Did you know there are some free bus services around London Heathrow that are ideal for spotters moving around the various perimeter locations?

Bus service between Hatton Cross and Terminal 5 are:

423 via northern perimeter road, Bath Road and Longford village.
441 between Central area and Terminal 5 via northern perimeter road
482 and 490 via Terminal 4 and cargo along southern perimeter road.

All of these buses are free between Hatton Cross and the terminals. They will help you travel between spotting locations at Runways 27L, 27R and 09L for viewing when runways change.

The viewing decks at Zurich will now close on 1 November for building work.

The deck on Pier E will re-open in January 2009.

Thanks to Thomas Jaeger for the information.

Why not purchase Airport Spotting Guides Europe to find out alternative spotting locations at Zurich?

After all the speculation, Gatwick has finally been put up for sale by the BAA. The price tag is estimated at £1.8bn.

BBC News story about the sale:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7620293.stm

With BAA out of the picture, might the new owner (which could be Fraport or Manchester’s owners) provide facilities for spotters once again?

Virgin Atlantic are also interested in buying Gatwick as part of a consortium.

Keflavik is the main international gateway airport to Iceland. It is the base of Icelandair.

Other carriers you’ll see here include:
Iceland Express (Hello)
Lufthansa
Germanwings
Bluebird Cargo
Star Air

The airport covers a vast area, being a former US air base. It has two runways, and a number of smaller remote aprons and hangars where the military operations used to happen. These are still sometimes used by biz jet and troop flights, and other operations.

The airport has one passenger terminal, with a long pier extending into the apron. Before going into the building, at departures level you can see the apron at either side of the entrances and get an overview of most aircraft parked there.

Once through security, you will have free reign of the pier, and can log most aircraft easily. You can see across to the runways from the end of the pier. The cargo apron is also visible alongside.

Traffic can be a little slow. You’ll find that the Icelandair flights all come in together 2 or 3 times a day, connecting European and North American flights together.

To see aircraft on remote aprons, a car is recommended due to the large area. You may also be able to get some landing shots at the end of the runway in use.

Following on from my recent post about the BAe ATP aircraft stored at Woodford, near Manchester, I can now sadly report that they have all been scrapped. Even the prototype aircraft has met this fate.

There is still one ATP forward section present, however, and a similar section of a BAe 146 aircraft. The Vulcan is also reportedly still present.

On honeymoon in Iceland recently, I had the pleasure of visiting Reykjavik’s downtown airport, which is used extensively for domestic flights, biz jets, deliveries and fuel stops, flying schools, and Coast Guard flights.

The airport is quite small and compact, with small runways. It is literally over the road from the city centre. When a plane lands or departs, the rest of the town generally knows about it!

I had been expecting it to be a little busier, but nevertheless I still got a good mix of t

ypes, with biz from across Europe and North America. I saw the whole fleet of Flugfelag Islands (Air Iceland) over two days. I also saw the preserved DC-3 TF-NPK in Icelandair colours.

To make sure you cover everything possible, take a walk around the perimeter on the eastern side, towards the beach. This will uncover a few hidden ramps of light aircraft. Also take a walk north of the passenger terminal to see what’s parked outside the other light aircraft hangars. Walking around will also ensure you can see everything parked on the passenger ramp, and the eastern ramp where biz and other aircraft park.

I was fortunate enough to stay in the Icelandair Loftleidir Hotel which is next to the control tower on the eastern perimeter. I had a room which overlooks both main ramps, and all of the runways. I didn’t miss any movements, even at night. Photographs are also possible from your room.

Chateuroux is a small airport in France, an hour or so south of Paris. It has very little flight activity, with just a regional link to the capital of note.

However, the airport has become synonymous with airliner storage and nearly always has a few widebodies put out to pasture, ready for scrapping or eventual return to service.

The reason I mention Chateauroux now is that I just saw a log of what is currently stored there and was quite surprised! The log includes:

After a while of speculating the future of the viewing decks at Zurich Airport, which are invaluable spotting locations at this airport, I can now confirm that the original Deck B will close from October.

Deck E will remain open, with a shuttle bus ferrying passengers across to it every 30 minutes.

Keep an eye on the airport’s official website for more details closer to the time.

Thanks to Thomas Jaeger at CH-Aviation for this information.

I had the brief chance to experience Dublin’s new Pier D last weekend as I passed through on my stag do. Not much spotting was done, naturally, but I can at least report on the opportunities from here.

The pier is very bright and airy, and has big windows along its length on both sides. You can see most of the airfield and movements from it, although aircraft parked at parts of piers A, B and C are obscured.

The glass is clean enough for photographs.

The following message has been sent from Dutch Police to spotters at Amsterdam Schiphol airport:

Since 1-7-2008 there is 24/7 a new unit operational responsible for the security in the perimeters of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

This unit is equipped with Mercedes Jeeps and Volkswagen Touaregs in the well known Dutch Police colours.

Today on the Sramble forum the chief of this Unit, Mr. Warmerdam introduced himself and his unit to the Amsterdam spotters community an to explain what they are doing and why so.

This new unit is working closely together with local Military Police and the Airport Authorities, and the unit plays an important role in the security of the airport.

All members of this police –unit are appointed by Ministry of Justice and Inland Affairs.

The new unit stressed not to be there to make our spotters life miserable but they are there to guard and protect. They acknowledge the fact that spotters can be their extra pair of eyes around the perimeter. This is one of the reasons why these police officers are actively seeking contact with spotters in action and talk to each other.

However is must be clear that they will act immediately in certain circumstances:

1. Do not park and do not stop sings must be obeyed at all time from now. So it is clear parking along the famous “Taxibaan” is not allowed anymore. Parking now is only allowed in the designated area’s for this.
2. Pedestrians, cyclists etc will not be moved from public roads by them under the now active threat-level ( so not a guarantee under a scale up)
3. The perimeter and area around the airport is a so called safety-risk area designated so by government. Therefore this unit has lots of permissions to take actions. Be aware of the fact that one person must always carry an ID with him like drivers licence, passport etc.
4. Parking in front of crash gates will not be tolerated.

Furthermore the police notices that lots of spotters are more or less known to each other. So we could have the early and very first signs if “strange birds” are among us. In case of high priority he recommends 112 for alarming whilst in the meantime a special telephone number will be created for this purpose by the Airport Authorities.

I think this is a very positive move. You now know the rules, and know to co-operate with the police as they do not wish to move you on unless necessary.