Spotting Report: The Second, No Less Interesting Day at Miami Airport

Spotting Report: Miami International Airport, United States

After a very successful first day of spotting on my recent trip to Miami, my thinking went along the lines of “whatever I get on the second and third day will be a nice bonus.”

It turned out that the second day was no less successful than the first day, and in spite of the weather reports, the sun stayed out for large part of the day again allowing me to catch even more aircraft I have never seen before.

Same as on the first day, after breakfast at the hotel, I walked over to the “El Dorado” spot. However, even after twenty minutes there, there was not a single movement on runway 9. Then, after checking NOTAMs, I realized the runway was closed. As such, I ordered Uber, and went to “the holes” along the northern runways.

A Morning at ‘the Holes’

Even though I only spent about one hour at the spot, the results were, once again, great.

In that hour, I was able to get a LATAM 787, a Tampa Cargo A330F, and an Eastern Air Lines 737-800 lining up on runway 12. ..I just can’t get enough of the Eastern Air Lines livery – it looks amazing on the 737!

Eastern Air Lines 737

Eastern Air Lines 737-800 lining up on runway 9.
Tampa A330

Tampa Cargo A330 freighter.

LATAM 787-9.

Besides that, there were quite a few interesting aircraft departing from the parallel runways 8L and 8R including an Aerolineas Argentinas A340, FedEx MD-10, and TAM 777-300.

FedEx MD-10

FedEx MD-10.
Aerolineas Argentinas A340

Aerolineas Argentinas A340-300.
TAM 773

TAM Brasil 777-300.

There were also some landings, although nothing too notable – mainly American Airlines aircraft and an Eastern Air Lines 737-800. Similarly, there were also some departures of the usual US airlines.

American 737

American Airlines 737-800.
Frontier A320

Frontier A320-200.
United 737

United Airlines 737-800.
Delta 737

Delta Air Lines 737-800.

The last movement that I got at the spot was the departure of Avior’s A340-300 to Barcelona. Not the Spanish city, but a city with the same name in Venezuela – it confused me a bit at first! That A340 was definitely one of the top 3 highlights of the trip for me.

Avior A340

Avior A340-300 – one of the highlights of the trip.

A Sidetrip to Fort Lauderdale

Just as the Avior A340 was lining up, the two German spotters I had met the day before arrived from Fort Lauderdale to catch it. I joined them, and we headed back to El Dorado given that runway 9 was back in use.

However, since the traffic was going to be mainly a repetition of the previous day, we decided to go to Fort Lauderdale to catch an Air Transat A310 and to add a bit of variety into the spotting trip. (Thanks for the ride!)

I will post a separate post about Fort Lauderdale, and so let’s go back to Miami.

An Afternoon at ‘El Dorado’

After some time in Fort Lauderdale, we decided to drive back to Miami as there was a Wamos 747 heading there operating for Air Berlin. When we got to Miami, we first stopped by for a lunch. At this time, it was cloudy, and even periodically raining.

As such, we were about to give up on photographing the Wamos 747. Luckily, the sun came out, and so we got to catch the aircraft at El Dorado.

Wamos 747

A nice surprise – Wamos 747-400 – arriving from Berlin on behalf of Air Berlin.

I stayed at the spot for the rest of the day. While the cloudy moments were more frequent than on the first day, I was still able to catch plenty of new aircraft with sunshine. Later in the day, it even resulted in some shots with a dramatic dark sky, as the northern side of the airport was dark while the sun was shining on aircraft landing on runway 9.

Some of the new South American additions to my “sunny collection” included Aerolineas Argentinas and Avianca A330 in new colors and a 737 of Surinam Airways. The last time I saw Surinam Airways before that was almost ten year ago in Amsterdam when they still had their gorgeous 747-300!

Avianca A330

Avianca A330-200.
Aerolineas Argentinas A330

Aerolineas Argentinas A330-200.
Surinam Airways 737

Surinam Airways 737-300.

As for the airlines from Europe, I was able to get TAP Portugal and Alitalia A330 in new colors, as well as Lufthansa’s A340-600. That day, Qatar Airways 777-300 landed on runway 9 as well.

TAP Portugal A330

TAP Portugal A330-200.

Alitalia A330-200.

Lufthansa A340-600.

Qatar Airways 777-300.

Finally, there was of course the US traffic as well, however, that was virtually identical to the day before. …except for some of the dramatic light!

American Airlines landing with a dramatic dark skies and “windy” palms in the background – just what I imagined Miami to look like!

Overall, the second day was great again – besides the side trip to Fort Lauderdale, I was also able to catch some more traffic at Miami in sunlight. And the non-regular Wamos 747 operating for Air Berlin was a nice very bonus.

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