Earlier this week I was in Singapore for a few days and made it a point to have enough time on the day I was leaving to see how good Singapore’s Changi Airport is for planespotting. Changi is perennially listed among the best airports for travelers and I can certainly understand why (more on that in a later post), however for planespotting it does have its challenges. One of them is the green tint in the glass similar to what you would find in your car’s glass. This green tint is there to help reduce glare into the terminal and to also help the efficiency of the air-conditioning system. So any photo taken within the terminals is almost always going to have a green tint that you need to remove when you process your photos (which is not always easy!).
Also a challenge is the fact that each gate has security screening so the gates are cordoned off from the rest of the terminal so you do not have the ability to be up against the glass in most places unless you’ve cleared security for a gate, and you only do that if you have a boarding pass for the flight departing that gate!
Another challenge is that there is no dedicated spotting area within the airport grounds as you would find in airports such as Hong Kong, Munich or Frankfurt. There are some spotting opportunities from parking lots near a few beaches but nothing on the property itself. Changi does have observation areas within its terminals, however you are several yards away from the glass, and in many cases have 2 panes of glass between you and the aircraft, so pictures come out poorly!!
All that aside, Changi is still a very good place to observe airline traffic and I definitely recommend you bring your camera and take some time watching the airplanes! Many major airlines and Asian low cost carriers serve Changi so there is always something interesting to see.
The pictures below were taken over several hours on September 5 from within terminal 3 and from the aircraft that took me home. Of course it happened to be a cloudy day, and that impacted the pictures even more 🙁 .
Being that Changi is home to Singapore Airlines, you get to see a lot of SQ equipment!
Air Asia's 100th Aircraft Tribute Livery
Air India Departure
British Airways' Boeing 747-400
Berjaya Air
Cathay Pacific's Boeing 777
Bhutan's Drukair
Malayasia's Firefly
Singapore's A380 being turned around from gate
Garuda Indonesia's Retro Livery
Garuda's current livery
Thai's Boeing 777
Sri Lankan's A320
Jet Airways' Boeing 737-800
Transmile Cargo
Tiger Airways departure
Garuda Indonesia's departure
Lion Airlines Boeing 737-900ER
Qantas' Airbus A330
Silk Air - A Singapore Airlines Subsidiary
Arrival of a Singapore Boeing 777
Malayasia's Boeing 737
Singapore A380 push back from gate
Singapore Airlines Airbus A340
Air France Boeing 777 Arrival
Air Asia Airbus A320
Singapore Boeing 777 would take off right behind my flight
One of Changi's Tarmacs
Jetstar A320
Tiger Airways taxis to runway
Singapore Boeing 777 being towed to gate
Mandala Airlines arrival (notice same tail as Tiger Airways? they're partners)
Singapore Airbus A330 taxis to gate after arrival
I was just at Changi as well and both flights I was asked to turn off camera during taxi/takeoff/landing specifically (by EVA Airway FA).
As well as UA staff for SFO-NRT-TPE flights at SFO & NRT
That’s new to me 🙂 I’m sure I’ve even used DSLR while taxi before and no problem
anyway
@Jerry Never had an issue. I had my DSLR out and in plain sight as they were doing their final preps during taxi. No one said a word. Perhaps just luck of the draw in terms of crew. However I find that most intl carriers are fairly relaxed about camera use.
nice!
Oops just saw that you fixed it while I was reading the comments!
Yea the last one clearly says A330-300 on the side of the plane
I’ve corrected the SQ 777 to an SQ A330. After a while the large twins all started looking the same! 🙂
The last one is a A330, not a 777 🙂
@HB Thanks! they all started looking the same after a while!!
Nice photos! Of these I have flown:
– Air Asia A320
– Tiger Airways A320
– Cathay 777
– Jetstar A32
– Air France 777
– Thai 777
Thanks for sharing!
Nice pictures! Last one looks like an A330, though…
Great pictures!
You’re always saying that your pictures are not perfect, but they are wonderful.
Thanks in particular for the Drukair. I had never seen one before.
L
The last one is an Airbus 330-300 (Singapore) using RR Trent engines