebanon
In 2018, MSN 35277 became T7-WLA.
Its new operator was Wings of Lebanon.
Its new operational world centred on Beirut.
This was a very different environment from the German leisure market in which the aircraft had spent its first decade.
Wings of Lebanon was a much smaller carrier, using aircraft for charter and scheduled operations from Lebanon to destinations across the region and beyond.
For the Boeing 737, however, the basic mission remained familiar.
Short- and medium-haul passenger flying.
The same airframe that had carried European holidaymakers from Germany now connected passengers across the Eastern Mediterranean and surrounding regions.
Photographs document T7-WLA operating for Wings of Lebanon at airports including Düsseldorf and Antalya during this period.
And once again, the aircraft adapted.
But its greatest geographical move was still ahead.
From the Middle East to South America
In 2022, the aircraft left Wings of Lebanon behind.
Its next home would be thousands of kilometres away.
Ecuador.
A young Ecuadorian airline called Equair was expanding its fleet.
The airline had begun commercial operations in January 2022 and was building a domestic network around Boeing 737-700 aircraft.
MSN 35277 was selected to become its third aircraft.
T7-WLA crossed the Atlantic.
Then came another new registration.
HC-CXS.
And another new identity.
Papagayo.
Becoming Papagayo
Before entering service with Equair, HC-CXS was painted in Ecuador by the Dirección de Industria Aeronáutica at Latacunga.
On 29 November 2022, the freshly painted aircraft arrived in Quito.
Its transformation was complete.
The relatively restrained liveries of its earlier careers had given way to Equair's distinctive Ecuadorian identity.
The aircraft was named Papagayo.
The name continued Equair's tradition of naming its Boeing 737s after birds.
Other aircraft in the fleet carried names including Cóndor and Albatros.
Papagayo represented the colourful macaw associated with Ecuador's coastal region.
On the aircraft itself, the new identity was impossible to miss.
A Boeing for Ecuador
Equair configured Papagayo with 142 passenger seats.
Its arrival gave the young airline a third Boeing 737-700 and additional capacity to expand its network.
For HC-CXS, the operating environment had changed dramatically again.
Germany had been replaced by Ecuador.
European leisure destinations had been replaced by domestic routes crossing the Andes and Pacific coast.
Quito.
Guayaquil.
And destinations that make Ecuadorian aviation particularly distinctive.
The Galápagos Islands.
Equair served both Baltra and San Cristóbal, connecting the Ecuadorian mainland with one of the most extraordinary island groups on Earth.
For an aircraft that had already spent years flying across Europe and the Middle East, this was an entirely new world.
From Quito Across the Andes
Operating in Ecuador also meant working in a demanding aviation environment.
Quito's Mariscal Sucre International Airport sits at high elevation in the Andes.
The country's geography combines mountains, Pacific coastline, tropical regions and isolated islands.
The Boeing 737-700 was well suited to Equair's relatively short domestic network.
Papagayo could leave Quito and descend toward Guayaquil on the Pacific side of the country.
Or continue west across the ocean toward the Galápagos.
In only a few months, HC-CXS became part of everyday Ecuadorian aviation.
A Young Airline with Ambitious Plans
Equair itself was only beginning its story.
The airline had started operations in January 2022 with flights between Quito and Guayaquil.
It subsequently expanded its network and added services to the Galápagos.
The arrival of Papagayo near the end of 2022 demonstrated the airline's ambitions.
HC-CXS was its third aircraft.
At the time, Equair spoke openly about expansion.
The airline had established itself in Ecuador's domestic market and was competing with much larger operators.
For Papagayo, everything suggested that another substantial chapter of its career was beginning.
It would not happen.
September 2023
On 30 September 2023, Equair ceased operations.
The announcement came less than two years after the airline had begun flying.
For HC-CXS, the timing was particularly striking.
Papagayo had arrived in Quito only ten months earlier.
An aircraft that had spent around a decade in its first European chapter had now seen its Ecuadorian career end in less than a year.
The colourful Boeing 737 that had connected Quito, Guayaquil and the Galápagos was grounded.
Equair disappeared from Ecuador's skies.
And Papagayo needed another home.
N527PC
After the collapse of Equair, the aircraft left its Ecuadorian identity behind.
HC-CXS eventually became N527PC.
The US registration was connected with Fortress Transportation.
But unlike the transitions from Germany to Lebanon and from Lebanon to Ecuador, there would be no substantial new passenger career.
By now, MSN 35277 had been flying for more than fifteen years.
Its journey was approaching its end.
The End in Maine
In 2024, the former D-AHXJ, T7-WLA and HC-CXS reached Brunswick Executive Airport in Maine, United States.
There, the aircraft was broken up.
Planespotters records N527PC as dismantled at Brunswick in 2024.
It was the end of a remarkably international life.
Germany.
Lebanon.
Ecuador.
The United States.
More than fifteen years had passed since the Boeing first entered service.
The complete aircraft disappeared.
But part of Papagayo survived.
From Papagayo to Aircrafttag
Part of the genuine fuselage skin of Equair Boeing 737 HC-CXS was preserved and transformed by Aircrafttag into collectible pieces of aviation history.
The material comes from an aircraft that travelled through three very different airline worlds.
D-AHXJ in Germany.
T7-WLA in Lebanon.
HC-CXS in Ecuador.
Its final colourful identity was Papagayo.
The surface experienced more than a decade and a half of real airline operations.
European winters.
Mediterranean summers.
Middle Eastern heat.
High-altitude operations in Ecuador.
Flights across the Andes.
And journeys toward the Galápagos Islands.
Original paint, scratches, marks and variations can remain visible on the preserved material.
They belong to the real aircraft.
Boeing 737-7K5.
MSN 35277.
HC-CXS.
Papagayo.
Three Continents, One Boeing 737
The story of HC-CXS demonstrates how dramatically the life of a single airliner can change.
In 2008, it was D-AHXJ in Germany.
Ten years later, it became T7-WLA in Lebanon.
In 2022, it crossed the Atlantic and emerged in the vivid colours of Equair as HC-CXS.
Its Ecuadorian chapter was short.
But it may have become the most visually distinctive period of the aircraft's life.
Papagayo carried passengers between Ecuador's largest cities and out across the Pacific toward the Galápagos.
Then Equair disappeared almost as quickly as it had arrived.
In 2024, the aircraft itself followed.
The complete Boeing 737 no longer exists.
But part of its genuine fuselage skin has been preserved by Aircrafttag.
A physical piece of Papagayo – and of an aircraft whose journey stretched from Europe to the Middle East and South America – can continue its story.
Later D-AHXJ crossed the European skies in Air Berlin colors.
