I would rate this hotel as probably one of the best all round hotels in the world for aircraft viewing and photography. As an added bonus, from the rooms mentioned below the occasional movement from Seleter Airport can seen in the distance. The hotel is situated in an excellent location, connected to terminal 3 at Singapore airport. The hotel is a short walk from the terminal 3 viewing area. The viewing areas on terminal 1 and 2 are a short 5 minute ride on the airport monorail, the station of which is a 2 minute walk from the hotel. The airport restaurants are expensive, however a wide range of food courts, as well as a supermarket can be found in the terminals. If you decide to order room service to allow you to eat and spot a typical American Style breakfast of ham, eggs and hash browns is around £8, a pizza for dinner is around £11.

For the ideal views you require a room on the 7th, 8th or 9th floorending in *02, *04, *06, *08, *09, *10, *11, *12. These rooms give a fantastic view over the right hand runway in front of terminal 3. The hotel corridor is open plan allowing you to walk out of the room into the corridor to see movements on the busy central runway (SBS and a scanner is helpful for you to monitor movements on the central runway as you do need to leave your room to see this runway). At busy times the right hand runway is used for arrivals only, however in moderate to quiet times a mixed mode operation is in force therefore you do require a means of monitoring the central runway to ensure that you do not miss the movements. Be warned, the above rooms all are reported to have the one large queen size bed, therefore if there are 2 of you be prepared to get cosy (or a roll away bed is available for a costly £30 a night). Photos can be taken from the room although the windows are tinted. A 10 second walk from the room will take you to an opening on the outside corridor where superb outdoor shots can be taken (80-200mm for aircraft on the taxiway, 200-400mm for runway shots). Morning to early afternoons are best with the sun behind you. Examples of the view from the rooms can be seen at http://www.plane-spotting-hotels.com/plane_spotting_singapore_airport.htm.

The aim of the rip was to see as many Singapore 777 as possible prior to them withdrawing the older ones. After two and a half days we came away with all but 8. All of the A380′s were seen within the first day and a half. The new A330′s were harder with the final 1 of the 5 seen at lunchtime of the finalday. All A340′s were also seen, these creep in early (0500ish) and depart mid morning, and are away from base for a couple of days due to the length of the flights to New York and LAX.

Things get a little quiet between 1100-1400 giving you the opportunityto wizz into Singapore on the local train (about £2 each way) and see the sights.

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.

Airport Spotting Guides Europe is published by Destinworld Publishing Ltd and available from Amazon, Borders etc. as well as many specialist aviation shops.

ISBN 978-0-9559281-0-9

Here’s a link

The book covers Europe’s best airports for spotting.
It has a map for each, and lists the best official and unofficial spotting locations, and how to get to them.
It also has lists of airlines, stored/wrecked/preserved aircraft, frequencies, runway information, plus recommended hotels with views over the airport.

For the spotter and photographer who likes to travel to view aircraft, this book is indispensable.

Have a look here

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.

The airport has two parallel runways.

Views are possible over the ramp from the International Terminal, although many aircraft park in awkward positions so you have to wait for them to move.

The Domestic Terminal isn’t much use, although there are a few spots around the perimeter where you can see aircraft. Be warned, however, that security is tight with this being a military base.

The IC Airport Hotel has views over the action from odd-numbered rooms on upper floors.

Whilst his reports are geared around travel, and the places he sees around the world, I thought I’d give it a mention here because he travels almost exclusively by air. Therefore in each of his weekly newsletters, you get an account of at least two airports, and an airline.

Whilst this doesn’t help you much with spotting aircraft, it will surely be useful in giving you an overview of the various airports he visits (he covers everything from how modern the terminal is, to the price of a bottle of water). i know a lot of you travel by air to spot at different airports.

He runs a large website known as Johnnyjet.com, and has his free newsletter which you can sign up to. I really recommend it!

The terminal itself is pretty useless for spotting, although once you’re airside you can see most aircraft and the runway.

Outside the terminal, head to the roundabout with a pyramid on and turn left towards San Climente . Then turn right after 300m down a track signposted restaurant. This spot faces the threshold of runway 19L and is ideal when approaches are from the north.

When approaches are from the south, a road runs past the threshold on its way to Binisfuller. This road joins the main San Climente to Es Canutels road. Various places to watch and photograph aircraft can be found along here.

Movements at Mahon are generally busier in summer, and consist mainly of charter airlines from the UK, German, Scandinavia and Italy, along with regional Spanish airlines. Sunday are usually the busiest day.

A recent visit allowed me time to check the place out for spotting locations. I found the following:

Inside the Terminal. Upstairs in the arrivals section, there is a food court. This has windows overlooking most of the main apron where airliners park.

Outside the Terminal. Turn right into the car park. From here you can see a couple of gates not visible from inside.

GA Car Park. Walk or drive along perimeter road to the right after leaving the terminal. You will come to the General Aviation car park, from where you can log aircraft parked there.

Speke Business Park. At the old airport site to the north west of the current terminal, there is now a business park. The old terminal is now a Marriott hotel. Outside it there are two aircraft:

G-JMAC Jetstream 41
G-ANCF Bristol Britannia

Traffic at the airport isn’t fast-paced by any means, but you can usually catch a number of Soviet and Scandinavian regional aircraft hanging around, which makes it different to many other airports in Europe.

Inside the terminal, the Graf Zeppelin restaurant has views over the ramp, and an outdoor terrace which is open in good weather.

Outside the terminal, if you turn left you will come to a fence which looks over the ramp.
If you turn right, an industrial area offers some views across to aircraft parked away from the ramp.

ES-LTA is a Tupolev TU-134 which has been stored at the airport for years.

I’ve compiled the following information from reports received:

Car Parks
The short stay car parks have views over runway 09L/R arrivals from the upper floors.

Landside
Costa Coffee on the north side of the terminal has windows overlooking the threshold of runway 09L
A view of runway 09R is possible from the south side of the terminal.

Airside
Once airside you can freely move between piers.
The best views can be had at gate A7 over the northern runway.
Gate A18 has views of the cargo area and runway 09R threshold.
Pier B has some acceptable views, but these will decrease as Pier C is built.

As always, please post your comments and reviews of travelling through Terminal 5. It is new to Heathrow, so information is needed on good spots and experiences with your binoculars!