Vancouver International Airport
| Continent: North America | Country: Canada | Region: British Columbia |
| Location | Richmond, BC |
| IATA code | YVR |
| ICAO code | CYVR |
| Airport type | Commercial |
| Website | http://www.yvr.ca |
| Overview map | [1] |
| Communications | |
| Tower | 119.55 (North) + 118.7 (South) |
| Ground | 127.15 (N) + 121.7 (S) |
| Clearance | 121.4 |
| Approach | |
| ATIS | |
Official Spotting Locations
Russ Baker Way
The only official location is a park off Russ Baker Way under the apporach to 26L. This runway is primarily used for airline departures and private aircraft. All movements can be logged from here with decent optics, but photography is limited.
To the north of this place is the Institute of Technology in which you can log WestJets' B-737-200 C-GWJT.
Other Spotting Locations
Templeton Street
Best location if you want to take airborne shots of the arriving aircraft as most landings are on 26R. You will only miss a few landing aircraft (the bizzjets + freighters + about 2/3 of the flights going to the south terminal = local Props).
How to get there: 1) By car: Left at the second traffic light from the airport (15-20 minutes walk). You will see many cars parked on a dirt track beside the road. The subjects are a bit high and the smaller types (Dash-8 etc.) will require a long lens (about 400mm on a fullformat sensor).
2) By foot: The "Templeton" stop of the Canada-Line Sky Train is a 2min walk from this location and on a rainy day you might even stay and hide from the rain in this stop, but it's tricky to keep the lightpoles out of the picture).
You won't be able to log or even see the departures which always use 26L.
"Avis" Lot
The most desirable location if you want to take pictures and have the coastal mountains as the background. This is the first turn left out of the airport by the blast screens. Excellent photos over the fence and all 08L/26R movements can be seen. However (there had to be one didn't there ?), the businesses on this road are private property and not very tolerant. You can get lucky and be left alone for hours or be unlucky and thrown out immediately. Worth the gamble though.
Requires a ladder due to the fence.
South Terminal
This is on the other (South) side of the airport from the main terminal and there is a parking lot which overlooks the ramp and the rather distant 08R/26L runway. Good for logging as everything at Vancouver passes this location sooner or later, and there are reasonable photographic opportunities through the fence.
Floatplanes come and go on the Fraser River to the S. of the small terminal, and most of the aircraft parked on the ramps can be logged and some photographed by walking around.
There is a free shuttle bus connecting the south terminal to the main terminal.
East of the South Terminal is a "boneyard" in which some older Pacific Coastal and a Quebecair SF-340s + a SH-360 are stored engineless but in full colors (as of Sep. 2009).
Ferguson Road
When arrivals are on 08L, a long drive from the airport via Templeton Road (above) will eventually lead to a small gravel pull-off at the seashore and close to the threshold. All arrivals as well as those using runway 12 can be logged and photographed although the location faces South and so is best in the early morning/late evening in the summer. Also along Ferguson Road past the UPS facility there is a raised hill area. Good to photograph on sunny summer evenings when the airport is landing west.
Main Terminal
Only ticketed passengers are allowed on the concourses. There are two 'public' locations from which the action can be watched, but not satisfactorily photographed. On the main floor by the entrance to the C gates are a few chairs facing the window. In the basement food court there are tables and chairs with a somewhat constricted view.
Just follow the "Observation Area" signs. The location is facing west.
If you are just logging airplanes without photographing this might be the ideal location for you as all landings of 26R will have to pass by here in order to get to 26L for takeoff and you can read of the registrations of all departing aircraft (use 26L). If you're taking pictures it might only be of interest as a refuge on a (frequent) rainy day but even then I personally would prefer the Templeton Stop of the Canada Line (see "Templeton Road" comment).
Locations to Avoid
Multi-storey car park
Anyone spotting from the top floor is visible to the control tower, with predictable results.
Regular Traffic
Mostly Air Canada (all types) + Air Canada Jazz (based there) + WestJet + Pacific Coastal Airlines (based there) and a few more interesting airplanes (Air North, Enerjet, Central Mountain Air, Northern Thunderbird Air, Cargojet etc). Of course all the main US airlines are coming to YVR as well (except Southwest) which make up about 10-15% of the traffic, I would guess.
Longrange: Many AC B-767s + some of their A330s + B-777s + some asian (e.g. JAL, China Eastern, China Airlines, EVA, Philippines) and european (2 x BA, LH, KL)longrange flights are coming in daily. Some charter flights only operate during the summer and only on certain days (e.g. Condor, Thomas Cook (both GB + Scandinavian).
Facilities and Transportation
The SkyTrains Canada Line connects the airport with downtown (26min ($2.50) to Waterfront Stop which is next to the Sea Plane Port which has quite a lot of traffic but the registrations (approx. 20 different) start to repeat after about 2 hours).
There are some busses as well.
The South Terminal is connected to the main Terminal by a shuttle bus.