megaloman

A quick update as there'll be no report today for yesterday - I did a full day of plane spotting at Hong Airport on Saturday - weather was superb and I hope photos in full resolution will be superb too. Today I did a trip to Taipei for some spotting there... with mixed results! I've got an early start tomorrow, so need to catch up with sleeping. Stay tuned!

megaloman

My first non-flying day during that trip, though spent at the airport, again



Hong Kong Intl airport currently has two runaways, but there's plan to build another (or couple - not sure about that). While I was there 25L was used for departures and 25R was used for arrivals (mainly - there were a couple of 25L). At some point in the late afternoon wind has changed and 7R was used for departures and 7L for arrivals.



Spotting locations:
A - the SkyDeck - you pay 15 HKD for entry (or 40 HKD for a day pass) and you can take photos from the roof top of the building - superb location, you can catch all arrivals at 25L - planes are passing just in front of you, you can also see parked aircraft in the distance (haze!) and the cargo terminal too. be warn - there's nothing up there, just a bit of shadow - bring everything you need with you.
B - public footbridge connecting terminal 2 with Asia World Expo - much lower than the skydeck, but still usable - there's enough lamp post free space. on a plus side it's covered (so plenty of shadow) and is much closer to the terminal's wifi and other facilities
C/D - and of the drop off area on the departures level - I found it useful, when wind changed and I wanted to catch a couple of departures from 7R.

I've spent roughly 15 minutes at the SkyDeck, then security asked everyone to leave - not sure why, but everyone obliged and we were given our money back at the cashier. So I've used the foot bridge instead which was perfect as I did not anticipated it to be that hot - it was around 25C and the sun was really strong.

Cargo apron as seen from the SkyDeck:


Parking positions around Terminal 1:



Here's some photos - one of each airline-aircraft combination, so you won't get bored with zyllion of Cathay photos btw: click for the full-resolution!

Photos taken from the SkyDeck

Cathay Pacific - Airbus A340-300


Cathay Pacific - Airbus A350-900 (new colours)


Cathay Pacific - Airbus A330-300


HK Express - Airbus A320


Dragonair - Airbus A330-300


Singapore Airlines - Boeing 777-200


AirSeychelles - Airbus A330-200


Photos taken from the footbridge

Dragonair - Airbus A321


Peach - Airbus A320


Aeroflot - Airbus A330-300


China Eastern - Airbus A321


HK Express - Airbus A320 (in Hong Kong Airlines colours)


Air China - Airbus A321


Korean Air - Boeing 777-200


Xiamen Air - Boeing 737-800


Cathay Pacific - Boeing 777-300ER


Cathay Pacific - Boeing 777-200


KLM - Boeing 747-400M


Air China - Boeing 737-800


Thai - Airbus A380-800


Asiana Airlines - Boeing 747-400M


Hong Kong Airlines - Airbus A330-200


China Airlines - Airbus A330-300


Singapore Airlines - Airbus A380-800


Spring Airlines - Airbus A320


Cathay Pacific Cargo - Boeing 747-8F


Malaysia Airlines - Airbus A330-300


AirAsia - Airbus A320


Philippines - Airbus A330-300


Hong Kong Airlines - Airbus A320


JinAir - Boeing 737-800


China Eastern - Airbus A319


China Southern - Airbus A321


South African - Airbus A340-300


ANA Nippon Airways - Boeing 787-8


Royal Brunei - Airbus A320


Cathay Dragon - Airbus A320


JeJuAir - Boeing 737-800


JetStar Japan - Airbus A320


Air China - Airbus A330-300


Dragon Air - Airbus A320


MAS Cargo - Airbus A330-200F


Hong Kong Air Cargo - Airbus A330-200F


ANA Nippon Airways - Boeing 737-700


JetStar Asia - Airbus A320


Singapore Airlines - Airbus A330-300


Cathay Pacific - Boeing 777-300 (new colours)


UPS - Boeing 747-400F


Vietnam Airlines - Airbus A321


ANA Nippon Airways - Boeing 767-300


Ethiopian - Boeing 787-800


Thai - Airbus A330-300


Fiji Airways - Airbus A330-200


Malindo - Boeing 737-800


Korean Air - Boeing 747-8i


British Airways - Airbus A380-800


China Eastern - Airbus A320


China Airlines - Boeing 737-800


Japan Airlines - Boeing 777-200


Garuda Indonesia - Airbus A330-300


EVA AIR - Airbus A321


Qantas - Airbus A330-300


Atlas Air - Boeing 747-400F


Qatar Airways - Boeing 787-800


Vanilla Air - Airbus A320


Cathay Pacific - Airbus A330-300 (new colours)


Emirates - Airbus A380-800


Finnair - Airbus A350-900


Bangkok Air - Airbus A319


Photos taken from the Departures Drop off

Asiana Airlines - Airbus A321


Cathay Pacific - Airbus A350-900


Cathay Pacific - Airbus A330-300 (new colours)


Cathay Pacific - Airbus A330-300 (old colours)


American Airlines - Boeing 777-300ER


Government Flying Service of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region - Bombardier CL-600-2B16 Challenger 605


After I've finished spotting, I've jumped on the train back to the city - on the train I've realised I haven't eaten much and my stomach begged for food. There is a pretty good place at the Hong Kong station called Tim Ho Wan - I think it has a Michellin star - food is good and reasonably priced, the queues are massive though:


The sign said I would need to queue for at least 45 minutes, so I decided to have a take away (10 minutes waiting time). Glad they had order forms in English!


I went for the Glutinous Rice Dumpling and Steamed Dumplings Chiu Chow Style - my order was ready in 10 minutes, it takes 10 minutes to walk back to my hotel, so I've beaten the queue


The Glutinous Rice Dumpling was... delicious!


Then I spent the whole evening writing report for the previous day - I did not realised that it would take so much time - hence my growing delay from reporting "live"!

lamphs

Fantastic pics!

offerendum

You need to be an airplane enthusiast

megaloman

It does say on the tin "plane spotting trip..."

Madone59

The HKG photos are great! Keep em' coming. ^

offerendum

Never doubt you qualify as one I wouldn't spend my day at the airport but some interesting plane-pictures.

gpia

Very nice pics, keep 'em coming!

PS: The airline is actually called "hk express", not "Hong Kong express". Figured an enthusiast like yourself would be interested in such a minor detail

wtcmor

Loved the photos and thanks for the efforts in pulling together this TR

megaloman

You're absolutely right! It should be HK Express Thanks!

megaloman

The night before the trip I was checking where exactly the viewing terrace was... and was getting mixed information on the web. Then I realised there were two airports in Taipei:

1. Taipei Songshan Airport (TSA) - with a public viewing terrace
2. Taipei Taoyuan International Airport (TPA) - without...

And I was booked to fly to TPE :-) "Well done megaloman" I thought to myself! So idea of having 6 hours at TPE suddenly become less appealing. I've checked flights and it seemed there was another A359 flying to Hong Kong two hours earlier, so I would have 4 hours only - enough to visit the terminal and take some photos through the glass. Going to the city was not an option as there's no easy way to get to Taipei as I understood. Weather forecast for Hong Kong was clouds/rain while for Taipei was sun so it should be fun trip.

When I woke up in the morning, it was a bit gloomy but not too much:


On the way to the Hong Kong station I saw boxes being lay down - as every Sunday maids working for Hong Kong's elite were preparing for their day off in public spaces.


A quick train ride and I was in less than 30 minutes at the Hong Kong Airport. It's worth noting that daily return ticket to the Airport is only 100 HKD instead of usual 180 HKD.

I got a boarding pass without a queue from the check in desk and was directed to the ticketing office (basically a desk nearby) to change my ticket. There I got my ticket changed within a couple of minutes, free of charge, yay ;-) then went back to the check-in desk to get checked in for a new flight. Got same seat (16K) assigned, invitation to the lounge and I was good to go.

There's no dedicated fast track facility at the Hong Kong airport, though security check was quick. Immigration took a little bit longer as I got stuck in the queue with families and children. Eventually got into the departure lounge to find out that my flight was delayed by 1 hour. Not bad - from initial 6h in the TPE terminal building now I was down to 3h.

Checked lounge location - it turned out my lounge was near gate 25, so before going there I decided to have a walk around the airport. I only managed to go around the main T1 building. Big windows make it easy to take photos of planes parked close by or at the gates; it's also possible to take photos of arrivals / departures. End of pier near gate 70 offers a really good view at runaway 7L/25R - while I was there, arrivals were at 7L. On the other side near gate 50 it was possible to see 7R/25L.

Photos taken from inside the terminal before departure
Just a handful of them, click them for better quality.

Garuda Indonesia Boeing 737-800


ANA Boeing 767-300


Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300


American Airlines Boeing 777-300ER


Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-300


SAS Airbus A330-300


EVA AIR Cargo Boeing 747-400F which just landed on runaway 7L


United Airlines Boeing 777-200ER


Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300ER in The Spirit of Hong Kong livery


China Airlines Airbus A330-300


China Southern Boeing 737-800 in SkyTeam livery


Aeroflot Airbus A330-300


EVA AIR Boeing 777-300ER in StarAlliance livery


After circling the terminal building for over an hour and still having a few minutes to spare I decided to pop into the Sky Team lounge to check it out and maybe have some coffee. My boarding gate was 35 while lounge was near gate 15 - so it should be close, right? no it wasn't! Good 10 minutes walk and I was there for maybe 20 minutes spare before I had to head back to the gate for boarding.

SkyTeam lounge at Hong Kong

They do offer cooked options (noodles?)


The drink station looked poor from the distance


Not impressive at closer inspection:


Food options were better with hot and cold options for breakfast:


And general overview of the seating areas:




Not a bad lounge, but nothing excited either... looked very similar to other KLM lounges I've visited.

CI602: Hong Kong - Taipei



Airline: China Airlines
Flight: CI602 HKG ✈ TPE
Aircraft: Airbus A340-300 B-18805
Gate: 35

I left the lounge around 10:15 and arrived at the gate 35 after 10ish minutes walk. My first date of the day was already there, waiting for me:


But she wasn't ready yet to start boarding, high tech got involved in the announcement of the new boarding time


After boarding I've immediately noticed dirty windows. I like to take photos through the window, so this time result's won't be great - oh well.


A welcome drink of either water, orange or apple juice was offered, I opted for an orange juice. It was handed with some mixed nuts snack:


As this is a really short flight and on average takes around 70 minutes, menus were handed over while still on the ground and crew took orders before departure.


On the way to the departure runaway 7R I managed to grab a few interesting shots!

Cathay Pacific Cargo Boeing 747-8F


Orient Thai Boeing 747-400


Nippon Cargo Boeing 747-8F


Cathay Pacific Cargo Boeing 747-8F in special colours


After departure we've flown into the clouds so there was not much to see... I took another cabin shot:


Cabin layout was 2-2-2 with extra reclining seats. The legroom was pretty generous!


Also it's worth a mention that each seat has a pillow and a blanket prepared for passengers:


Few minutes after we've reached the cruising altitude meals were served (on a single tray):


I went for chicken linguine and I was not disappointed - I wish British Airways was serving that quality of food on their short haul flight... wishful thinking!

When we got closer to Taiwan, clouds cleared up and I could see the island:


On arrival, again, a couple of interesting aircraft.

TransAsia Aibrus A330-300 (two!) - I think they've gone bust


Orient Thai Boeing 747-400


China Airlines Airbus A330-300


China Airlines Boeing 747-400


China Airlines Airbus A350-900


And China Airlines Airbus A340-300 I have just flown on


We've landed at gate A3, after dreadful experience in Beijing I was expecting a similar one here. I was quickly proved to be wrong. My scheduled departure was from gate A4, so I used the transfer channel next to my gate. It was quick and painless, I was back inside the departure area in less then 10 minutes from arrival. I went back to gate A4, it was empty.

Btw: I think there was some celebrity flying on my aircraft as there was a crowd of fandom girls waiting for some one with cameras etc. Do they know who I am?!


I quickly reminded myself where I was when I spotted the Hello Kitty shop!


Spotting form inside the terminal

Spotting from inside the terminal is challenging, but can be done if you have a longer layover. I read on the internet that best to spot is/was gate C10. I found it not true.

Map of the terminal:


TPE has two runaways: 5L/23R (North one, seen from gates D/A) and 5R/23L (South one, seen from gates C/B).
TPE has also two terminal buildings - both are connected by airside corridors, so there's no problem in moving between them. Mind it's a very spread out terminal - walking times on the above map are correct - it can take up to 30 minutes to walk to some remote gates!

Terminal 1 is older and consists of A gates and B gates.
Terminal 2 is newer and consists of C gates and D gates.

When I was there arrivals were on 23R - touchdowns could be seen from A-gates or D-gates. While A gates (most of them) have big windows, they're slightly tinned and only emergency windows are not tinted. Landing, taxing or standing at the gate aircraft can be easily spotted form there.

EVA AIR taxing back to the cargo apron after landing on 23R taken from gate A4:


AirAsia X Airbus A330 parked at A gate (taken from another A gate at ground level)


FAT McDonnel Douglas MD80 parked at gate A3 and taken from gate A4


D gates feature an emergency exit doors which allow to take non-tinted photos. Also those exit doors are above the gate which is at the ground level. There are also seats so it makes it as a preferred spotting location in my opinion. How bad the tinted glass at D gates is?


China Airlines Boeing 777-300ER (through the emergency exit door at D4)


On the other side of the airport C-gates don't include emergency exit doors, so there's only green tinted glass. I don't recall checking B gates - I think they were same like A gates, but with stronger tint.

Here's a couple of examples of what's spotting like from C-gates:

EVA AIR Airbus A330-300 in Hello Kitty livery


Delta Boing 767-300 on a remote stand


EVA AIR Airbus A321


I hope those green tinted photos are recoverable in raw post processing!

Discovering TPE
So knowing what gate A4 was like I decided to have a walk around the terminal and see what other gates are like. It turned out that the terminal has a simple layout which was easy to follow but distances were long for walking. My first goal was to get to the gate C10 which was described in one of the reviews as a good spot for photos. I think it took me an hour to get from A4 to C10. When I got to C10, I was disappointed - A4 (or A5, A6...) would've been a lot better for spotting. C10 had only tinted glass and I was shooting photos with sun shining string into my camera.

On the way back from C-gates pier I passed through the Terminal 2 main building. I think it's bigger than T1 (and is newer too). The temperature inside the terminal was way too high for my liking - it was almost 25C and I did not prepare for that.


I was in need for some refreshment - maybe a shower could do? At Taipei airport lounges are located in both T1 and T2. China Airlines had lounges in both terminals, since I was in T2 I tried my luck there. Entrance looked nice:


Unfortunately I was not let in. I was told I should go to the T1 a sit was closer to my scheduled departure gate. Seriously? I had no problem accessing Japan Airways Sacura lounge at Frankfurt T2 while my LATAM flight was departing from T1... but here - I was told "no". So I had a look around and spotted two Premium Plaza lounges - yay!

"Outdoor" restaurant style lounge:



And there was another one:


I must say whenever I see Premium Plaza logo, I am sure I won't be disappointed. Really good lounges and happy that Priority Pass gives me access there!

First things first, I took a shower. Amenity kit same as at Heathrow Arrivals lounge in T2, but bathroom was much bigger giving more space for stuff and to move around.

Premium Plaza branded amenities:


Shower itself:


Refreshed I headed back to the restaurant to have a meal.

Lounge area - lots of seats, not many people in.


Refreshments in the restaurant area


I opted for the Asparagus Juice - never tried it before, really good!


This particular lounge offers set menus only, there were European options, but I opted for the Chinese one - I was not disappointed! Would prefer to be a little bit more spicy I if can be picky


Btw: my meal voucher had an interesting date...

Year 106?

CI919: Taipei - Hong Kong



Airline: China Airlines
Flight: CI919 TPE ✈ HPG
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900 B-18905
Gate: A4

After my meal I realised I only had 1h our to my departure with boarding starting in next 30 minutes - it was time to go, I had a long walk to my gate!

A last minute look at the spacious terminal T2:




On the way to my gate I got slowed down by people who prefer to stand still on moving walkways


Had to stop at the espressamente for an espresso

I was pleased to be recognised as one who drinks coffee like Italian - at the bar, standing!

Popped into gate A5 to take a photo of my date


At the gate A4 spotted an interesting machine - a hand luggage size checker with a scale - never seen anything like that!


I was almost the last one in the priority queue, but first to board the business class cabin... it turned out there were only 4 pax in the business class cabin on my flight today. I was pleasantly surprised with how good the cabin looked - much better than Qatar Airways (the only other A359 I've flown so far). Really well done to the China Airlines.

Cabin overview


Seat overview


My welcome drink and snack


I liked the storage compartment - enough space for wallet, phone, passport and a little camera. the lid had a mirror, helping to see what's inside.


There was another, smaller one


Our departure got delayed as one of the passengers didn't make it for the flight and their luggage had to be offloaded.

So I watched a sunset above Boeing 747


I think we've pushed back with an hour delay. On the way to the runaway I took a couple of more photos at TPE for my collection.

China Airlines A330-300 taxing for the departure


Cargolux Boeing 747-8F at the cargo apron


Tigerair Taiwan A320


Last overview of the TPE airport


Once airbone sunset continued


When we've reached the cruising altitude cabin crew began the meal service.


It didn't feel rushed as it was only 4 of us in the cabin.

After meal I asked for a coffee which was a real americano - I think I've heard correctly that they have a proper coffee machine on board.


IFE was very good, but some of the movies didn't match the potential quality this IFE could offer...


I kept discovering a little features of the seat, like this clever reading light:


Or pointless, but classy lamp:


Or watching map on the handset while watching the movie on IFE:


Once it got darker outside, ambient mood light created a nice atmosphere


We've arrived in HKG in foggy weather - nothing to see or take photo of. After short taxi we arrived at our gate. Immigration was painless and I was quickly on the train back to the hotel. It was a long and eventful day for me and the only thing I really wanted was to prepare for early morning departure and get some proper sleep - mind my next departure to Singapore was scheduled for 8:10 am!

On the way from the station I've noticed that some maids where still there:


Weather was a bit moody, I snapped a couple of "Hong Kong" photos - here's the view from Macau ferry terminal

kevincrumbs

It's a shame you didn't plan the trip out to spot at TSA instead of TPE. From what I understand, TPE has some spots parallel to the runway (outside of the airport, of course), including a cafe with a viewing terrace. However, the best spotting IMHO is at TSA, especially at the end of runway 10. It's a very, very cool spot with the planes coming in right above you. In addition, it's easy to capture planes taxiing out for departure. It's best accessed by walking from either Yuanshan MRT station on the red line or Xingtian Temple of the orange line with restrooms located around the corner at a local temple. Of course, the traffic is less varied than TPE but you have the bonus of capturing domestic planes while still getting some international widebodies (NH, JL, etc.).

Hope you have a chance to make it back to Taiwan (KHH also has spotting available parallel to the runway, similar to TPE) some day!

manymany

I'm enjoying your live report but only realised earlier (9pm) you are here in Bangkok! Would have offered to meet up for drink but figured it would be too late to arrange something through PM's lol.

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

megaloman

Damn, it's a shame! Would love to meet a fellow FlyerTalker!

megaloman

Hey! Yes, it's a bit embarrassing that I haven't conducted a proper research... I still enjoyed my trip to Taipei - the two air China Rides were fun, the A359 was a highlight - I really wish it lasted a bit longer For my next trip to Asia for spotting Taipei is already set on the list, so I hope to visit the TSA airport for a bit. Thanks for the information!