Johannesburg OR Tambo International Airport
Most people arrive into the country via Johannesburg Airport (although Cape Town is also popular). Both Terminals (A and B) have viewing decks to use, with B being the most useful for photography and catching all movements. The deck is indoors, with somewhat dirty windows, but you can always clean a patch.

The airport has a good mix of international and domestic flights coming throughout the day, so it’s rarely boring.

On the north and south sides of the airport are storage and maintenance areas. The north (Safair) can be mostly read from the viewing decks, but the south (Denel) can’t. Best bet is to hire a car and explore to make sure you catch as many aircraft as possible.

Rand
Another airport in Johannesburg, Rand is much smaller. It has a lot of stored airliners on site, plus the South African Airways Society Museum with types up to Boeing 747 in size. You have some views from inside the terminal, however it’s much more rewarding to organise a tour from the fire crews, which cost 20 Rand. These take in all ramps and areas of the airfield, so you won’t miss much.

Lanseria
This is a smaller airport to the northwest of Johannesburg. It has a number of airlines flying domestic routes, and is also a popular place to see bizjets flying  into the city. One the airfield are also a number of stored and withdrawn airliners.

You can spot from the viewing deck area which doubles as a food court. However, it’s also possible to arrange an airside tour from the security office if you contact them in advance.

Wonderboom
One of the airports in the Pretoria area, Wonderboom is an interesting little place. It is home to a variety of

aircraft, from safari aircraft to Boeing 737s; bizjets to historic flight DC-3′s. It’s possible to see quite a few aircraft from a circuit of the perimeter, however it’s often possible to arrange airside access from the security office.

Durban King Shaka Airport
The new international airport for Durban opened in 2010, replacing the existing facility. It is actually over 20 miles from the city, but is ultra modern and one to watch for the future. At the moment it handles close to 5million passengers per year, with a mix of domestic and international. There are viewing opportunities from within the terminal.

One of the best places to watch the action at St. Lucia is from the St. Jude’s highway running into Vieux Fort and passing the western end of the runway.

Alternatively, at the eastern end of the runway the beach offers a breathtakingly close view of aircraft departing over your head. Of course, this is a great place the enjoy the sun, sea and sand whilst on the island!

Read the full blog post here.

Whilst Sharjah reintroduces its airside access scheme, Fujairah has always maintained its anti-spotter stance. And even though the hill outside the terminal offers a fantastic view over the ramps and resident aircraft, it is usually not worth the police interrogation that most spotters fear, if not experience.

An alternative spotting location recently came to my attention which offers as good, if not better, opportunities to log what’s on the ground at Fujairah. This is a road which runs the entire length of the runway, and can be reached by turning right on the road just before the airport perimeter when arriving from the mountain road leading into Fujairah. Follow it past the end of the runway, and then along the length of the runway with a fence alongside offering views across.

There are litter bins and laybys which suggest this is regularly used as a viewing area, but as always discretion is encouraged as the road is lined with cameras on poles.

Cartagena is a lovely old walled city, full of Caribbean charm, colourful buildings, endless vistas of the sea, sunsets, and great wining and dining experiences. But you’re here for the aircraft, so I’ll carry on.

The terminal at Cartagena Airport is very modern. And sadly it does not knowingly cater for the spotter at all. When arriving or departing, passengers funnel through a walkway which leads between the aircraft and the terminal. If you’re in the departure lounge, your view out of the window is of this walkway and its slatted wall. In order to see aircraft, you have to wait until they move, and with binoculars focussed on a gap, hope the registration passes by.

Nevertheless, once you walk to/from the aircraft, you do get a chance to see what’s on the smallish ramp. This usually includes MD-80s and F100s of Avianca, EMB-190s of AeroRepublica, 737-700s and DHC-8s of AIRES, and the odd US airline such as Spirit. Movements are fairly quiet – maybe 4 per hour at peak times.

Cartagena does play host to a number of biz jets each day, however. They park either to the side of the airliner ramp, or on the ramp on the opposite side of the runway. Also, there are a number of Air Force and Navy aircraft in residence, including Casa CN235s.

Around the terminal there are no obvious views of the aircraft, apart from on the road passing the end of the runway, where you’ll see aircraft just as they depart or land. I wouldn’t venture much around looking for holes in the fence, as there ‘s a strong military presence, and the housing area is quite poor around the airport.

AeroRepublica HK-4506 at Cartagena

AIRES 737-700s fly from Bogota

These two biz jets were in Cartagena in July 2009

Cartagena Airport from above

Denver Airport has three terminals – A, B and C

Terminal A hosts Frontier’s regional fleet, operated by Lynx, and is the best terminal for spotting. Inside, walk to the end of the terminal where there are large glass windows. This overlooks the commuter aircraft, and across to the United gates. This is the best spot for covering most movements, although the airport is so big and has so many runways that it is impossible to cover everything.

Terminals B and C also both have large windows at their gates, which offer views of aircraft moving around.

There are few accessible views from around the perimeter due to a lack of public roads.

Anyone know of any other good spots? Please comment.

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.

I stayed in the Radisson at the airport. Contrary to what somebody said, I found the reception staff very helpful. I was given a room at the back overlooking the taxiway, but the view of the runway threshold was blocked by part of the hotel kitchen. I decided Room 373 looked the most promising and luckily it was free. The receptionist warned me it would be noisy (bless her!) and it was – NWA DC 9s and FedEx 727s actually shook the building! My advice would be to go for the corridor 351 – 373 (all odd numbers). Probably the same numbers on floor 2 would be good enough, but you will be at ground level and looking up at the taxiway. Floor 2 is the outward looking ground level because the inward facing part of the hotel has a floor 1 as well. Before 2 of you go booking room 373, I was on my own and therefore had no problem with the Queen bed! All these rooms lookonto the taxiway linking FedEx to RW 18R, and the higher the number, then the more chance you have of seeing the other aircraft taxying out from the terminal for take-off. At night you will only get the FedEx that taxy past – there is not enough light for the others – and even for the FedEx you will have to go outside (the fire escape at the end of the corridor is ideal). I don’t think any of the other rooms will have much of a view, but at the front you may have distant views of RWs 18C & L.

I had e-mailed the police beforehand about spotting at Memphis. (Google “Memphis Airport Police” and go to “Contact Us”) – I got an almost instant reply from the chief with a phone number to ring when I got there.
I arrived late afternoon Friday and saw some departures from the room, followed by a constant stream of arrivals from 2230 until I gave up at 0030. From what I heard there were a good few departures in the middle of the night.
I did Graceland Saturday morning and then phoned the police in the afternoon, was told they had my details and I spent the afternoon on the terminal car park roof with no problems at all. (It is walking distance from the Radisson.) The busy period was about 1415 to 1630 – about 50 FedEx departures and 60 or so others – mainly Northwest of course. When it went quiet, I drove around the north of the airfield and got most of the remaining FedEx from the main roads. Leave the terminal area on Winchester East, turn left on Tchulahoma and left again on Democrat. I had read elsewhere about other roads around here with views, but they have clearly been eaten up by the FedEx complex and are no more. Also the National Guard complex is now completely shut down and they have what appears to be a new complex close to the RW 36R threshold. If you now retrace your route, when you get back on Winchester, you are on the correct side of the road to turn into the Wilson Air Center and Signature FBOs where you can easily read off anything there. Coming out of Wilson you are straight across from anything on the UPS ramp.

On Sunday afternoon there were 75 Fedex departures between 1455 and 1645 with one or 2 after that. 45 used RW 18R, 4 on 18C and 26 on 18 R, so it is definitely worth going to the car park and not staying in the hotel. I saw 20 that I hadn’t seen on the Saturday. Again I telephoned the police and was left alone all afternoon – there are plenty of patrols who drive around and would have seen me up there, so contacting them is definitely worth the effort.

What can be seen at Memphis then? Loads of Northwest (some are now appearing in Delta colours) and Northwest Airlink, a few US Airways Connect, American, Continental Express a few Biz (I was there at the
weekend – maybe more during the week?) and a few twins and lights. I saw plenty of FedEx DC-10s, lots of A300s and A310s, quite a few 727s and MD-11s and a handful of 757s.

Logged on arrival at Havana were those around the international terminal (Terminal 3) which included:
CU-T1259 IL62 (used as a cafeteria / bar)
CU-T1280 IL62 Cubana
EI-TAD A320 TACA / Cubana
HP-1526CMP 738W Copa Airlines
N762MX 757 Mexicana

With the immigration formalities completed, we headed off to the resort of Varadero for the next 10 nights. Upon leaving the airport at Havana I noted that a NEOS 767, Icelandair 757 and Air France 747 were also now
present.

Wednesday 24th May was to be the one aviation themed day of the trip.
Prior to leaving the UK I’d booked for us to undertake a short domestic flight with Cubana, from Havana to Nueva Gerona on the Isla De La Juventud (a.k.a Island of Youth) – which is located off of the southern coast
of Cuba. The flights costs circa £45 return and were scheduled to be operated by an Antonov 24.

Noted from Terminal 1 at Havana prior to departure were:
CU-C1515 IL18 Aerocaribbean (cargo)
CU-T1236 An24 Cubana
CU-T1243 YAK42 Cubana
CU-T1247 YAK42 Cubana
CU-T1250 IL96 Cubana
CU-T1251 IL96 Cubana
CU-T1257 An24 Aerocaribbean / Cubana
CU-T1541 E.110 Aero Taxi
CU-T1546 IL18 Aerocaribbean
CU-T1547 ATR72 Aerocaribbean
F-GKMY DC-10 Air Lib (stored)
F-GTLY DC-10 AOM (stored)
N285AS E.120 Gulfstream International
XA-TWR 732 Conviasa Venezuela

I didn’t use binoculars within the terminal but instead relied upon using my trusty digital camera. Even then I was careful not to take any shots whilst anyone in a uniform (that seems to be about every 3rd person in
Havana!) was about and kept my camera in the bag when it wasn’t in use.

Havana has a total of 5 terminals with these being used as follows:
Terminal 1 – domestic. Mainly Cubana, Aerocaribbean and Aero Taxi
Terminal 2 – predominantly for charters from the US
Terminal 3 – the main international terminal
Terminal 4 – another domestic terminal. Mainly used by Aerocaribbean
Terminal 5 – currently used for handling the large number of flights that are bringing in Venezuelan workers to Cuba.

From the departure lounge in Terminal 1, Terminals 4 and 5 are completely out of sight as are most aircraft at terminal 3 and the main Cubana maintenance area.

It was then aboard CU-T1257 for the 30 minute flight to Nueva Gerona. This aircraft is in basic Aerocaribbean livery (excluding titles) but operates on behalf of Cubana.

Upon arrival at Nueva Gerona ours was the only aircraft present. It should be noted that there is a heavy police presence at the airport with no views of the ramp available from either landside or indeed airside (I didn’t explore much outside as we were greeted on arrival by a passing thunderstorm).

Just over 4 hours later it was back aboard the same aircraft for the return to Havana. This time she shared the Nueva Gerona tarmac with a Cubana An24.
Back at Havana the airport was very quiet although a Click / Mexicana Fokker 100 and Lineas Aereas Suramericanas (Columbia) 727 were noted before we headed back to Varadero.

The only other spotting completed in Cuba was during a 3 hour stint at Havana prior to our departure back to the UK. Here is what was noted:

C6-BFP DHC-8 Bahamasair
C-GBHM A319 Air Canada
CU-T1243 YAK42 Cubana
CU-T1247 YAK42 Cubana
CU-T1280 IL62 Cubana
CU-T1283 IL62 Cubana
CU-T1538 YAK40 Aerocaribbean
CU-T1547 ATR72 Aerocaribbean
EI-TAC A320 TACA / Cubana
G-VROM 744 Virgin (our ride home)
HP-1523CMP 738W Copa Airlines
N408AT ATR42 American Eagle
N488TA A320 TACA
N762MX 757 Mexicana
PH-MCJ 763 Martinair
TF-FII 757 Loftleidir Icelandic
TF-FIT 757 Loftleidir Icelandic
XA-SHJ FK100 Click / Mexicana
XA-TCH FK100 Click / Mexicana
YV-136T MD80 Aeropostal

Anything parked at the international terminal is easily identified from within the departure lounge. As there were large numbers of people about I decided to leave the camera in the bag and instead used my mini-bins.
In fact, photography from the departure lounge would be difficult as you are always looking though several layers of glass.

Luckily we were sitting on the right hand side of G-VROM as we taxied out and this allowed me to identify a few of the aircraft in the maintenance area as well as a few of the other stored aircraft. Noted were:

CU-T1244 An24 Cubana
(CU-T1253) TU54 Cubana
CU-T1263 An24 Cubana (appears to be WFU)
CU-T1282 IL62 Cubana (appears to be WFU)
CU-T1512 ATR42 Aerocaribbean
CU-T1558 C-47 Aerotaxi (stored without props)
CU-T1559 C-47 Aerotaxi

The registration of the TU-154 is unconfirmed but has been quoted as this in several previous reports. The aircraft is in bare metal and in a very poor condition – the tail has been separated from the fuselage and the
front half of the cabin roof is “missing”.
There is also a stored Aerocaribbean IL18 reasonably close to the threshold of the main runway which has had the registration painted out and is missing all of its engines and the nose cone. According to Soviet Transport this aircraft could be CU-T1517 although I am still attempting to verify this.

You can get a copy here if you haven’t already.

The next book in the series will concern airports further afield. I’m looking for suggestions of which airports would benefit you if you were to buy the book. Please leave comments with any suggestions outside of Europe.

The official stance on spotters at Tampa for the Superbowl is that you’re welcome to be there! What a refreshing change! Here are the rules, kindly provided for all you spotters by Mike Greenway via Geoff Cook:

Spotters are encouraged to congregate on the roof of the economy car park on the south side of the airport. This offers fantastic views over the ramps where all the biz jets will be, and also has views of other movements.The car park costs $9 a day to use, and has toilet facilities, and a free shuttle to the terminal.

If you are attending, you are encouraged to contact Community Relations Coordinator Kelly Figley on KFigley@TampaAirport.com, with names and your passport or driving license number, who will pass on the details to the police.

As an extra note, aircraft are expected to stop flying during the game. Any arrivals after this time are likely to use nearby St. Petersburg airport, so you may wish to head over there for some more spotting.