DTV Movements Trip Reports

Hamburg Finkerwerder Airbus Factory Tour 3-4th June 2012 Dave Anderson & Dave Rose

With an up and coming long bank holiday weekend and the thought of James Bond on TV being replaced by what can only be described as the equivalent of the PFA Rallye for boats on the Thames, we needed to find somewhere else to be. It had been a good few years since we visited Airbus at Hamburg, so with a cheap EasyJet flight from Manchester and two spaces left on a factory tour it was booked. With an airport hotel and car hire booked it was soon time to head off, arriving at Manchester around 10am after dropping the car off it was straight through into the departure lounge for a hearty full English breakfast before the flight. The cafe on the second floor gave us a view of what was moving and the following interesting bits were noted before our flight at 1pm on a full Airbus A319 G-EZIO.

Manchester Sunday 3rd June 2012

G-EZIO	Airbus A319 111	2512	EasyJet
D-AIRH	Airbus A321-131	0412	Lufthansa
C-GGTS	Airbus A330 243	250	Air Transat
G-VSXY	Airbus A330 343X	1195	Virgin Atlantic
A7-AEO	Airbus A330 302	918	Qatar Airways
G-TAWB	Boeing 737 8K5	37242	Thomson Airways
G-TAWG	Boeing 737 8K5	37266	Thomson Airways
TC-JGH	Boeing 737 8F2	34406	THY Turkish Airlines
N918FD	Boeing 757 23AF	24290	Federal Express
N186AN	Boeing 757 223ET	32380	American Airlines
N197AN	Boeing 757 223	32391	American Airlines
N12109	Boeing 757 224	27299	United Airlines
N155DL	Boeing 767 3P6ER	25269	Delta Air Lines
9V-SWO	Boeing 777 312ER	34580	Singapore Airlines
G-NAAL	Bombardier 605 Challenger	5718	Ocean Sky Aviation
CS-DFP	Cessna 560 Citation Excel	560-5315	NetJets Europe
OE-LGC	de Havilland Canada DHC-8 Q-402	4026	Brussels Airlines
G-FBJE	Embraer Emb-175 200LR	17000336	Flybe

Arriving on time at Hamburg Fuhlsbuttel we soon had the hire car and headed around to the cafe and spotting area at the end of runway 33, the runway in use for landing/take off's. A very civilised place for spotting/photography, the area is located near to the Lufthansa Technik maintenance facility and the GA/Corporate parking ramp it has tables & chairs, sun loungers and even two seat cabanas! Landing photo's are fine and views over the airfield mean nothing much is missed from this area. Being Germany they don't have just one official place for viewing but two, another cafe has been built on a raised area half way down runway 33 giving opportunities for good photo's of aircraft on the runway or taxying to the ramp, not everything from the terminal area can be seen from here. Hamburg has a good variety of types, very few long haul but a good selection of European commuters, biz jets and even a few light jobs with something happening most of the time. We have excluded Lufthansa from the log, main types used were CRJ-900, A320, A321 and B737.

Photos from both spotting areas at Hamburg below, all GA and Biz are taken at the cafe bar whilst the elevated shots are from "Coffee to go" alongside runway 33.