One of the most exciting things about airports are the planes themselves. You would be hard pressed in any airport terminal to find the windows free of children who are fascinated by the activity outside. Interestingly enough, many of the parents seem to enjoy the sights just as much.
Once upon a time, I used to visit the airport just to see the planes after my grandfather gave me two model planes as a gift. That TWA 727 and Pan Am 707 are responsible for a lot.
You’d Go To The Airport Just To Look At Planes?
Throughout the world you used to be able to go to the airport and all the way to the gates whenever you wanted to. This meant that you could see the planes at the gates, hear all the announcements and watch the world go by. Views out the window looked like this.
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- Rewards for visiting the airport – planes at gates!
Now there are different security requirements around the world, so it is not possible to go all the way to the gate any longer. It is farewell to friends inside the terminal or at the kerb. Meeting arriving passengers after they have collected baggage. There is no real reason to linger at the airport anymore.
Going All The Way To The Gate Is Still Possible!
I am originally from Australia and in some airport terminals it is still possible to go all the way to the gate whenever you want. How is this possible? What about security? Are they crazy down under?
Stand alone domestic terminals such as in Sydney for both Qantas and Virgin Australia permit anyone to go to the gate. Everyone goes through security screening which is fast and efficient. It means children can still do what I did when I was a kid.
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You can only see this in Bangkok if you fly!
Image by Iv0202
Visiting the airport is still a day out for the family. Indeed, it is still possible to meet people directly off their flight. Nothing compares to walking up the jet bridge to see a line of people flanking each side waiting for their visitor. It’s almost like your very own honour guard!
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Even this bland scene is exciting as there be planes outside!
Image by N509FZ
Once you find your people, you all go to baggage claim together. This makes baggage claim less of a boring chore and more of a social chit chat session while waiting for bags to arrive. Another advantage is airline lounges. At Qantas, you can still bring guests into the lounge who are not travelling. Fantastic!
Overall Thoughts
It really is a shame that you need to be travelling in order to go through security to the gates. Airports are much more interesting from airside considering that is where the views are. Airports should be designed so that all people are allowed to go through to the gates if they want to. It will never happen as there are many other issues to be considered – but in Australia it works very well.
Do you remember going through to the gates? Are you Australian and do this all the time? Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Md Farhad Rahman. All images via Wikimedia Commons.
The restaurant/bar at BTV (Burlington VT) looks out over the runways and across to the VT Air National Guard hangers and was always a favorite way to spend some time before going through security or while awaiting passengers. Commercial airplanes, small general aviation and the mighty F18s are all on show.
That’s pretty good, I do like it when you can find somewhere that overlooks the action. The majority of people don’t spend a lot of time at airports so it is always welcome to be able to see the air part of the airport in some way. Sounds fun at BTV! Thanks for the comment!
One of my earliest memories is of standing on the observation deck at the north end of what is now called Terminal C at BOS. My father would take me and my older brother and sister out on a sunny Sunday afternoon every so often to watch the planes take off and land. We’d also go there when picking up or seeing off family members. This was back in the mid 60’s. EA was still operating Connies and Electras (both on scheduled service and on the Air Shuttle), AA still had some ‘water wagon’ 707-123s and the occasional 990 Astrojet… Read more »
I still go to BOS Terminal C just to watch planes albeit to access the roof of the parking garage 😉 Not sure how expansive this observation deck was but the central parking garage is great because you can easily move vantage points to observe different terminals/runways which is usually nicer than watching from inside the terminal…
The parking garage was a good spot as I recall. Before it was torn down the roof level parking of the old EA terminal was also great. When the new ATC tower was built in the 70s they had a dedicated enclosed observation deck that piped in ATC traffic communications. I could spend hours in that place
Now that’s really catering for the spotters! Nothing like that in Australia where I’m from, only people with their own radios. That’s must have been cool!
I will have to give this a go next time I’m passing through BOS! Thanks for the comment!
I would have loved to have been around to see the sheer variety of aircraft back in the 1960s. It just sounds like it would have been so much fun, as opposed to today where everything is very similar. Love all the different airlines and types you’ve mentioned. It must have been something have experienced that! You have good taste liking the VC10 – I really like that aircraft as well. Thanks for commenting! 🙂