Last Saturday, August, 2, 2008, I was inside the terminal and taking picture of planes. The screening lady waved and yelled at me (between windows at the gate 54). She was signing "no-no" then she called security guy. He went straight to me. i was holding my camera. He said, "come with me". I followed him to the ticket counter. He said, "let me see your camera". I said no. He said, "show me what you've took". i said No. He demanded me to show what I have taken pictures. I decided to show him only 3 out of 5 pix. I showed him three pictures of planes that I took it from inside the terminal. He yelled at me, "you can't do that!". I said, well, there is no sign that say "no photograph allowed" anywhere at all. He yelled and said to delete the pictures. I told him no. He grabbed my arm and squeezed. He said, "delete it now". Everyone was looking at me. I was so embarrassed. I deleted only two pictures. He said, "don't you ever take any pictures anywhere at all". I said nothing and left. Then I undeleted my pictures.

Now the question is what's the harm when taking pictures of planes at terminal one? was the security guy make it up rules?

AVOID CDG !

I have shot at CDG many times, including photos of security, immigrations and customs (with proper authorization for access to those). I asked about general shooting from the PR rep I was with and was told that unless I had a tripod I was free to shoot in the airport, except for security and immigrations.

CDG is an airport I often shoot in for fun, it is a great place to people watch the most of the architecture is so ugly that its just fun! I am not shooting on the sly either, its usually two Canon EOS 1D/1Ds bodies with a 16-35f2.8 and 70-200f2.8. It is hard to conceal these camera/lens combos.

Last August I spent 45min or so riding an escalator with a Canon 1Ds with a modified 'Holga' lens attached laying on my stomach looking to shoot a photo I wanted to create. The cops came and looked, only because I kept riding the escalator on my stomach, they found what I was doing funny and that was it. (you can see the photo I am talking about on the opening page of this site: http://www.thetravelstrategist.com)

This question was raised in the Air France forum. It seems it's ok to shoot inside the terminal, but not out the window.

See this thread for more details of the policy:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=784932

in zurich airport, you can go to the observation deck (you pay a fee)--can you take pictures of planes departing and arriving?
follow up: i went to the zrh website, and they have webcams (in real time) of planes and most of the airport from different angles and locations--they don't seem to be as concerned about photographs of planes as cdg.