Trip Report – Visiting Hamburg and the Airbus Factory

Recently I made a journey to Hamburg in Germany to experience the Airbus factory at Finkenwerder Airport, as well as a spotting hotel and viewing areas at the main airport. Here’s the trip report…

Travelling to London Stansted

Airbus A220CJ at London Stansted.

Flights to Hamburg in the middle of the Euros football competition (being held in Germany) were surprisingly cheap, as long as I flew with Ryanair from London Stansted. This meant a road journey of over 3 hours to take the flight.

Travelling with two friends, we set of around 5am and arrived at Stansted before 9am, with time for a quick drive around the airfield before finding our parking space near the terminal.

The north side of the airport, around the old terminal area, where the impressive collection of biz jets park up is not encouraged as spotters have caused trouble in the past. Signs state ‘No Aviation Enthusiasts’, and so we logged what we could from a distance and then headed round to park.

Among the biz jets present included a large contingent of private aircraft from the United Arab Emirates, including Boeing 747s, 737 BBJ and Embraer Lineage.

Another prize spot was 9H-FIVE, the first Airbus ACJ TwoTwenty that I’ve seen – a biz jet variant of the A220.

Once parked, we headed straight through security as we were only travelling with hand luggage and had already checked in online. We made our way to the upstairs dining area of the Wetherspoons pub to have some breakfast and monitor movements on the runway and around the terminal.

Flying to Hamburg

Our ride to Hamburg – 737 MAX 8-200 EI-IJB

Our flight today was on Boeing 737 MAX 8-200 EI-IJB, a seven month old jet, and the first MAX I had flown on.

The aircraft was noticeably quieter than the 737-800 model, but otherwise felt like any other Ryanair flight. Journey time was around 1 hour 15 minutes, landing on runway 23 at 1420.

Hamburg Viewing Terrace

First stop was the viewing terrace atop terminal 2 for a quick log of all the aircraft present. This viewing area is behind glass, but has good views of the terminal parking gates, remote stands, runways and some of the general aviation and Lufthansa Technik area.

Next we collected our hire car and drove around to the Coffee2Fly viewing area which overlooks runway 15/33 and is a good place for spotting.

Today landings were on runaway 23 and departures mostly on 33, so the spot wasn’t the best for photographs. But we could see all movements, and with good binoculars log any biz jets and light aircraft parked on the remote apron.

Outside Lufthansa Technik, which can often yield some interesting visitors at Hamburg, only a Boeing 747-800 BBJ was visible and all the hangar doors were sadly shut.

Airport Plaza Hotel

The view from the top floor bar at the Airport Plaza Hotel in Hamburg.

Thoroughly exhausted from our early start and the heat from the sun, we headed off to our hotel for the night.

Airport Plaza Hotel is only a short distance from the Coffee2Fly spot, and also alongside runway 15/33. Stay tuned for a full report on this spotting hotel soon.

We spent the rest of the evening spotting from the top floor terrace bar, and enjoying a meal, drinks and early night.

Day Two

The second day saw us start around 8am and heading back to the Coffee2Fly spot.

Movements had now switched to see landings on runway 15, which was perfect as they were rolling out past us. This made for excellent photographs, especially when the sun came out around 9am. The position of the sun is good here for most of the day, with it becoming less good on the afternoon.

Coffee2Fly is a great place to spot planes at Hamburg Airport.

The spot is also good for food and drink thanks to the Coffee2Fly café, which served us breakfast to enjoy while spotting.

Some of the highlights this morning included a good selection of German airliners (Condor, Eurowings and Lufthansa), Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, SunExpress, German Air Force and many others.

The spot is also good for monitoring (and even photographing with a long lens) movements in and out of Finkenwerder airport.

Hamburg Finkenwerder

Airbus A321neo aircraft ready for testing at Hamburg Finkenwerder.

At midday we set off for Hamburg Finkenwerder airport, which is not far away but takes about 30-40 minutes depending on traffic.

Our first port of call is the official viewing area alongside the single runway. This elevated spot is perfect for photographing any movements, and with good binoculars and a steady hand you can read off completed airliners parked outside ready for flight testing.

The viewing area has a car park, and it is next to the Delivery Centre which usually has a collection of airliners parked up awaiting delivery. Driving slowly past, or walking back from the viewing area, you can usually log most of these through the fence.

Don’t expect a lot of movements at Finkenwerder, but the quality makes it worthwhile with aircraft destined for airlines all over the world.

Hamburg Finkenwerder Airbus Tour

We had a tour of the Airbus site booked at 1430. This departs from the travel agency just next to the Osttor entrance near the delivery centre and is well signposted.

The Reiseburo (travel agent) where you check in for your Airbus tour at Hamburg.

There is a small supermarket next to the office which was useful to stock up on cold drinks in the 30 degree heat today.

Tours of the Airbus site are available in English, with headphones provided so that you can hear what your guide is saying all the way through the tour.

You will be getting on and off the bus at various points in the tour, which lasts around 2 hours, and takes in various places on the site that are undertaking production of new airliners.

One thing to note is that photography is not permitted on the Airbus tours at Hamburg Finkenwerder. This is naturally disappointing to enthusiasts who get taken up close to many interesting aircraft under construction, and airline liveries you may never have seen before.

The tour guide also told us not to use our phones for any reason so as not to cause any suspicion that recordings may be taking place.

The official line is that Airbus wants to protect its intellectual property and production areas.

As such, I can’t share any pictures of what we saw on the tour.

Again, I will write more in detail about the tour of Airbus at Hamburg in another post.

Needless to say, we saw over a hundred airframes and partial airframes, all from the Airbus A319/20/21neo family, A330neo family and A350, as well as the large Beluga and BelugaXL transport types.

Most of the airframes have a construction number printed on prominently which will enable you to tie up at a later date. You are permitted to take a notebook and binoculars, and we were thankful to be allowed to climb to a higher level of one of the buildings to get a better view of the airframes stored outside and take notes.

Our guide was excellent, and we finished the tour with a quick look at the museum aircraft at Finkenwerder (again, no photographs), before being dropped back off at the main entrance.

Flying Home

We collected our car (we’d parked in a nearby residential street), had one last quick look at the viewing area, then drove back to Hamburg’s main airport in heavy traffic to drop the car off.

We spent an hour on the Terminal 1 terrace which offers similar views to that at Terminal 2, but closer to the threshold of runway 23. Again, views are through glass or mesh.

There is a food court just inside both terraces, so we had a meal while spotting – fatigue now setting in!

We then called it a day and proceeded through security and found our gate for our ride back to London Stansted, this time on Boeing 737-800 EI-DCO, arriving around 11pm.

The journey home was a struggle, but we reflected on what a great two days we’d had and how many new numbers will have gone in the book.

It also proved that thanks to low-cost fares this kind of short trip can easily be done and still yield impressive results. It could be similar for the other main Airbus factory at Toulouse, or elsewhere around the world depending on where you’re based.

Have you ever visited Airbus at Hamburg? What did you think? Leave a comment below.