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September 28, 2014Dallas Love Field Spotting Guide
- last modified on July 16, 2020
Dallas Love Field, the second biggest airport in the Dallas-Forth Worth metropole region handles around 16 Mio. passengers a year. Due to the short distance to Downtown Dallas, DAL is something like a city airport with just a very few operators. Biggest schedule carrier in Love Field is Southwest Airlines, where they have there headquarter as well. They are responsible for at least 80 percent of the passenger traffic.
Other airlines are Delta, . Despite all the passenger flights, General Aviation is an important pillar for DAL and is responsible for at least 50 percent of the aircraft movements.
The ‘Frontiers of Flight Museum’ is located at the most easterly corner of the airport with some aircraft on display, for example a Southwest 737-300 called ‘ The Spirit of Kitty Hawk’. There is also a big exhibition about Southwest inside the museum.
Written by Julian Mittnacht, Severin Hackenberger, Yixin Chen and Achim Walther / Last visit: December 2018
| Rating | |
| Movements |  |
| Airline Variety |  |
| Photo Locations |  |
| Weather | |
| Visitor Rating How was your trip? Rate this airport! |
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| Airport Information | |
| Runways | |
| 13L/31R | 2.363 m (7.752 ft) |
| 13R/31L | 2.682 m (8.800 ft) |
| Terminals | One for all flights |
| Spotting Information | |
| Ladder | Not required. |
| Car/Public Transport | Car is recommend, but Dallas has a good public transport too |
| Restrooms | Inside the terminal and restaurants around the airport. |
| Drinks/Food | Inside the terminal and lot of shops/fast food restaurants around the airport. |
| Hotels | There are many hotels close to the airport or at the ‘Market Center’ district. |
| Season | Very hot in the summer so try to avoid these days. Otherwise no special season. |
| Runway Usage | |
| General Info | Usually one runway is used for arrivals and one for departures but there are always variations. General Aviation companies usually use the runway which is located next to their operations center. |
| 13L/31R | Used in both directions.Used by 95% of the GAT traffic. Main runway with more traffic, used for almost all PAX departures and quite a few PAX arrivals as well. Apart from this for all GAT activities as most GAT hangars and parking aprons are located on DAL’s eastern side. |
| 13R/31L | Used in both directions. Not that busy as 13L/31R, but mostly used for most PAX arrivals and some rare departures. Most Alaskas, Virgin Americas and Deltas arrive and depart here. |
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Spot #1 – Whataburger – 13L arrivals |
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| WHERE | This spot is situated next to a Whataburger and the Bachman Lake Park Trail. You have to pass the airport and turn into the Shorecrest drive, which is parallel to the Bachman Lake trail. Pass the one and only bridge from this street and park your car just next to the Whataburger/Pharmacy. Cross the street and find a place along the lake for taking pictures. |
| WHAT | 13L arrivals only. |
| TIME | Best light conditions in the morning until ~11:00 |
| MISC. | Many stores along the W North Highway within walking distance. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 120mm for a 737 |
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Spot #2 – Bachman Lake – 13L arrivals |
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| WHERE | Again drive into the Shorecrest drive and follow the road until you have passed the approach lights. After a hundred meters park your car on the shoulder (check parking signs) and find your spot at the lake, Otherwise you can left your car at spot#1 and walk to this position along the water. |
| WHAT | 13L arrivals only. |
| TIME | Best light conditions from noon until evening. |
| MISC. | Many stores along the W North Highway. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 120mm for a 737 |
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Spot #3 – Bachman Lake – 13R arrivals |
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| WHERE | Continue from #2 until you have passed the approach lights or 13R and turn the right to park your car. Walk back on the sidewalk a few meters until you have reached the spot. |
| WHAT | 13R arrivals only. |
| TIME | Best light conditions from noon until evening. |
| MISC. | Many stores along the W North Highway. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 120mm for a 737 |
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Spot #4 – Parking Garage – 13R/31L movements |
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| WHERE | Drive to the airport and follow the signs to Garage A, Southwest parking. Once arrived at the garage use the signs to the upper level until you reach the platform where you can see the runway. |
| WHAT | You see all the movements on 13R/31L and the parallel taxiway. You can use Garage B too, because their most upper level is higher than on Garage A. But its possible that you miss some arriving planes on 13R because they will leave the runway before they reach your location. |
| TIME | Best light conditions in the morning until ~11:00. |
| MISC. | Everything is inside the terminal. Parking for 30 min. is free of charge. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | You a very close to the taxiway so a low focal lenght is needed. |
I was at this spot for only 10 minutes and left this place pretty fast as there were no movements. So if you can support us with sample pictures, we are very thankful! Sample pic on Jetphotos.net
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Spot #5 – Mabel Avenue – 31R Arrivals |
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| WHERE | This spot is located by the roadside of “Mable Avenue”, where you can easily park your car at as well. Unfortunately this street is kinda difficult to enter due to the “Lemmon Avenue”, so very quick runway changes are quite difficult. |
| WHAT | Arrivals onto runway 31R. |
| TIME | From sunrise till late morning. In deep winter quite useless. |
| MISC. | No ladder needed and recommended as you should keep a low profile especially here as many Americans are kinda suspicious cause of our hobby. All needed facilities along “Lemmon Avenue”. Parking is very easy here. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | Should be around 70-250mm |
We just saw one aircraft arriving here out of our car, but couldn’t take a shot of any else aircraft – that’s why we can’t provide any example pictures yet, unfortunately! If you took some, please don’t hesitate to share those with us!
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Spot #6 – George Coker Cir – 13R/31L movements |
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| WHERE | This spot is located at the end of “Georg Coker Cir”, which ends up into a roundabound – just search your favourite position there on the grass area or nearby parking strips. This street can be reached easily from “Lemmon Avenue”. |
| WHAT | From here you have a great oberview and can spot 13R/31L arrivals and departures as well as the nearby apron activities. Most smaller aircraft will leave runway 31R too early and most small aicraft departures are already too high from here.
Tip: The Dallas Mavericks’ B757 (N801DM) is almost always parked just infront of this spot, if they aren’t on tour. For a shot of this one, you need ~20mm then. |
| TIME | Runway has light from sunrise till late morning. Best time for the apron totally depends onto the angle of the parked aircraft, but honestly an overcast sky is the best way to be sure, that you won’t have backlit. But if sun is shining, the early morning in summer or late afternoon/evening are mostly better than the time around midday. In winter quite useless. |
| MISC. | All needed facilities are along “Lemmon Avenue”. Parking is very easy here, but therefore heat haze is a problem on hot days! Ladder needed for ground shots, but is very easy to realize with a car. Just spot from its top, if your top is “strong enough”. A 1,80m high car is already high enough to get over the fence. If you do this, please just climb for the highlights and come down regularly again, so it doesn’t look so suspicious – all in all:
Keep a low profile as many people are kinda suspicious cause of our hobby and there are regularly military aircraft parked infront! Apart from this, security services (like Securitas) are regularly passing by and there is a security watchhouse nearby! |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 18-350mm
B737-700 on runway = 125mm / B734 on parkapron next to you = 35mm / B737-700 on terminalapron = ~300mm |
Overview from the top of the marked car on the first overview shot:
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Spot #7 – Parking Garage C – 13L/31R afternoon |
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| WHERE | This spot is on the 7th floor of the newly opened Parking Garage C (opened Nov 2018) at DAL. Parking fees apply, see here. Just drive to the south entrance of DAL and follow the road sign. Try to keep right whenever possible. This parking garage is not even on GoogleMap yet. |
| WHAT | From here you have a great overview of the runway 13L/31R, taxi ways and ramp nearby. You should be able to catch all movements on 13L/31R. Half of the movements on this runway are private jets/small props, with the other half being Southwest Airlines nearly exclusively. |
| TIME | Sun position would be good from noon til sunset. You might also do night shots there. |
| MISC. | Everything is in the terminal. Would be extremely hot in summer. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | B737 on taxi way – 150mm; B737 on runway – 250mm; Private jet on runway – 350mm; Small props on runway 450+mm; B752 Marvericks on ramp – 600mm. |
the George Coker circle spot is the I go to for my 1200 sub YT channel planespotting compilations if DFW is not getting that much interesting stuff and a charter is coming into DAL. FYI, I would change the part about the security being high there. There are almost never any military cars/people there, police do not care at all (the frankly usually just wave), and if you go at the right time, you can see the sport charters coming in on 13L. Only time out of like 30 times going there was 1 issue last time we went, with a crazy lady who clearly was unwell or on something. every other time, no one cares about it.
the part about how not much goes to 13R/31L is wrong, the majority of Love field southwest and almost all charters and private jets land on that runway. Also, it is a great spot for close up private jets and JETX if Love field is going south that day, as they pass right by you.
TIP: if you go on FlightRadar24 and look at KDAL in the filters (put DAL in the airport filter selection) and they’re many charter planes. I’ve seen the lakers 757, the Vancouver Canucks A320, the Dallas Stars AirCanada A320, and a few more delta 757s. When the players get off the bus, they usually go through the gate there, which then you can wave at them. it’s also an amazing view. I recommend bring a stool. Around this time of the year, there isn’t much. but during the winter, take advantage of the basketball season/NHL season. Go ahead of time and see when they are coming in (or the away teams) are playing. most sport teams come in the afternoon before the next game (so if the game was on Sunday, they would come in Saturday afternoon, around 12-4 PM.)
I hope all of you appreciate and enjoy these updated tips on the George Coker spot!
Help me hit 2,000 subscribers! I post 4k planespotting videos, and tons of landings/takeoff videos from all around the world, such as India, Hong Kong, Alaska, and all over the USA! see you there!
YT: DFW Planespotters
https://www.youtube.com/@dfwplanespotters_yt
Here are 2 videos of the spot (they are 20 seconds long)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/j4ReFRj9rkk
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pcRXxuK_fsI
I visited spot 7 and it is great for both departures and arrivals on runway 31R. Be aware I went to spot and was in the parking garage for an hour and 46 minutes and was charged $6 for my visit so it is a bit expensive. I had to use the bathroom and there was nothing so I just ended up leaving after that and going to the In-N-Out just down the street. All in all, spot 7 is an amazing location I got amazing pictures of JSX, Southwest, and Private aircraft. Highly recommend.
Tried out spot 5 today for the first time. Spots 1 and 2 are my favorites but arrivals were on 31R this morning so it was the only option.
Very good location, parked right on the end of Mabel / Lemmon and had great views of incoming aircraft. It was raining but the spot allowed me to stay in my car and still get quality photos. Only thing is arriving aircraft come into view quick (unlike with 13L where you can see them a ways a way) so you need to be prepared and get your pictures quick.
Arrivals switched to 13L around noon but it was a quick 3min drive up to spot 2, easy reposition.
Hey Austin, nice to hear that our guide helped during your stay at DAL. Would you be so kind to send us some photos from location 5 to add them to the guide. Our mail is support@spotterguide.net
Thanks, Julian
Any one have been to the terminal parking garage?
We were just there and will add the location to our Guide soon.
-Julian
You’re also able to spot to the rear of the Frontiers of Flight Museum. The fence can be a bit of a pain, but you can get really great shots of arrivals on 31R, as well as a few departures. I was able to grab a few exotic aircraft that went to DAL for interior cabin changes. I wasn’t hassled by airport police or security.
Hi Jay, can you show us some photos which you took at this position please.
-Julian
Runway 18/36 has been decommissioned and is no longer shown on airport diagrams. Parts of the old runway are now Taxiway E.
The road along Bachman Lake is called Shorecrest, not Shorecast
Thank for the infos Royce. Guide has been updated!
-Julian