I've been through Frankfurt airport today (FRA) and the range of aircraft and airlines I saw was mind blowing, and it's got me wondering...

Is FRA avaiation geek nirvana? Is it the only airport in the world where you can see every single type of civil passenger and cargo aircraft flying today?

To give you an idea of what I mean, I saw... A380, A350, A340, A330, A321, A320, B787, B777, B748, B744, B767, B757, B738, B737, E190, and something "145" from BMI Regional, and something that looked tupolov or illuyshin. There were 744F, 748F, MD11F. And there was also an Eastern 738 hidden behind some trees.

And the airlines...!! A real buffet of names. So is there anywhere else on the planet anything like it?

It's certainly a great place for any aviation enthusiast. I'd recommend the Airport Tour, which takes visitors by bus around the airfield - it's a great way of seeing a bit more of the operation than you might ordinarily do from the Terminal.

You're right about the diversity of aircraft too. In the Lufthansa Fleet alone, the Boeing 747-400 and 747-8 can be found alongside the MD-11, A340-300, A340-600 and the A380. You might even still see the odd 737 classic from Eastern Europe. Until last year, KLM also operated the Fokker 70 into the airport.

Yes. Planespotting at FRA is most excellent.
A380
A346 (still?)
A343
777s
A330s

Lightsaber

johns624 wrote:

JFK, LHR, CDG, LAX and others are like that, too.

CDG might have an interesting traffic but surely isn't a spotter-friendly airport.

If I remember well, you have to get a permission letter from the police, obtained 1 month before going planespotting there.
Totally absurd in my opinion.

You will find a lot of information about spotting at FRA here:
http://www.spotterguide.net/planespotti ... -fra-eddf/

There are three official spotting platforms outside the fence and there is a terrace on the roof of T2.

b.

johns624 wrote:

JFK, LHR, CDG, LAX and others are like that, too.

LAX is my hometown airport and simply amazing. The lack of one dominate carrier and the amazing diversity make it #1 imop.

JFK, LHR, CDG, LAX and others are like that, too.

time2lyme wrote:

And the airlines...!! A real buffet of names. So is there anywhere else on the planet anything like it?

In Europe, the other ones that are comparable to FRA are LHR and CDG. They both see a lot of 737s and A320s from the whole of Europe, Middle East and Northern Africa.
- LHR was always 747 heaven and it is now the most A380 heaven (for A380 lovers) excluding DXB.
- CDG sees a lot of airlines from the Middle East and Africa.

AMS is spotters friendly, a lot of spotters enjoy their passion there with their cameras.

And in the rest of the world, I would say JFK. MIA, LAX and NRT.
- JFK is the most important gateway to Europe. It is the airport in North America where you will see the most airlines from Europe (Russia also), the Middle East and Africa.
- MIA is the most important gateway to South America. Sure American has a major hub there but you don't just see American, you see a lot of foreign airlines mostly from Central and South America. Plus there are a lot of freighters in MIA.
- LAX is the spotters paradise for airliner geeks like us. It isn't really a major hub of one airline but it sees a large variety of airlines from Europe, North America and Asia. The most attractive part of LAX for AvGeeks is the TBIT.
- NRT was, like LHR, always 747 heaven. Now it sees mostly 777s and 787s but there is a vast panoply of airlines from Asia, North America and Europe serving NRT.

I think I read somewhere that FRA has the most airlines operating out of it in the world.

+1 for LAX -- in addition to the diversity of carriers and aircraft, the weather there also helps. It very easy to spot outdoors almost any time and season of the year.

American 767 wrote:

time2lyme wrote:

And the airlines...!! A real buffet of names. So is there anywhere else on the planet anything like it?

In Europe, the other ones that are comparable to FRA are LHR and CDG. They both see a lot of 737s and A320s from the whole of Europe, Middle East and Northern Africa.
- LHR was always 747 heaven and it is now the most A380 heaven (for A380 lovers) excluding DXB.
- CDG sees a lot of airlines from the Middle East and Africa.

AMS is spotters friendly, a lot of spotters enjoy their passion there with their cameras.

And in the rest of the world, I would say JFK. MIA, LAX and NRT.
- JFK is the most important gateway to Europe. It is the airport in North America where you will see the most airlines from Europe (Russia also), the Middle East and Africa.
- MIA is the most important gateway to South America. Sure American has a major hub there but you don't just see American, you see a lot of foreign airlines mostly from Central and South America. Plus there are a lot of freighters in MIA.
- LAX is the spotters paradise for airliner geeks like us. It isn't really a major hub of one airline but it sees a large variety of airlines from Europe, North America and Asia. The most attractive part of LAX for AvGeeks is the TBIT.
- NRT was, like LHR, always 747 heaven. Now it sees mostly 777s and 787s but there is a vast panoply of airlines from Asia, North America and Europe serving NRT.

I'd also add @ZRH to that list with their outdoor spotters ob-deck which is similar to @NRT

shantahan wrote:

+1 for LAX -- in addition to the diversity of carriers and aircraft, the weather there also helps. It very easy to spot outdoors almost any time and season of the year.

Indeed, and that is why CDG for the argument is a bad example! Simple reason is the high volume of eastern European airlines that serve FRA. 10 years ago it was even better, due to the (Russian) types these carriers operated. that has since changed, but I am pretty sure of having read somewhere recent that for sheer volume of carriers serving FRA is much greater than any other EU Airport ! Having been in airfreight for many years, you would be amazed what oddballs you see parked remote! HAM is another example due to LHT (Lufty technics and what they service), but from my global travels, ..... FRA must be right up there as far as variety of carriers goes! And as per the OP, the LH fleet mix is certainly interesting also for spotters!

I like Heathrow with it's steady flow of heavies.

cougar15 wrote:

And as per the OP, the LH fleet mix is certainly interesting also for spotters!

Yes, especially the widebody fleet: A333, A343, A346, A359, 744, 748i and MD-11F. Nice mixture.

time2lyme wrote:

And there was also an Eastern 738 hidden behind some trees.

Are you sure about that? I regularly check the movements on http://fraaviation.forumsfree.de/f3-movements-fotos but I didn't know that there was such a rarity in FRA.