Curacao Hato Airport
| Continent: Central America and Caribbean | Country: Netherlands | Region: Netherlands Antilles |
| Hato Airport | |
| Location | Willemstad, Curacao |
| IATA code | CUR |
| ICAO code | TNCC |
| Airport type | Mixed-Use |
| Website | [ ] |
| Overview map | [ ] |
| Communications | |
| Tower | 118.3 |
| Ground | |
| Clearance | |
| Approach | 119.6 |
| ATIS | |
Official Spotting Locations
MIRADOR SPOTTING LOCATION
The best spotting location by far is the "Mirador". This place is located behind the new airport passenger terminal. The Mirador used to be much bigger but it was broken down to make room for parking lot of the new airport terminal but there is still a part there where you can park your car. The Mirador is located right next to the road that goes to the airport. When you leave the airport terminal you have to go to the left to go up the hill. When you are going up the hill you will see a blue traffic sign with an arrow to the left. Here you will see that the road originally went to the left. This used to be the parking area for the Mirador but the road is broken down but with part of the road still there to be used as parking space. You can recognize this location by the white/red drums. When you come from the other direction of the road the Mirador is to your right of course. In this case you have to pass the main airport entrance which is clearly visible by the orange wall with the airport name on it in big letters. When you have passed this entrance the road will go up again and when you have reached the top of this hill you will see the Mirador on your right with the white/red drums. Don't drive to fast here, otherwise you will miss the Mirador and you will have to drive all the way down the hill to turn again. The best way to reach the Mirador is by coming from the direction of the main airport entrance. The airport police will not stop you at the Mirador as many local people park their cars here to watch aircraft arriving and departing.
See below photos for an impression on what you get from this location:
Other Spotting Locations
TOP OF THE HILL BEHIND "THE MIRADOR"
Another less popular location is the top of the hill behind the airport. You will need at least a 300mm lense to photograph from here and only widebody aircraft give you good results from this location as it is far away from the airport. Even so, this location does offer you a very nice view of the entire airport so very nice airport overview photos can be taken from here. The disadvantage is that it is not always safe here I was told. It is also a bit messy so when walking up the hill you will have to walk over the garbage unfortunately. A good thing about this location however, is the aircraft fly right over your head before arrival. See a photo below:
You can recognize this location by the Aerodrome located on the same hill. When you drive up the hill coming from the Mirador, you will you are at the right spot when you see the Aerodrome building.
See one photo in below link:
As mentioned above, you must have at least a 300mm lense from this location to get nice shots of widebody aircraft taking off or arriving.