GLOBAL SPOTTING REPORTS
TURKEY
Istanbul Ataturk – Jul 2018
LANDSIDE
No views from the terminal.
There is a mall on the perimeter which has an outdoor deck giving excellent views, called FlyInn. Departures are literally about 50 metres in front of you and all arrivals can be seen. However it only opens at 10am. There is a shop across the road for drinks and snacks, or plenty of eateries inside. Its not that far from the Radisson Blue hotel.
AIRSIDE
Good views from the international terminal. Head towards gate 209 and from this area you should see everything.
HOTELS
There is an airside hotel but it dosent have any views.
Radisson Blu
Excellent views. Located opposite the threshold of 17R. They predominantly take off towards you and everything can be read off as it departs. Arrivals are usually at the other end of the airport and too far away. Some remote stands near the hangers can be read off.
Rooms 579-585 and 541-550 should all have similar views. The fourth floor is also perfectly good and the third floor would probably be ok. Wifi in the room is good for using flightradar. The hotel has a shuttle bus.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Pretty much constant arrivals throughout the day. However 95% is made up of Turkish Airlines. A few Onur and Atlasjets with very little other Turkish stuff. A day here is enough, there are a few interesting flights from elsehwhere but not enough to warrant another day for me. Turkmenistan B737/B777, Azerbaijan, Saudi A330, Iraqi A320, Air Astana A320, Air Moldova E190.
Cargo wise you can expect several A300’s parked up, not sure if they are all in use or stored.
Three Bosphorus BEA A300’s have been stored here for years – TC-OIM, OYC, COA
DC9’s, TC-TTA, TTB and TUA may still be here. AN12 TC-KET was still there.
There will likely be several other aircraft stored as well but its difficult to get them from the terminal. A right seat for arrival and left for departure will be your best chance of seeing the stored aircraft if they are using the appropriate runways.
To get between airports you have to catch a bus to the city – Taksim Square, and get a connecting bus from there. They run every half hour on the hour from each location. Total cost 22 Turkish Lira, about 7 pound. Expect it to take about 2 hours and maybe more during rush hours. If you want to go direct you can prearrange transport from various companies, best price I could find was 50 euro’s. I used Efendi travel who did a good job picking me up at 11pm on arrival at Ataturk and dropping me at the hotel at Sabina Gokcen. Taxi’s are reportedly a similar price. Journey around 45 mins.
Istanbul Sabina Gokcen – Jul 2018
LANDSIDE
It used to be possible to see the arrivals from the departures ramp but that may no longer be the case. The cargo and stored aircraft are not visible. I didn’t explore the perimeter.
AIRSIDE
Excellent views and all movements will be seen. Cargo can be read off and you can see most of the stored aircraft, albeit to far away to read. Take a right seat for arrival and right for departure if using runway 06 ( taking off from near the stored aircraft ). That way on departure you will taxi past a small bizjet ramp. B707 9L-LDU may still be there.. On take off you should get a good view of the stored stuff.
HOTELS
There is an airport hotel but it dosent have views.
The Airport Residence has very distant views. Previous reports suggest you need a good pair of binoculars. I suggest you need an extremely good pair of binoculars. The airport is directly to the side of the hotel so you have to lean out of the window to see whats going on and then you only have very limited views of the taxiways. If I could have rested my binoculars on something I probably could have read a few things off. I would only stay here if you are prepared to use SBS to get everything for you, otherwise don’t take the risk, unless you just need a hotel for the night in which case its perfectly fine. Rooms 800,01 or 700,01 are best. They also have a roof but the door was locked.
WHAT TO EXPECT
I was airside between 530 and 930 and logged 57 pegasus, 9 andaloujets, 1 sunexpress and several Turkish airlines. Of note is the Azeribaijan E195 very morning.
To get between airports you have to catch a bus to the city – Taksim Square, and get a connecting bus from there. They run every half hour on the hour from each location. Total cost 27 Turkish Lira, . Expect it to take about 2 to 3 hours. If you want to go direct take a taxi. I previously arranged transport with Efendi travel who charge 45 euro. This time I caught a taxi at 430am and it was more like 35 euro. When theres traffic it would probably be similar to 45 euro.
Saying all that, A new airport is opening towards the end of 2018. Not sure what the fate of Ataturk will be.
Antalya – Jul 2013
LANDSIDE
Nothing from the Domestic terminal. This is a large airport with lots of buildings and I don’t suspect there will be views from any terminals given what I saw. There are 2 terminals and 2 runways. Both runways are used for arrivals and departures simultaneously.
Runways 36 are used for arrivals until around 9 or 10am. Then arrivals are on 18 until around 7 or 8pm when they change back. This happened every day for the whole week.
AIRSIDE
From the domestic terminal there are decent views of this traffic and arrivals on 18R as well as traffic using the international part of this terminal. A lot of stuff on the other terminal will be missed though.
HOTELS
IC Airports Hotel – Located near the threshold of runway 18L. There are no views of the airport due to a forest but all movements can be seen. A room on the second floor with an odd number is best. 2569, 71, 73 being the best but earlier numbers would also be ok. Due to the angle of the hotel traffic using runway 18L / 36R pass almost right overhead at a difficult angle and you have to lean over the balcony to see them. Traffic on 18R / 36L passes nicely in front of you and can be read of with a decent pair of binoculars. The rooms don’t actually have a balcony. Patio doors open up allowing you to lean over the fence. You don’t have a whole lot of time to see the aircraft so you have to pay attention. The best place when they are departing towards you is at the front of the hotel. You have more time to see traffic departing on 36R. However you are too low to see arrivals and need to be back in the room for them. The hotel has a nice pool at the back but there are no views from here. A good thing is that wifi works outside and inside the room.
Hotel Sera – Located near the threshold of Runway 36R. All inclusive hotel dominated by Russians. Food and drink is always available and facilities are decent, although you will be ready to go after a few days. Rooms with an even number will have good views of most traffic. Arrivals on 36L and 36R will pass in front of you and can be read off with a good pair of Binoculars. Runway 36R arrivals are so close that you might miss a few that don’t have the reg under the wing. Departures on 18R can be seen but departures on 18L bank left and pass the other side of the hotel so can’t be seen, unless you have a room along the side of the hotel and can look around the corner. Rooms on the first floor are possibly best as they have a large extended balcony. Room 1132 would possibly enable you to see the departures on 18L, just not sure if you could read them off before they disappear behind the hotel though. The best room for reading everything off is possibly 1131. This is the only odd numbered room that has views and is due to it being in the corner with an extended balcony. All arrivals can be seen as they appear from behind the hotel and all departures can be seen. Wifi does not work inside the room but does from the corridor.
Various other spots in the hotel grounds allow movements to be seen. There are places near the sea to sunbathe with good views off all the action.
Anything on 36R / 18 L will be read off easily. 36L / 18R is a little distant and when the sun is going that way in the afternoons it can be difficult to read them.
WHAT TO EXPECT
There has been a whole lot of hype about this place in recent years and although there is a good variety, the majority of it will be scrapes. I made 50 frames in a week and about 150 scrapes.
Pegasus have several flights a day and the other Turkish charter airlines all have big bases here. SunExpress, Freebird, Atlasjet, Onur and Correndon.
Russian flights dominate but these are nearly all western built scrapes. The 2 Polet AN148’s where nice. A few redwings T204’s along with Aeroflot IL96’s along with 2 T154’s and 2 Yk42’s where the only other Russian built aircraft but I didn’t need any of these.
Other eastern European countries have a big presence. Ukranian Int’l sent the same 3 planes in all week long along with some other Ukranian flights. Travel Service have several flights a day and Belavia, Air Moldova, Small Planet, Air Bucharest and Air Astana can be off interest.
Sundays and Wednesdays were more interesting with a lot of Scandinavian flights. Jettime, Tui, Sas and Primera all having a few flights.
There are also regular flights from the usual charters like Air Berlin, Tui, Niki, Transavia etc but chances are you won’t need too many of these.
The airport has its own website with an excellent list of arrivals and departures for the day. Combining this with FlightRadar24 worked very well. You can track aircraft back into Europe to see if theres anything you need coming in for the next couple of hours.
Its very easy to go for hours without seeing anything of interest here and most of the airlines manage to send in the same aircraft two or three times which can be frustrating.
If you just want to see the based stuff then you will see a good chunk of it in 1 day but I was still picking up the odd based aircraft after a few days as planes changed around. Also certain airlines only operate on certain days so you really need to spend a few days to see everything that comes into this place. It just depends how lucky you are on a particular day and if the relevant airlines happen to send the aircraft you need in.
One day I only made 2 Frames, the next I made 9.