UK

London's city airport, as you might have guessed. Relatively new, and very successful, due to its location in the centre of London and consequently greatly reduced travel times between the airport and the city, certainly compared with Heathrow or Gatwick.
Because of the need for smallish, quiet planes here, it attracts quite a few aircraft that you won't see very often elsewhere in the UK, and certainly not around London, and a visit can be very productive. No big jets, but if you like Bae 146s/RJs or Fokker 50s, for example, this is the place for you. Since it's mainly a business airport, it's best on weekdays in the morning and evening rush hours, when it gets really quite busy, with lunchtime a close runner-up. Not much happens at other times, though, and weekends are particularly dead (the airport actually closes during Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, so don't bother going then).

It's also a great airport for photography, with all movements visible and photographable. There are two main areas:

a) You can't actually see anything from the terminal itself, but from the car park next to it you're right across from the runway, and all take-offs and landings have to come past you. The sun is behind you pretty much all day, and it doesn't really matter which runway is in use.
Try finding a raised vantage point to avoid 'cutting the wheels off' that otherwise happens with ground shots - there's an earth bank at the far end of the car park that helps here.
You'll need a 300mm lens for most things.

OO-VLK VLM Fokker 50	SE-DRG Malmo Aviation BAe 146	OO-VLR VLM Fokker 50	PH-SDM Sabena DHC-8	EI-CPY Cityjet RJ70

b) There's an area with a few seats provided on the other side of the airport, right across from the terminal (near the Royal Albert station on the Docklands Light Railway line). This is the best place for viewing as you can see everything that goes on, rather than just the runway, but photography is only good in late summer evenings. This point is best when Runway 10 is in use, and again you'll need a 300mm lens.

HB-AEF Air Engiadina Do328	D-AVRD Lufthansa RJ85	EI-CPW Air France Saab 2000	F-GOMA Air Jet BAe 146	F-GGCP Falcon 50

Last visited on 25 June 1999	Top of page

Maps

Click on the icons below to see various maps and images relating to London City airport. Note that, except for the aerial photograph, these are all external links to other sites, and will open in a new window.

Official CAA London City airport map Courtesy of: NATS Ltd. Note that you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader (v4.0 or later) installed in order to view this. Click here to download this from the Adobe site if you need it.		OS street map of the London City airport area Courtesy of: Streetmap.co.uk		General map of the London City area Courtesy of: maps.expedia.com		Aerial photograph of London City airport Courtesy of: Streetmap.co.uk

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