Amsterdam / Frankfurt / Munich and Vienna offer airport tours which are usually busy. There is just no interest from the authorities at Heathrow/ Gatwick in particular to make this happen or to give the meeters / greeters somewhere to watch the aircraft they are waiting for. The so called grandstand at Heathrow is a joke - open air, low level, no facilities and costs an arm and a leg to park there for a day (cheaper to use hotel car park next door)

With the developments at T5 and now at T2 there were opportunities to offer something that would make a family day trip to Heathrow something to look forward to but they have been sadly missed.

I spent 30 great years as an air traffic controller. I did that because of what I saw from the spectator balconies at Heathrow, East Midlands and Manchester.

ARN has a designated parking+viewing spot that allows you to see departures and landings from "Bana 2" and "Bana 3" in the picture below.
It is marked as a little grey dot just west of the taxiway* between the runways.

(*no real taxiway, more for airport vehicles...)
http://www.swedavia.se/Global/om_fly.../ARN_banor.gif

Yes, it is very good at that point in Arlanda but it can be very cold there even on some summer days too but it is excellent for viewing. Is there public transport to the area from the terminals?

Bromma, of course, is outstanding and on it's own makes Stockholm worth visiting. Bromma is fabulous - yes, you will see everything there in a day or two at the most but it is just wonderful.

Sweden is wonderful, full stop. It is okay to like aeroplanes in Sweden.

Not that I am aware of, no. There is a bus going from a nearby town that actually stops right beneath this spotting area, but this bus don't stop at any terminal (to my knowledge it takes the way through the roundabout), you'd have to walk a bit from the terminal to get to the proper bus stop. The local taxi drivers would surely give you a ride to this bus stop.

And yes it can be a bit frisky up there.. but you have an excellent view AND parking. It's like a big pile of boulders with a flat area on top.

Affirmative on BMA! It can actually be more satisfying to watch planes from BMA since they have a great variety of models - everything from old rugged Antonovs and Ilyushins freight models to the latest in business jets.

The most exciting thing that comes to ARN is Air Force One (and then you aren't allowed anywhere near the airport for several hours anyway) and some SAAB 2000. (My Swedish heart goes out for this nice littl'un though....) Everything else is just "A320, A320, B737, B737, A340, B747, B737, B737"... well you get the picture....

Something that is HIGH on my NEED-TO-SEE-list is an An-225. Now that Concorde isn't gracing the skies anymore, I'll have to make do with the biggest bird there is.

Anyone seeing this, please message me when you hear of an An-225 coming to Sweden. Doesn't matter where, really.

At Zurich there is also a large viewing area near the thresholds of runways 14 & 16. This area is very popular, with a large car parking area & refreshment vans.

Gibraltar also has both Landside and Airside Terraces in the New Terminal :)

Tokyo's Narita and Haneda airports have excellent facilities on all terminals. In fact they bring so many visitors that the terminal shops do a roaring trade from them. Osaka Itami (Osaka's domestic airport) has arguably one of the very finest spectators area I have ever seen, situated on the opposite side of the terminals. What have Heathrow and Gatwick got? Ah yes, bugger all!

LCY and EDI conducting plane spotting survey
 

LCY and EDI have set up a joint online spotter survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/planespottersurvey

An indication these airports are looking to establish dedicated facilities for spotters, perhaps?

Bournemouth also has a cafe on the north side of the airport, accessible via Matchams Lane, that has an outdoor terrace right next to runway 26 threshold. Just a shame its such a quiet airport.

http://s1372.photobucket.com/user/paul_houghton1/media/021_zps9a7301ab.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag359/paul_houghton1/021_zps9a7301ab.jpg

[IMG]http://i1372.photobucket.com/albums/ag359/paul_houghton1/011_zpsf19905c6.jpg

There is one in Nagoya, Japan (NGO/RJGG).

I regularly see people asking LGW to reinstate one but they always say no. Surely they can't be that expensive to run?

Heathrow
 

Surely the best place to spot at Heathrow is from the Thistle hotel.

Their bar terrace around the back has great views of 09L, pull up a beer and enjoy the sun, with the smell of Jet A1 and noise of GE90s!! Oh I'm in heaven!

Me and my son have spent many a day there in the summers.

Happy Spotting Guys

OMAA

They aren't, but then these days anything which doesn't make an airport money (especially in the UK) is a no-go. The spectators galleries use up space that a WH Smith or over priced restaurant could go in to instead of a space where people are milling around not spending anything.

Of course they could offer a cafe, enthusiasts shop etc like LHR did, which was very popular (LGW had a play area I think and part of a comet cockpit and I think they may have had an entry fee??) but they still got rid of those areas.

Of course they could charge to get in but they'd have to make it worth it. Many of the major German airports have viewing areas which have a small charge. ZRH too has a great viewing platform on top of the terminal which has brilliant views, live ATC, interactive binoculars which show flight details in real time when pointed at aircraft, plus a play area, shop and a restaurant. At least you get a sense that while you're paying you're actually getting something in return.

The LGW spotting area had a cafe which sold really lovely coffee and cake if I remember rightly, a play area and a learning area and a shop. You had to pay to get in. It was always packed, so I imagine it turned a profit.

The Sofitel and Bloc now have rooms you can hire out specifically for spotting at about £50 a day, so they really are missing a trick by not having their own spotting area.

I spent many happy days as a kid up there. Here's some nostalgia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWw7SnjOGug

Can anyone just walk in there or is it hotel guest only?

..Well given as it's not the Ritz I think as long as you don't look to spotterish' :* and buy a drink at the bar I think you'd be OK.

Paid them a visit a few weeks ago, and seemed to be fine to just walk in. Bar only opened late afternoon, but there seemed to be no one restricting usage regardless - I guess that could change if they are busier.

I knew someone who actually asked at reception if it was OK to spot from the terrace and were told it's fine provided they bought something.

Interesting to learn about the Thistle, is it possible to walk there from the T5 train/tube station?