Aircraft (Gallery)
The aircraft presented in this section are all operating at Birmingham International Airport (BHX) located at Elmdon, near Solihull, Birmingham. At the time of writing BHX is the origin for 310 departures per week travelling to 150 destinations. The single runway has recently been extended by 400m to 3003m overall, which accommodates the largest airliners, including the Airbus A380.
Birmingham International is the 7th largest airport in the UK, and 12,639,340 passengers used the airport in 2019. A single runway (33/15) is used at BHX which equates to NNW to SSE, which is normally used in a S to N direction with the approach typically routed over Warwick to the airport.
At one time there was a viewing facility close to the top of the BHX terminal building but this has long been closed, probably for security reasons. Access to either end of the BHX runway is straightforward and provides good locations for photography. The best time to visit is 11am to 3pm which is usually the busiest time of the day and enables the Emirates A380 to be photographed on arrival and departure, as well as a good selection of other aircraft. Shooting aircraft images is a “one off shot” and the photographer needs to be alert and proactive to get quality images. It’s a good photographic exercise, as well as being a enthralling subject.
