But, as typical, in the Terminal all prices are super inflated. The best option to save some money is to go to the coffeeshops, restaurants or supermarkets around the airport and buy everything you need. There is also a huge Shopping Center named “Mar Shopping” around 4 kilometers southwest of the airport (less than 10 minutes driving), where almost everything is available.

Winter is mild and rainy; however, long periods with mild temperatures and sunny days may also be frequent. The relatively high annual precipitation is concentrated in the Winter months.

Summer is warm and dry; however, cool and rainy days can occasionally interrupt the dry season. But the particular area where the airport is located has a kind of microclimate and can be pretty unstable due to the humidity. Fog is a pretty often sight, can (dis)appear very quickly and it can also last all day, in worst cases a succession of days, non-stop. Porto is the Portuguese airport with most LVO days per year.

RWY 17: This is used when the wind blows predominantly from South and in case of low visibility operations (LVO), no matter the wind, because it’s the only one equipped with ILS (up to CAT II). Since there isn’t any parallel taxiway till the beginning of the runway, the traffic which is not able to depart from intersection Foxtrot, has to perform backtrack, leading to a drastic reduction of the hourly capacity to less than 10 movements per hour…
Update: As of October 2018, extension works of taxiway Foxtrot are in progress, which will allow an increase of movements processed per hour.

RWY 35: is used when the wind blows predominantly from North and is the preferred runway for operational reasons due to the poor layout of the airport, being way more used than 17.

UPDATE: As of October 2018, this spot is currently very limited as the hill won’t be no longer accessible soon and the road will close on December 2018 due to taxiway Foxtrot extension works. The taxiway will be extended until next to the Firefighting Department and therefore the tunnel which crosses the runway will be also extended. At this time, the best alternative is to use the Spot #2. So far, the future of this area for spotting conditions after the works are finished is still uncertain. The works should be concluded in the Summer of 2019.

By car from the Terminal you will take just between 5 to 10 minutes to reach it and you can park your car in the other side of the road, there are plenty of parking space. It’s also possible to reach this place by feet, it will take more or less 15 to 20 minutes depending of your walking speed.

In this spot you can also photograph all the traffic on both runways (17-35), but mind that the distance to the runway centerline is bigger than you had in the spot 1 (around 330m instead of 195m of the spot 1).

In all the area you will shoot through the fence and sometimes the grass is not cut (see the example), so we recommend to bring a ladder.

If you want to get some good close-ups at Foxtrot, Summer is the most recommendable season of the year because in the Winter you start to get backlit at around 09:00.

The nearest coffeehouse is 240m far (around 3 minutes walking) but there is not too much in terms of snacks, so we recommend you to bring all you need. Regarding lunch, this shop serves low cost meals but you don’t have great variety.

You have some other coffeehouses and restaurants close to the airport, as well as gas stations.

It’s up to you!

If you are driving, plenty of free parking spots can be found there along the roadside, although in some periods of the day, a lot of airport staff park their cars in that place, so it may be difficult to find an available one.

From this spot you’ll be able to photograph airplanes parked on those remote stands and also taxiing traffic to the active runway. Normally the goal of this spot if to shoot aircraft parked on stands S20-S40 which normally arrive during the night (or during a period when you can’t be at the airport) and that is the only way to capture them. Shooting for stands S60-S66 is possible but not a good option due to the distance.

For all aircraft parked on the remote stands (S20 to S66), light is good all day in the peak of Winter and acceptable until 16:00 in the peak of Summer. Regarding heat haze, it can be a problem especially from stand S40 onwards and naturally it gets stronger as the distance increases. Overall, it’s pretty acceptable on the coolest seasons but you won’t get any good shot in the warmest ones…

Mind that there is the risk of having any kind of clutter in front of your “target”, such as stairs, airport vehicles or even another aircraft. The fence is tight but perfectly OK for 55mm diameter lenses. Some holes may be slightly expanded, so you won’t face any problem with 77mm lenses as well. You can bring your ladder if you want, and also the tripod for night shots. All stands have good artificial light but you’ll note that the aircraft will be better lit in the nose than in the tail… Nothing which you can’t improve with a good edition.

If you have a car, you have various solutions to park it, but the best of them are paid. If you intend to perform a very short visit just to catch something and leave, you may be able to park the car in the Cargo Terminal zone as it’s an area of pick-up/drop-off cargo. However, Police passes often and the possibility of penalties are not discarded… Act at your own risk.

Also free of charge you have “Rua da Caralinda”, in front of a Primary School (location marked in the map) where parking spots are normally available. From there, you have to walk about 5 minutes until you reach the Staff Parking P5.

Finally you have the paid (and safest) options: Airport Parking P4 just in front of the Cargo Terminal where you pay 0,60€ per each 15 minutes up to a maximum of 8,00€ per day – 2 minutes walking to reach P5 – and Airport Parking P1 in front of the Passenger Terminal where you pay 0,70€ per each 15 minutes up to a maximum of 10,00€ per day.

S55 – just in front of the parking and where some A124 and B747-400F are parked as this stand is one of the few in OPO able to handle these heavy gems.

S56 and S70 – depending of the size of the aircraft and how it’s parked – normally only doable with small aircraft parked nose-out. It’s rather rare nowadays to have interesting aircraft on these stands as normally commercial aircraft are parked there, but eventually it’s possible to see there Antonovs An-26 in cargo flights or fuel stops and Falcons (50/900/2000/7X) in State flights.

S60 to S66 – the spot is useful to catch the aircraft parked on these stands: some cargo aircraft (like the AT42/72F of Swiftair and the B737-400F of ASL Airlines), business jets (except Global Express, Falcon 7X and Gulfstreams normally parked on S40-S43) and all general aviation which may visit the airfield.

Eventually, if stands S55/S56 are not occupied, you may be able to catch in the morning the taxiing aircraft on S5/S6 taxiways after landing on runway 35 or on its way to depart from runway 17.

There isn’t anything else you could catch here, so you won’t stay here longer than 5 or 10 minutes, unless you intend to spend more time doing night shots. You can bring your tripod with you, you won’t face any problem.

Regarding food/drinks and restrooms, you have all those facilities in the Main Terminal, just 2 minutes away.

The fence is OK for 55mm diameter lenses but a bit tight for 77mm, anyway please do not bring the ladder as you should be the more discrete possible in order to not attract the attention of any security staff. Subtlety is the secret of success.

Heat haze advice: It’s possible to get some heat haze in the photos to the stands S60-S66, especially in warm days when it can be strong and disturbing. The best option is always trying to shoot in the first hour after sunrise.