Since it’s been a while since I’ve spent more than an hour spotting at Haneda airport and the weather was great yesterday, I decided to spend an afternoon there. While there was a number of movements worth photographing, the main goal was to catch a Philippine Airlines A340-300 that occasionally operates on the Manila-Haneda route.
An Hour and a Half on the International Terminal Observation Deck
After getting to the airport around 2PM, the first place I went to was the international terminal observation deck since the BB-8 Jet, one of the three ANA Star Wars Jets, was supposed to arrive from Frankfurt around 2:30PM.
Before it did, however, a trio of A330-300s from Greater China departed.
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While photographing the A330s, I could see the BB-8 Jet approaching runway 05. And, soon enough after landing, it taxied by right in front of me. In fact, it only did so because the China Airlines A330-300 was blocking the second entrance to the apron. Otherwise, it would have taxied on the further taxiway. Thanks, China Airlines!
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Besides the BB-8 Jet, there was also a couple of other ANA and JAL aircraft coming in. There were also some international movements including a Delta and an American 777s, but I will keep those for the next part of this report.
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The last movement I photographed before leaving the international observation deck for the domestic terminal 2 one was the departure of the Philippine Airlines A340-300 to Manila.
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An Hour on the Terminal 2 Observation Deck
After a short shuttle bus ride, I made my way to the top floor of Terminal 2 to take some more photos. I was especially looking to photograph all the American airlines that visit Haneda during the day nowadays, as I didn’t have many chances to do so yet.
But first, I got a pair of JAL aircraft departing – a 787 and a 777.
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Then, a couple of minutes before 4PM, the first of the US airlines departed – a United Airlines 787-9.
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After that, there was about 30 minutes of “purely Japanese” traffic. And so, besides getting some “normal” shots, I also tried to look for some angles that I usually don’t shoot.
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Around 4:30PM, the first of the two Delta Air Lines flights departed with quite a steep angle of attack. A second Delta followed about fifteen minutes later, this time climbing not as sharply.
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Between the two Delta 777s, there was a variety of Japanese traffic. The one notable movement among those aircraft was a Skymark 737 wearing the Taka Girl livery.
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The last movement that I photographed was an American Airlines 777 departing bound for Los Angeles around 5PM. After that, I called it a day.
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Even though the traffic at Haneda can get fairly repetitive, with the increasing number of international flights, there is always something to spice up the sea of ANAs and JALs. However, given that it’s been a while since I’ve done some spotting at Narita, perhaps, that should be my next “destination!”
