The new Dubai World Central-Al Maktoum International Airport has opened for flights and will eventually become the world’s largest airport.

Initially it will only handle cargo flights (from 27 June 2010). Passenger flights will start in 2011. The first flight into the facility was an Emirates Cargo Boeing 777-200

Airline Business blog has all the details and pictures. Click the link below…

PICTURES: The big new Dubai airport accepts its first flight – Airline Business.

It closed following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, but this weekend LAX’s old control tower observation deck, in the building often known as the Theme Building, will reopen!

We don’t know yet whether the views will be as good as they previously were, but this is a major positive step for anyone wishing to watch aircraft at Los Angeles International.

At the moment, the opening hours will be limited to Saturdays and Sundays from 8am to 5pm.

There will be an official opening ceremony for the refurbished building on 21 June 2010.

Despite constant threats to retire the aircraft, Aeroflot are keeping the Ilyushin IL-96s on various routes over the Summer and Winter timetables.

In particular, you can see (or fly) them from Moscow SVO to Salzburg on the following services (according to Airlineroute.net):

SU175 SVO0530 – 0640SZG IL9 6 25DEC10-
SU177 SVO1205 – 1305SZG IL9 6 25DEC10-
SU173 SVO1510 – 1620SZG IL9 6 01JAN11-

SU176 SZG0810 – 1310SVO IL9 6 25DEC10-
SU178 SZG1435 – 1930SVO IL9 6 25DEC10-
SU174 SZG1750 – 2250SVO IL9 6 01JAN11-

From 30DEC10 to 09JAN11, SU175/176, SU177/178 also operates on Day 467

This summer, the IL-96 will be flying occasional services into Antalya, Heraklion and Larnaca from Moscow SVO

Air France will be sending their Airbus A380 aircraft into London Heathrow on a few of the mid-morning runs from Paris CDG between June and August.

Lucky UK spotters will get the chance to see the beast (along with Singapore, Qantas and Emirates examples) on the following days:

Saturday, Sunday and Monday 12 June to 30 August inclusive, plus Friday 2 July to Friday 30 July inclusive.
Flight AFR1980/1981
Arrives Heathrow 1025, and departs 1250

Photo (c) www.plane-spotting-hotels

News has come through from a number of people over the past few days that spotting has once again been banned at one of the world’s best-known spotting hotels – the Sheraton Deira in Dubai.

The hotel has a roof-top pool area which is just underneath the approach/departure path of the runways at Dubai International Airport. Hundreds of spotters make use of the facilities every year, either for a purpose spotting trip to Dubai, or at the start or end of a journey further afield whilst transferring through Dubai.

Recent reports state that twitchy holidaymakers reported ‘suspicious’ activity by a spotter on the rooftop, who was then asked by security to stop. The police have now banned spotting there as a result.

Do you have any updates or recent experiences there to share? Please comment.

After months of uncertainty, Coventry Airport has finally found a new owner after The Patriot Aviation group stepped in to take on the airport in the West Midlands.

The group have plans to turn Coventry into a “commercial, regional hub with full air traffic service.”

Since closing, the airport has been in occasional use as an unlicensed field, with light aircraft and the resident Classic Flight aircraft still operating.

The hope is that Patriot, run by Sir Peter Rigby, will create a vibrant hub for general aviation, leisure, business and freight, “with passenger flights amongst possible future plans.”

This is great news for the airport, and the region’s spotters. Hopefully Coventry will only grow from now on, and see an increase in movements and fortunes.

German spotters listen up – your new Lufthansa Airbus A380 will be performing a pilot training schedule at various airports in May and June. Be the first to see the beast in action for endless landing, taxying and takeoff shots.

There are also a few Austrian and Swiss airports thrown into the schedule, so you guys watch out too!

The schedule looks like this:

Monday, 31 May
Full-day flight training at Karlsruhe Airport.

Tuesday, 1 June
Full-day flight training at Leipzig Airport.

Wednesday, 2 June
Line training on the Frankfurt – Stuttgart – Zürich – Vienna – Dresden – Linz – Munich – Frankfurt routes.

Thursday, 3 June
Line training on the Frankfurt – Berlin-Tegel – Hanover – Hamburg – Bremen – Dusseldorf – Cologne/Bonn – Frankfurt routes.

Credit to EmpireStateFX.com for posting the news

Spotters visiting the airports in Southern California (SoCal to the locals) now have a new web resource to help in their planning, which has been set up by Mark Ollier.

Mark moved to the area and has been inundated with requests for information from fellow enthusiasts, so has decided to set up this site to cover all of the information you’ll need when spotting at the various airports. To start with, he has covered Burbank,Van Nuys,Los Angeles and Long Beach but states “I will add more airports over the coming weeks.”

He adds: “On the site you will find spotting locations and daily movements for those airports. I will be adding SBS reports and a gallery. I have a forum which you need to sign up to access but on here I will keep everone updated with airport news, airline schedules, new build C-17′s and Gulfstream’s out of Long Beach, and the latest information on the storage areas of Mojave and Victorville.”

This site has fantastic potential as a lot of decent airports are situated close together and regularly make it onto the travel itineraries of spotters visiting the area.

The site can be found at http://www.socalspotters.net/

Shanghai’s Hongqiao airport opened its new official spectator facility on 16 March 2010 on top of the new Terminal 2 building. Interestingly, this is the first official spotting location to be opened at any Chinese airport, and many hope this will pave the way for other airports to have such facilities incorporated – especially when new terminals and upgrades are built.

Terminal 2 is home to all domestic flights at the airport (apart from Spring Airlines), with international flights remaining at the older Terminal 1.

The new open-air spotting facility is on the 4th floor of the building with great views over the apron and runway beyond. It is 60 metres long and has a security check on entry.

To reach the facility, escalators from the check-in area will whisk you up in no time.

If you have any photos from this new facility, or experience from using it, please comment below.

Following in the success of Airport Spotting Guides Europe, Matt Falcus has produced a new book, this time entitled Airport Spotting Guides USA.

The book boasts guides to 67 airports, each with a detailed map of spotting locations, plus descriptions and directions. For each airport, a run down of airlines, radio frequencies, contact details, hotels with views and other statistic are included.

Additionally, nearby attractions are listed for each airport, which includes nearby airports, museums and aviation-themed attractions.

Matt states: “The Europe book has been very well received, and this was the natural progression for the series.” He adds “America is very popular with European spotters who love to visit the storage airports and the big hubs like Memphis and Atlanta. This book has it all in a handy size, you shouldn’t got without it.”

The book is published through Destinworld Publishing Ltd, and available from early April from all good aviation stockists, plus sites such as Amazon.