After a recent surprise heavy snow shower in London I though it would be fun to go to London City Airport (LCY) to do some plane spotting. London City is a pretty unique airport in the UK (and Europe) due to its central city location and extremely short runway. This means that only certain small aircraft are allowed to fly in and out. Also takeoff and landing are done at much steeper angles than typical airports to avoid the nearby skyscrapers (and reduce noise for locals). All this made for some exciting viewing, and there are a few great spots surrounding the airport where you can watch from.
I filmed all the aircraft landing and taking off whilst there, and also got the chance to try out a new attachable wide angle IPhone lens from Sandmarc, which I talk about more later. For my full video on Youtube see below:
Plane Spotting Locations
There are 3 areas around London City Airport for the best viewing experience. I’ll go through them briefly:
- A – A nice path runs the length of the runway just accross the water. Best spot in my opinion.
- B – At the East end of the runway there’s a good spot (you may have to climb over a fence though.
- C – This spot is good if you’re at the airport and don’t want to travel far. There is a fence in the way.
I went to point A on the map. Simply get the DLR to Royal Albert station and it’s a 1 minute walk. A paved path runs the whole length of the runway. I just walked up and down once, stopping to film any planes taking off and landing. It took around an hour at a very slow pace.
What I Saw
I was just there for an hour on a Saturday so didn’t see that many flights. Though I did see a good range of aircraft types. The majority were BA Cityflyer Embraer E190s, which are the most common type at LCY. There were also a few turboprops, private jets, and my favourite, the Swiss Airbus A220.
- Embraer E190 (British Airways)
- Airbus A220-100 (Swiss)
- ATR72-600 (Loganair)
- DeHavilland Dash 8 / Q400 (Luxair)
- A private jet (maybe an Embraer Phenom 100?)
- Another private jet (Cessna Citation?)
When to Go
I use flightstats.com to figure out which planes are landing when. If you have a look at the schedule you’ll see weekdays are much busier as London City Airport has restricted operations on the weekends. Both Saturday and Sunday, flights are only scheduled up to midday, after which no more are allowed. I went on a Saturday as that’s when I had the free time and wanted to go whilst the snow was still there, but this did mean there were far fewer planes to see.
It’s also worth noting the direction the wind is coming from. I recommend going when the wind is blowing from the East as this will mean aircraft come in to land from the west over Canary Wharf. This both makes for a great backdrop and is also closer to the easiest area to view from (point A on the map from earlier). You’ll still get good views of planes taking off if the wind is coming from the East though, as it was the day I visited.
Camera and Lens
I used an IPhone 13 mini to film the video and take pictures. Naturally this is a pretty limited option in terms of zoom so I wasn’t able to get any close up shots. But it can shoot pretty well in 4K 60fps I think, so I’m quite pleased with the results.
One of the reasons I decided to come out on such a freezing day was also to test out a new attachable camera lens for the IPhone. The Sandmarc 16mm Wide Angle Lens which screws onto the back of the phone. I mainly intend to use this in situations which require a wide angle e.g. inside airplanes and buildings. But it performed surpisingly well here. It was especially good and reducing glare from the sun, which was pretty overpowering for the standard IPhone 13 camera.
Final Thoughts
Overall I think London City is one of the best airports to go plane spotting at. You can walk along the entire length of the runway so it doesn’t matter which direction planes are landing/taking off from, you can just walk there. Unlike other large airports like Heathrow you won’t get to see any widebodies here, but there are some unique aircraft which are rare at larger airports. For example the Dash 8, Embraer 190 and Airbus A220.
I just spent an hour watching as any longer and I would have started getting hypothermia, but there is plenty of activity here to make it worth your while. Even on a Saturday there was a constant stream of aircraft coming and going.
More from me…
Feel free to check out some of my other similar posts:
- No1 Lounge at Gatwick South Terminal – For great runway views
- Luxair flight from London City Airport to Luxembourg – For an experience of flying out of LCY
- Best Airlines in the World – If you want to find out which airlines I think are better than British Airways, read this…
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