As I had some time yesterday, and the weather was pretty much perfect, I decided to head to Haneda airport in the afternoon. It had been a while since I last visited the airport for a prolonged spotting session, and so there were some new sights to shoot.
Terminal 2 Observation Deck
After arrival, I headed to Terminal 2’s observation deck. The terminal features two decks – one on the northern and one on the southern side. Both of them offer great views of the part of the apron used by ANA, as well as of runway 34R/16L and the taxiways leading to it.
There was, of course, plenty of traffic from the two Japanese giants – ANA and JAL – throughout my stay.
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However, the fun started when the Delta Air Lines 777-200 arrived from Minneapolis. While it is not unusual to see Delta aircraft in Tokyo or at Haneda, it is only from this winter’s schedule that they started arriving at Haneda in daylight. As such, it was a slightly strange feeling seeing the aircraft with Tokyo Bay in the background.
Similar feelings applied to a United Airlines 777-200 that arrived twenty minutes later.
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Between the two American T7s, an aircraft that I was hoping to catch – the Bear Do Hokkaido Jet special livery of Air Do – arrived. While I boarded that aircraft for what was supposed to be its first flight, due to a fault, we turned back before taking off, and our aircraft was changed into a normal livery one. This was the first time I had the chance to photograph the aircraft in good conditions.
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International Terminal Observation Deck
With the two Americans landing on 34R and the Bear Do caught, there was not much more going on on the Terminal 2 side of the airport. As such, I headed to the International Terminal which offers an excellent observation deck as well.
The first catch there was an Air Canada 777-300 that was arriving in Tokyo after maintenance in Singapore. It encountered troubles with its landing gear door, and circled for a while trying to solve the problem. In the end, however, it had to land with the landing gear door open. I never realized how large the door was until I saw a person standing next to it!
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A couple of regular movements followed including an arrival of JAL 777-300 on runway 34L, and departure of China Southern Airlines A330-200 and Philippine Airlines A330-300. There was also a Gulfstream that entered a spot right in front of us after its arrival.
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As there was not much going on, I decided to wait until the arrival of Singapore Airlines Airbus A350-900, and then called it a day.
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