Tokyo Haneda & Narita
With both ANA and JAL operating the Dreamliner this year, one of the best places to catch the type is at their Tokyo Narita and Haneda bases. This seems likely to be the place to catch the biggest concentration of Dreamliners outside of Seattle or Charleston this year.

Frankfurt International
For Europe, Frankfurt is the first place to see 787 operations with ANA from Tokyo. This was the type’s first international destination, and will be flying in every day.

Seattle
OK, so there are a few Seattle airports to see Deamliners. Most notably, Boeing’s Everett facility is the place where they’re put together. So you’ll see them quite regularly on flight test and out on the flight line. This includes the demonstrators, which is quite cool. However, ANA have also announced 787 flights to Seattle-Tacoma Airport from Tokyo, starting soon.

Boston
The US East Coast gets its first Dreamliner service from Japan Airlines in April, with non-stop service to Tokyo Narita.

Singapore
From September, Japan Airlines’ flights from Tokyo Narita will switch to 787s, increasing to 14x weekly by the end of October.

Melbourne
From October, Air India is expected to begin sending its 787s to Melbourne from its Indian bases. This will likely mark the first scheduled Dreamliner services to Australia.

Osaka Itami
Again, ANA sends its 787s to Itami. Maybe we’ll see more routes out of Osaka’s Kansai airport in the future, but for now the domestic one is the place to be.

New Delhi
Japan Airlines will start daily 787 flights to Delhi from Tokyo Narita later this year. However, if Air India receive their 787s on time, the airport is likely to get even more of the type in residence.

Moscow Domodedovo
Japan Airlines will send their Dreamliners to Moscow DME this year, replacing their 777 equipment. This sees the second known destination in Europe for the type.

Guangzhou
Despite heavy delays, China Southern are expected to take delivery of their first 787 before the Autumn. Therefore their home base of Guangzhou will become a hub for the type very soon.

There are of course more airports that the 787 flies to, such as domestic destinations within Japan. And as new frames arrive for Air India and China Southern, new routes will be announced. If you hear of any, let me know.

I’ve had the fortune to fly on the type twice as a passenger – once with American Airlines in 1995 from JFK-LHR, and once with KLM in 2007 from SFO-AMS. Like it’s older brother, the DC-10, I found the MD-11 very spacious and comfortable to travel on.

KLM are likely to operate the type for another another few years. They operate 10 of them currently, and have announced the following routes by the MD-11 from their Amsterdam Schiphol base this winter:

Havana, Cuba
Montreal, Canada
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
San Franciso, USA
Tehran, Iran

Next Summer, some additional routes include:
Aruba
Bonaire
Curacao
Delhi, India
Los Angeles, USA (1 of the 3 daily flights)
Panama City
Vancouver, Canada

In addition to passenger operators, a large number of cargo examples are still flying. The largest numbers can be found with:

EVA Air Cargo (Taipei)
FedEx Express (Memphic, Paris CDG, Tokyo)
Lufthansa Cargo (Frankfurt)
UPS (Louisville, Cologne/Bonn)

What are your memories of the type – did you fly it?

Haneda Airport in Tokyo is enjoying somewhat of a renaissance recently, with a bunch of new international routes granted (and now snapped up by some major airlines), and being at the centre of All Nippon Airways’ Boeing 787 launch.

The airport has four runways, including the new 05/23. It also has three passenger terminals and a cargo terminal. The new International Terminal is across the field from the other two, and is quite impressive.

But, despite the international growth, Haneda is the place to come for seeing Japan’s domestic aircraft, operated by ANA, Japan Airlines and their various connector networks.

The airport, as with most in Japan, is quite easy to spot from. It has official observation decks on all three terminals that are open from 6.30am to 10pm daily. Each is reached from within the terminal via elevator, and each is free to enter.

For photographers, it’s best to head to the decks on Terminal 1 and 2 on a morning, and the International Terminal on an afternoon. Unfortunately no deck in particular is 100% perfect for seeing all movements, so you may need to move around a bit.

You can read more spotting guides in Airport Spotting Guides Far East & Australasia

The first commercial route will be a charter from Tokyo Narita to Hong Kong on 26 October 2011, returning on 27 October.

Scheduled domestic services will start between Tokyo Haneda and Okayama on 1 November, followed by Haneda to Hiroshima.

Scheduled international services will be flown between Tokyo Haneda – Beijing 1x weekly from December 2011, and Tokyo Haneda – Frankfurt 3x weekly from January 2012 (daily from February 2012).

So it seems Haneda is initially the place to go and see the aircraft, but European spotters will be delighted at the regular services into Frankfurt from early next year. This flight will arrive around 0525 and depart 1115 each morning.

Korean Air‘s brand new Airbus A380 has been fully painted and will be delivered soon, with services beginning on 17th June 2011.

It will be based at Seoul Incheon, and fly trunk routes to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York JFK and Tokyo Narita.

I think you’ll agree it looks splendid in the smart blue colour scheme of Korean Air.

Photo (c) Okke Behm

Holiday Inn
This is fairly expensive, but has some views. Room 1250 is the best, giving you a view of everything on the western runway. If aircraft are landing to the west then you can poll everything that taxis to the end of the runway. If you have a SBS box you get everything landing and departing.

You can also see everything that takes off on the other runway and visa versa if they are landing in the other direction, but aircraft are very high by the time they are visible.

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/pc/1/en/hotel/narja?rpb=hotel&crUrl=/h/d/pc/1/en/hotelsearchresults

Holiday Inn
Tobu Narita
320-1 Tokko
Chiba
Narita
Chiba
286-0106

The Rest House
A basic, cheap hotel with a few rooms that have very limited views. You can see about 60% of the cargo ramp and if they are taking off to the west then stuff taxying off to the runway on the North only.

You can walk to T1 from here as it’s only 5 minutes away. There are plenty of places to eat in both terminals. T1 is good for Ti and there is a free shuttle to T2 and T2 has two observation decks that allow you to see most of the stuff around T2

http://www.apo-resthouse.com/english/index.html

Rest House Hotel
Narita International Airport
Narita City
Chiba-Pref
Japan
282-0011
yoyaku@apo-resthouse.com

Nikko Winds Hotel
A great spotting hotel at Narita. Room 910 is noted as having the best views of the action on the ground. It also has a restaurant on the top floor with great views of the airport.

http://www.jalhotels.com/domestic/kanto/winds/

560 Tokko
Narita-shi
Chiba 286-0106
Apan

The airline has announced the routes the aircraft will operate as:
Dubai (1 February 2010)
Johannesburg (early 2010)
New York JFK (23 November 2009)
Tokyo Narita (spring 2010)

All will operate from Paris CDG airport. Interestingly, the route to Dubai will start 15 days before Emirates start using A380s on their Dubai – Paris route.

The aircraft will visit Paris Orly on 11 November to test the airport as a diversion field from CDG.

The actual traffic you get is very similar to that at Tokyo’s airports.

Osaka Kansai has a spotting deck which is four storeys above ground, and situated at the end of Runway 24, which is used most often. The deck opens at 10am and closes at 6pm. It is free to enter, and has both indoor and outdoor areas, along with food & drink facilities and arrivals boards. A bus will take you from the terminal to the Aeroplaza building, which is opposite the viewing deck.The sun is behind you here, so you can take excellent photographs.

If you are travelling through Osaka Kansai, there are opportunities to view aircraft through windows at certain departure gates, although this can be frustrating and limited at times.