[ViajeroUK]

Two memorable airports come to mind,

BRR, Barra Island, Outer Hebrides. The ‘runway’ is actually on a beach on the Eastern side of the island, so flight schedules are dependent on high tide times. I travelled there on a BA liveried DH Twin Otter from Glasgow. Plenty of water on the sandy beach on landing which sprayed sides of cabin! The ‘terminal’ used to have an excellent small cafe, with delicious homemade cakes.

THS, Sukhothai, Thailand. Owned by Bangkok Airways, the terminal was on the theme of an African Safari Lodge, security staff were dressed in Safari style uniforms, khaki shorts and shirts with pith type helmets. Adjacent to the airport is a small zoo, including several species of African plains animals, I didn’t expect to see giraffes and zebras whilst walking to the over-size open sided golf buggy type shuttle to the aircraft. Single runway, aircraft have to park at one end, ‘terminal’ is approx midway point of the runway. As far as I know only Bangkok airways operates from this airport.

[GivingupBA]

I managed to visit three striking airports (striking for the South Pacific locations, not for the airports themselves) on one glorious trip in 2005: Tahiti then the nearby Moorea, then Easter Island. In my book Moorea, and Easter Island, were fantastic places.

[SimonS1]

[postquote quote=1094943]

Is that the one where it was rumoured that the King’s aircraft was on approach and the pilot of the emergency aircraft did not want to evacuate for fear of the consequences of a disruption?

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alainboy56

[GreenScot]

Great topic, @canuckland. It does make me think back to my childhood and growing up.

1) Lusaka – my actually earliest memory is of an airport when I was three years old, and my family were leaving Zambia. Strange to be the only memory I have of living there, but perhaps it was always predestined I would then spend so much of my life in airports.

1) Manama – such abiding memories from childhood and the lovely smell of jet fuel from the car park stay with me from there. We’d visit even when no flying in and out. You could go for a meal; you could plane watch too; I certainly remember seeing Concorde

3) Heathrow T3 – but only really in the early 80s, now it is my least favourite of Heathrow’s terminals. It was always the entry point and an exit point on trips back to the UK. So much time spent there, the excitement of getting on a place, and playing on the travelators with my siblings. Again I recall Concorde pulled up there; this was before they opened up T4. And alongside T5, pre-pandemic my second home in London.

4) Changi – it is those carpets at Changi that I always seem to remember. When I step through the plane door, I know I back in Singapore. I know I am back in the favourite place I ever lived, although I do curse a little when dragging my carryon over it as I walk up the jet bridge into whichever terminal.

5) Koh Samui – it is different and in a fun way. This airport is built as an open complex; you take an open-sided trolley bus from the departure gates to the plane, and at international gates, there is a kind bar shack which is a great and social place to hang out where you definitely feel like you are still on holiday and not at an airport.

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cwoodward, alainboy56, GivingupBA

[Poshgirl58]

With BHX my “local”, there’s been a gradual decline in spotting positions. Gone is the visitor centre (for “security” reasons, although it wasn’t financially viable). The spiral staircases outside the old terminal sealed off after 9/11. Now top floors of NCP carpark in that location also closed; no plausible reason. Spotting now discouraged from municipal golf course alongside Runway 33. Only remaining place is Runway 15 threshold. It’s a local authority area (Sheldon Country Park). Marston Green end has no “facilities”; Sheldon end has cafeteria. Both a long walk from runway. Excellent location when landings from north. When Elmdon Building was only terminal, can also remember upstairs cafe with excellent apron views. As long as you bought food/drink could stay nearly all day. Wardair used to operate 747 to Toronto (weekly?). Domestic baggage delivery was outside building in a “bus shelter”.

I write a blog for a spotters site and we were recently reminiscing about the demise of dedicated spotting facilities. Many remember LHR T2 roof terrace and Queens Building, although none admit to being in the attached picture.

Recently wrote about BKK Don Muang. Personal memories include landing at Zagreb on JAT (early 80s), tanks lining runway and armed soldiers patrolling terminal. Then old Athens airport where security was strange. If the alarm went off as you walked through, they ignored you. If it didn’t, then you got frisked. Not to mention the two Jordanians trying to board our Britannia flight to BHX.

Happy days!

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ViajeroUK, alainboy56

[ASK1945]

I suppose, like so many on this forum, I have been through very many airports throughout my life. I have been flying for 70 years and the number comes to over 120 (in over 60 countries) that I can recount – some massive (Schipol, Singapore, JFK etc etc) and some tiny, just airstrips.

I can’t remember what most were like – only those I have been through on a frequent basis. But one stands out in my mind, from 52 years later. I did a tour around East Africa in 1969, through Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It was arranged by American Express Holidays, who got together a group of disparate people from around the world and was a mixture of safari buses and small aircraft flights.

The airport in question was Pakuba at the Murchison Falls, just near Lake Albert in West Uganda close to the border with the Congo Republic. Then it ws just a hut and a grass strip. We were deposited there from our hotel (the Paraa Lodge) to return to Entebbe Airport at 0630, to await our return flight. Nobody was about, there was nowhere to sit and we just had to stand around in the sun. Cows, zebras and giraffes grazed on the airstrip. As we heard the incoming flight approaching, from nowhere local villagers started arriving and using poles shooed the animals from the airstrip. One villager, wearing a semblance of a uniform, arrived, opened up the “terminal” and produced a set of bathroom scales. He weighed each suitcase and made a note of each one.

The plane landed (it was empty) and the cases were distrubuted around everywhere around the cabin, to equalise the weight. We took off without incident.

This picture is not from then. It’s as the “airport” is today.The only discernible change is that there appear to be solar panels on the roof, and the runway is no longer grass – but it is unpaved.

PS: the whole two-week tour, including all the internal flights, hotels, jeeps and transfers, but excluding the flights from/to the UK, cost £288.

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fatbear, cwoodward, Montysaurus, alainboy56, PeterCoultas, SimonS1

[Kopite]

Manila T1 in the early 1980’s they has a local band playing live in the terminal to welcome everyone on arrival.

Once on my arrival at NAIA there was a “brown out” (sic) with all power lost, no lights, no fans, no aircon and no luggage belt operating. No immigration computers working either. I was there 5 hours as labourers brought luggage up the beltways by hand literally hundreds of cases. Standing around in sweltering heat with no aircon nor fans. Toilets were atrocious but the welcome band played on.

It’s still the worst ‘capital city’ aiport in Asia MNL T1.

[Kopite]

@AMcWhirter – I also landed in Dubai (in 1977) at the old DXB terminal with only 4 gates, no air bridges and the 4 spiral ramps which you had to access by walking from the plane steps and across the tarmac and then walking up the spiral ramps to the terminal and immigration. See file attached.

That was a hot walk in June 1977 for me 40c and humid.
Thank goodness for the bar at the original Dubai Intercontinental 5* Hotel where cold Amstel or Heineken awaited.

BA were using Bahrain as their main transit point London to the Far East so were Cathay Pacific.
Singapore Airlines flying 707’s were one of Dubai’s early adopters as a transit point and also BCal I think ex Gatwick used DXB as a transit hub.

Gulf Air’s 5 Star Tristar was the airline of choice for many.

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Jacob, alainboy56

[alainboy56]

@Kopite

As I mentioned earlier yes the old DXB was a wonderful little place.
Just as an anecdote, I remember on one occasion coming from MCT to DXB in the mid 80s for a days business both legs by L-1011 as was the norm’ with GF in those days.
My return flight was not until late night, so having finished my business went to ‘your’ aforementioned InterCon’ Bar which was actually called ‘The Pub’, (great name for a bar, just like the ‘Ally Pally Pub’ in a certain Abu Dhabi Hotel), and on the 1st floor if my memory serves me correct.
So I arrived at the door, where there was big burly Indian sirdar chap, and coming from Muscat where we all had to have by law, a licence issued by the Royal Oman Police which enable us to purchase alcohol at the Govt stores and/or at any Hotel Bar/Outlet, so I tentatively and apologetically told him I didn’t have a licence as I was from Oman, but was there any chance I could have a beer. I can still hear his belly laugh to this day, as he stood aside, welcomed me inside and said ‘Sir, this bar is for you’

BTW isn’t that picture from a little later, perhaps 1985, as the B727 in the foreground I believe is of EK, and as I mentioned above in an earlier contribution, this airframe was donated from the Dubai Ameri flight.
Also, I am not aware of how it was with BA in 1977, but certainly in the early 80s the stopping route for BA was MCT, as the Aussie routes coming up through SIN came thro MCT early morning. However, none of us used to fly with BA, as the aircraft a B747, was full of sleeping half undressed pax and not at all a welcoming sight.
GF was the more optimal way to get to UK and some smart marketing chap decided to schedule a MCT-LHR non-stop sector on a Thursday night (during the week it would stop maybe 3 times at either AUH, DOH and/or BAH and also even CDG). Bare in mind, the gulf working week in those days, ended at Thursday lunchtime.
To be welcomed aboard a fresh and sweet smelling luxurious 5* Lockheed L-1011 on GF037 was a much better option than those rather bedraggled B747s of BA.

[ViajeroUK]

Poshgirl58, BHX is also my ‘local’, your comments stirred some memories, especially my plane-spotting days at Elmdon. I was there when the last BEA Dakota flight slid off the runway whilst landing, which I think was 1960? I also ‘spotted’ at LAP, before it was called Heathrow, sure that I am not in your picture though. Travelled there and back by hitch-hiking which was very easy and popular at the time, many truck drivers seemed to welcome a passenger to make their M1 journey less boring.

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Poshgirl58

[AMcWhirter]

@Kopite Yes that photo of the former DXB terminal brings back old memories !

That terminal was still in use until the late 1980s.

As for BAH it was also used by SIA (before it transferred to DXB) and QF (who remained loyal to BAH for its LHR-SIN transit stop).

I never did get to fly with GF’s “Five star Tristar.” But the reason why it was so spacious from 1975 was simply because GF thought it could never fill the capacity increase (after having operated VC-10s).

Therefore GF kept the seat count low. It meant GF had space to include a stand-up bar even in economy class and this is something I believe no other airline has done (for economy class). There was no business class at that time so GF’s Tristars were first and economy only.

Prior to the Tristar the largest aircraft in GF’s inventory was the Standard VC-10 (not the larger Super VC-10).

At that time GF was mentored (or managed) by BOAC.

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alainboy56

[Bob19]

Next to the obvious ones – HKG Kai Tak, SIN Changi, BKK – for all the reasons already mentioned, I also do remember the days when in many airports you would walk to the plane… with the ever present smell of kerosene all around… and the noise!

BRU (my home airport): the “stylish” terminal from the 60/70’s with that long balustrade where you could waive goodbye and still talk/shout to departing passengers, you could even throw something at passengers down in the transit area, it was completely open! Eventually sealed off with glass windows in the 80’s if I remember correctly. And all along the bay windows there were thousands of birds chirping that could clearly be heard in the terminal.

HNL: the aloha girls down the stairs with the welcome lei’s

CDG: the horrible T1 that was so “futuristic” and emblematic back in the 70’s

OOL (Coolangatta/Gold Coast): open terminal with the tropical breeze blowing through it. 10 min tops from checkin to plane staircase. Back then a small domestic airport

BEY in the 60/70’s: all luggage was x-rayed before even entering the terminal (as was the case in most Middle-East airports at that time). The same terminal was still in use in the 90’s, by then a run-down decrepit place.

AMM in 75 or 76: the opening of the new airport was delayed, and the whole affair happened in army barracks, in the desert heat.

DXB also in the 60/70’s: who could then envision the 2021 version?

[canucklad]

[quote quote=1094710]Edinburgh Turnhouse at the time when BUA broke BEA’s domestic monopoly on the London route with BAC 1-11 jets. Back then BEA deployed vibration-ridden Vanguards on the route from LHR and it located first class at the back and away from the cacophony in the main cabin. At that time BUA brought a breath of fresh air to Turnhouse. Back then the terminal had a temporary feel. And often there would only be a single aircraft on the tarmac.[/quote]

[quote quote=1094759]Bangkok Don Muang – golf course in the middle of the two runways – just a brilliant idea and what could go wrong![/quote]

@ Bob CDG: the horrible T1 that was so “futuristic” and emblematic back in the 70’s

A couple of airports not mentioned in my original comment

EDI – Now my local airport , back then known as Turnhouse (now the cargo area) very vague Vanguard memories . Big windows and red wings as I recall , then again I was a lot smaller. Most memorable part of the airport was the Spitfire outside the terminal .
Never really used EDI back in the day until Air Anglia used to fly EDI to AMS . Had to traipse through to GLA to catch the KLM DC-9 ‘s with smoking allowed on one side of the aircraft and non-smoking on the other side.

BKK – As a golfer I’d have loved to have played on it, but suspect pilots would love otherwise , considering my drives are more erratic than a drunken women trying on stilettos on an ice rink
The new airport will now hold a memorable place in my heart – No doubt the last time I’ll ever have flown a 747 was the Cathay flight back to HK

CDG -T1 – After Scotland beat France I tried my luck with 2 pals to get into the Star Alliance lounge with my gold card (not entitled as I was flying with Baby) the SIA bedecked lass smiled at our kilts and hungover faces jokingly refused and then treated almost as if we were had presented her SIA FC boarding passes.

[cwoodward]

Yes we have done this before but I couldn’t resist…..

1) Kai Tak 1973. Having been amazed at the decent through the apartment buildings and the slender runway surrounded by water I arrived in Hong Kong for the first of several hundred of times. Very small apron in those days and to get to the terminal the narrow taxiway passed immediately adjacent to the infamous “Kai Tak nullah” that instantly filled the plane with the most god awful stink of the most rotten drains imaginable. It was truly disgusting and a smell unique to Hong Kong. They sorted it out over the years but even 20 years later the more refined version still welcomed you to Hong Kong. I loved Kai Tak and in the eighties I was flying in and out 5 or 6 times a week on the CX Tristar mostly from around Asia. Cathay was a small airline in those days and I knew almost the staff, the customs people and many of the pilots well and often as I wanted had the privilege of landing in the jump seat as we came in through the apartment blocks. I was normally the first off and first bag and on a good day home to Yau Yat Chuen in about 20 minutes. Halcyon days, it takes me about 70 minutes from the new airport.

2) Wellington NZ. Always windy often with horizontal rain back in the eighties I was flying in from a factory visit in Palmerton North on a Fokker Friendship 100 when half way the pilot announced that we needed to make an unscheduled landing in order to pick up a seriously ill patient that needed urgently to get to hospital in Wellington. We descended towards a grass runway at Paraparaumu Airport after doing a circuit to disperse the cattle grazing close to the runway. The patents were a large unconscious sheep dog and (presumably) the farmer owner. This was seemingly was not an unusual occurrence as no one blinked an eye the dog and owner were settled in the row behind me and we proceeded normally on to Wellington.

3) Taoyuan International Airport Taiwan. In 1979 I had a Cathay flight out of Tokyo to Taipei and on to Hong Kong – it also happened to be the opening day of this new airport which replaced the old down town Songshan airport which had served the city since 1936. The new airport was located about 40k from the city. The Tristar landed normally and we taxied to a sparkling new airbridge -the first tristate to use the airport. Problem the airbridge would not reach the exit door – short by about 3 feet. A long story short, huge embarrassment all round, two hour delay, bar reopened, 3 planks lashed together to bridge the gap. (apparently no mobile steps high enough ether).

I could go on for pages but probably enough is enough.

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ASK1945, SimonS1, Frederic, alainboy56

[Poshgirl58]

ViajeroUK, not sure about BEA Dakota, was about five years later I started spotting.

This topic can generate lots of BHX memories. The “Irish takeover” during Cheltenham Festival. An EI 747 allegedly taking out a number of airbridge windows when taxying because it wasn’t pushed back far enough. Doug Ellis (late Aston Villa Chairman & travel agent) manning check-in desks for his package holiday flights. The Jersey European 146s landing on the short runway (06/24).

On the spotters website, we often revisit blog topics like this one. Do any of the contributors here object to me using your memories in future articles? I do not receive payment. You would be identified by your username in the acknowledgment, but if you prefer to remain anonymous then please let me know. Membership is worldwide so could also stir memories of DXB in its early days or landings at Kai Tak. Thanks.

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ViajeroUK, alainboy56

[Author]

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