Streaming live from airports and airfields has become massively popular in recent years and judging by the numbers watching them, it’s not hard to see why.
Watching a live stream is a great way to see what’s going on at another airport without having to travel but they do vary in quality and, let’s say “enthusiastic commentary” can often spoil it for many.
So here are our favourite top 5 UK and top 5 worldwide streams for you to check out.
The UK
Simon Lowe Aviation broadcasts live from Manchester Airport on Tuesdays and Saturdays and offers a high-quality stream showing movements around the airport as well as take-offs and landings. Simon does all this with minimal commentary to “let the planes do the talking” as he says.
Like many of the streams featured it is free to view but you can help the channel out with subscriptions and “gifts” via social media.
FlightFocus 365 is a new stream to the market and uses an AI Robocam to allow it to stream from dawn til dusk 365 days a year. Its first stream is at London Heathrow Airport which is currently under test but viewable. It offers 4K resolution and HD Sound.
Flight Focus 365 aims to install cameras at many airports around the world.
Airliners Live is another stream from Manchester Airport which streams on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. this high-quality stream focuses on arrivals and departures from the airport as well as succinct commentary, chat, and interaction via its channels.
Airlines Live also has a dedicated aviation channel where special content is produced talking about aviation as well as a dedicated flight sim channel too.
SDTV is an aviation live stream that covers multiple airports, particularly London Gatwick, Stansted and London City Airports. The channel offers high-quality streams and interaction via its chat windows on Youtube.
They also venture out to European airports for special streams.
Airport Action covers Birmingham Airport and offers a fun friendly family-run stream giving high-quality footage of the goings on at Birmingham. It doesn’t advertise fixed days for streams but does broadcast on a regular basis so subscribe and get notified.
They do occasionally venture to other airports including London Heathrow.
Rest of the World
Sierra Bravo TV is the channel if you like freighters! Covering Louisville Airport in the USA, Home of UPS Worldport this stream features freighters from A300’s through to MD11s and 747s. Sam offers insight and commentary on the goings on at the airport as well as interaction with viewers.
Madeira Airport Spotting offers perhaps one of the most unique locations for an aviation stream in Europe with the view of the sweeping approach into Funchal which is always a challenge for pilots, especially on windy days. Their high-quality stream operates most days and there is great interaction with the loyal following of this channel.
Helsinki Spotting is the one for those looking for some cold-weather action! Covering Helsinki Vantaa airport, home of Finnair, this channel streams twice weekly showing the operations at Helsinki and in winter months, often covering the deicing procedures to show something different from the normal streams.
Reverse Ops is the opposite of Helsinki Spotting offering a look at the goings on at Hawaii’s Honolulu International. Blue skies and sunshine are almost guaranteed on this stream with a mixture of Civilian and Military traffic featuring in the shows. Streams happen on Mondays and Saturdays.
Wellington Flights Live as you might expect covers Wellington Airport in New Zealand offering a high-quality stream from what is often a very windy airport! There are no fixed streaming days advertised but streams seem to happen every few days so as with the others, subscribe and get notified when they go live.
Show some love
Whichever stream you choose remember they do this with often little or no budget and often aren’t commercial operations so if you are enjoying a stream, be sure to help them out in any way you can.
Do you have a favourite stream? let us know in the comments.
I tune into SDTV most days they are live, have to say I’ve watched others but none come close to the dedication and enthusiasm the host Chris has and the live chat is great, give it a try and no I don’t work nor do I have anything to do with the running of the stream
Sydsquad live from Sydney Kingsford Smith is my go to with Kurt, Tim and cargo Charlie, in addition to a great show the profits from the little wings merch in their store is donated to charity, can’t go wrong!
Will be sure to check it out.
Im an Airliners live supporter i love getting involved with the community chat as it covers a wide spectrum of conversations from food to health and of course aviation, its a real family feel and great company. The lads Martin and Andy are the friendliest guys and really wellcome the viewers in. I also tune into Simon Lowe Aviation when Airliners Live arent streaming and enjoy Simons show although its completely a different vibe, he is a great cameraman and is always happy to stay longer to catch anything of interest specially when the Emirates 380 is late he will always wait so his viewers can see the departure or arrival.
A great airport webcam worth mentioning would be the series of cameras at Zurich Kloten Airport (ZRH). There are different vantage points to choose from including the E pier, a maintenance hangar and even one near the geographic center of the airfield. The cameras pan around automatically even feature an interface that gives the viewer the ability to remotely control the camera online from anywhere in the world including zoom, and even taking still shots of whatever is in the frame.
Sierra Bravo TV is a fantastic stream for the cargo and old style aviation enthusiasts! MD-11’s and 747’s all the time as well as A300’s B 757’s and 767’s. Close up action with a great host!
From Phoenix AZ you have Sky Ops Live….usually on at Sundays.
From Manchester Think Planes
From Sydney..Sydsquad
and several from the LAX area
My personal preference is for a stream that integrates with the comments in the chat, that is more of a “Family” group, so technical info is interlaced with general aviation comments, food discussions, and friendly banter, without the constant “Buy our merch” being rammed down our throats every 5 minutes. My ‘Go-To’ stream from Manchester is ‘Think Planes’. Simon & Lizz regularly provide a brilliant livestream (& Lizz is getting better at pronouncing NZ Maori words).
‘Sydsquad’ for Australia (they recently did an extended 3-day stream of the Gold Coast airshow)
For New Zealand, Kevin at ‘Wellington Flights Live’, (often with Romeo to keep us amused between plane movements). His streams are always worth watching on windy days (which is common for Wellington, hence building the control tower on a lean!). His recent stream catching an emergency landing & evacuation of an ATR caught a lot of media attention.