Copyright SlashGear
Planespotting, otherwise known as aircraft spotting, is a lot like trainspotting but without the bleak Hollywood movie associations. The hobby involves watching airplanes take off and land. Some planespotters take photographs and videos, while others track and report aircraft movements. It can be a fun thing to do on a weekend once or twice or become a multifaceted hobby with a dedicated community. The hobby began during World War II when the United States government asked civilians to keep their eyes to the skies in search of enemy aircraft. At the time, watching the arrival and departure of airplanes, knowing how to recognize different types of planes, and tracking their movements were all wartime necessities. Once the war was over, some people kept doing it for fun. Planespotting can be as casual as watching and enjoying planes when they happen to fly overhead or as rigorous as hauling professional camera equipment around the country in search of planes to photograph. More likely, you fall somewhere in the middle, looking for a casual and comfortable place to see airplanes up close. Whether you're a veteran or just looking to try out planespotting for the first time, these five airports are must-see destinations. Los Angeles International Airport, commonly known by its airport code LAX, has a lot going for it. The weather is usually pretty nice, which is great for all kinds of activities, planespotting included, and it opens onto everything L.A. has to offer. The only major downside is that it's crowded, something that's true of the city at large and any popular planespotting sites. That said, those crowds are there for a reason: LAX has some great planespotting spots. Located about 16 miles from downtown L.A., LAX is one of the busiest airports in the world with hundreds of flights arriving and departing every day. Its position near the Pacific Ocean and its proximity to the global cultural hub of L.A. bring in flights from all over the globe. Included in the high traffic are more new-generation planes than at any other airport in North America. If you're looking to see an Airbus A380 or a Dreamliner, LAX is the place. Perhaps the most famous place to planespot is the In-N-Out located on Sepulveda Boulevard, just beyond Runway 24R. If you're willing to brave the crowds, you can watch the planes come in while enjoying a burger. Otherwise, Imperial Hill at the nearby Jim Clutter Park offers great views and wide open spaces. Gravelly Point is one of the most popular planespotting locations in the United States, and for good reason. Located within the George Washington Memorial Parkway, its close proximity to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport makes it an ideal place to watch incoming and outgoing aircraft. In fact, it's so popular among hobbyists that its utility for planespotting is the only fact listed about the site on the National Park Service website. Located on 860 acres, the National Airport opened in 1941 and has been expanded or updated several times since then. It originally had four runways, but one was closed and is now used for aircraft parking and as a taxiway. Fortunately, the closure didn't diminish the views from Gravelly Point. The National Airport is a short-haul airport with flights typically traveling no farther than 1,250 miles, with exceptions for a few major cities outside that perimeter. As a result, takeoffs and landings are relatively limited to about 60 per hour. But that's plenty for the relaxed tone of the grassy viewing arena. You can find Gravelly Point just north of the National Airport. You can get there on foot via the Mount Vernon Trail or by heading north on the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport opened in January 1974, complete with a 600-room hotel, shops, restaurants, and other amenities. Since then, DFW has grown dramatically, serving more than 70 million passengers each year. The airport flies to nearly 200 domestic destinations and 67 overseas locations. In addition to a dense flow of passenger planes, planespotters can also catch views of cargo aircraft taking off and landing. Positioned between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, DFW serves Texas, but it's also located between the coasts, serving as a common layover point on the way to somewhere else. It's the third-busiest airport in the world in terms of passengers and operations (takeoffs and landings), with seven runways spread over nearly 30 square miles. As a result, DFW has a lot of traffic with plenty of opportunities for planespotting. DFW has a designated planespotting area, which is great because many airports don't, and people can get weird about you filming planes. At Founders Plaza, planespotting is encouraged, so you can be confident you won't be harassed. You'll have great views of the planes, but because it's a designated space, it tends to get crowded. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport traces its history back to 1935, when the city bought the existing 285-acre Sky Harbor Airport for $100,000. In 1952, the airport added Terminal 1, and as the airport grew, a total of four terminals were built. In 1991, Terminal 1 was torn down, but the other terminals kept their existing numbers. Today, PHX has no Terminal 1. In 2024, PHX handled more than 52 million passengers and nearly half a million takeoffs and landings, offering lots of traffic for planespotters. The most popular place to planespot at PHX is the top level of the Terminal 4 parking garage. You can see both parts of the airport from up there, with additional views from the top of the Terminal 3 parking garage. Of course, it can get oppressively hot in Phoenix, particularly on the top of a parking garage, so be prepared with water, snacks, and appropriate clothing. Unlike many other airports around the country, PHX is perhaps best visited in winter. As an added bonus, if you happen to be flying through PHX, there are great views from the concourses in Terminals 3 and 4. Most airports have local art, small museum exhibits, or other forms of entertainment to fill the time between arrival and departure, but Dulles beats them all. The Udvar-Hazy Center is an annex of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum located at the airport. Planespotters favor the Observation Tower, which overlooks the airport, but that's just the beginning of what the center has to offer aviation enthusiasts. Calling Udvar-Hazy an annex undersells what it is. The center houses artifacts that are too large to display in other parts of the National Air and Space Museum. Those artifacts include aircraft (like the Concorde), spacecraft (like the Space Shuttle Discovery), and rockets. Two large hangars contain thousands of artifacts from the history of aviation and space exploration, including more than 200 aircraft and spacecraft. You can even watch museum staff restore artifacts in the Preservation and Restoration Hangar. Admission to the Udvar-Hazy Center is free, with a fee for parking before 4 p.m. At the time of writing, the center was temporarily closed due to a government shutdown. There are hundreds of airports spread all across the United States, facilitating more than 44,000 daily flights. Narrowing down to just five airports among so many options meant making some hard choices. In addition to communal knowledge from planespotting hobbyists, our list relies heavily on personal experience. SlashGear writers (myself included) have visited a wide variety of airports, both large and small, in the United States, often with time to spare and cameras on hand. While everyone has their favorite places, we can confidently say these five airports are must-see destinations if you love planes. The list also offers airports on both coasts and points in between. No matter where you are in the contiguous United States, there's a top-tier planespotting airport somewhere relatively nearby. Moreover, each of these airports is a gateway to popular travel destinations. You could build an entire trip around planespotting, but with all the other activities available in these cities, you won't have to.
