ANA Flight NH245 Trip Report mentioned a business trip to Fukuoka. Actually, after disembarking, I still managed to squeeze in some time to look around the airport. Where did I go? Naturally, the rooftop observation deck.

The airport map is shown below. The Domestic Terminal is at the top of the map, which is east of the Runway, and the International Terminal is at the bottom, which is west of the Runway. It is worth noting that Fukuoka Airport only has a single north-south Runway 16/34.

The observation deck on the Domestic Terminal is located approximately between gates H6 and H7, facing directly towards the threshold of RWY16, making it perfect for watching takeoffs and landings. The JA8324 I had just flown on was right beneath my feet, so I decided to take a souvenir photo.

Inside the observation deck, there is a small exhibition hall introducing the history of Fukuoka Airport and some aviation knowledge. It turns out that Japan’s first Passenger Boarding Bridge (PBB) was at Fukuoka Airport, not Tokyo. That’s a new piece of knowledge. To help visitors identify aircraft, the logos of all airlines flying to Fukuoka are displayed on the observation deck. It turns out that planes from 35 different companies can be seen here. Among them, 12 are domestic Japanese airlines, and 23 are international. Major airlines from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea are all visible.

Looking south, you can see that gates 9 to 16 are basically full of domestic flights, Jetstar and Peach A320s, JAL, ANA, and Solaseed Air B737s, ANA Bombardier DHC-8, Fuji Dream Airlines ERJ170, IBEX Airlines CRJ700—basically all small aircraft. Of course, the aircraft JAL and ANA bring in from Haneda are relatively larger; 767s, 777s, and 787s are all present.

Looking straight ahead, a JAL B777 waiting at E3 and a Peach Aviation A320 on landing approach, Another Peach Aviation A320 about to take off. Interestingly, I saw the words “Momotaro-ben” on a logistics company building in the background. So, I took a photo of the Peach aircraft and Momotaro together.

To the front left, you can also see the ILS glide slope antenna. By coincidence, two ANA B737-500s with the dolphin livery appeared at the same time. This was also a rare shutter opportunity.

The EVA Air Hello Kitty Jet “SPEED PUFF” that I saw last year at Kansai Airport has met again in Fukuoka, It’s great that a small point-and-shoot camera can capture this kind of result.

An hour later, the ANA 787 from Haneda also arrived, Actually, most of my colleagues attending the Fukuoka meeting were on this flight. So I put away my camera, took the subway to Hakata Station, and went to meet my colleagues.