Plane spotting Hamburg

• Planes are every 4-5 minutes, this is not a big hub airport like Frankfurt or Schiphol.
• With Lufthansa Technik on-site and Airbus HQ nearby, you can get lucky and see some real rarities.
• Great community of regular spotters who are all very friendly.

Yesterday, I had my first day plane spotting at HAM, Hamburg Airport. It's got a great community of spotters and even though it was midday on a Wednesday there were a few people around. 

It definitely helps to have a bike as some of the spots are quite spread out, plus there are some cool places directly next to the landing fence where you can see the planes from beneath as they come in to land.

I went to three spots, two of them carparks and another a cafe next to the fence where you can see planes taxiing and have tea, cake and breakfast.

1. Parkhaus Südportal with a view over the runway

We went to the top floor, which is a popular spot. Our plan was to catch a Royal Airforce A332, but lucky for us this was the only operational runway so we saw quite a few planes taking off and landing. Including a pleasant surprise to see the Crystal Palace livery for SunExpress.

2. Cafe Himmelschreiber

This is directly next to the airport and great if you want to catch a plane taxiing to the runway or a private jet since it's right next to the private flyers lounge. Hamburg is the city in Germany with the most billionaires so there's a fair amount of private jet traffic. The cafe serves tea and coffees, cold beers, flammkuchen, scrambled eggs, cake, that kind of thing. It has an outdoor and indoor seating are and the best part is that it has ladders which you can use to film over the fences if you spot something special coming along.

       

3. Parkhaus 5, Hamburg Airport

This top floor car park has a sensational view. To the left  you can see the city skyline including the Elphie, TV tower and Michel. to the centre and right are the Airport buildings and runway. From here you can see the hustle and bustle and the planes taxiing ready for take-off or parking. 

The planes circle around the city, to avoid noise complaints, and so they pass across the skyline and then round to the airport and runway. It's a great opportunity to get a photo of the planes and skyline in one.