Darwin Airport (IATA: DRW, ICAO: YPDN) is the busiest airport serving the Northern Territory and the tenth busiest airport in Australia. DRW has an international terminal, a domestic terminal and a cargo terminal.

Australian companies: Airnorth, Alliance Airlines, Jetstar, Qantas, QantasLink, Virgin AUS (738).
International companies: Singapore airlines

Besides the schedule pax traffic there are a lot of general aviation movements at Darwin.

Written by Jeremy Denton, (Last update December 2016)

Rating
Movements
Airline Variety
Photo Locations
Weather
Airport Information
Runways
11/29	3,354m (11,004ft) Asphalt
18/36	1,524m (5,000ft) Asphalt
Terminal	One building handles all international and domestic flights.
Spotting Information
Ladder	Not necessary.
Car/Public Transport	Car is necessary. There is no public transport to and from the locations.
Restrooms	Available at the spots.
Drinks/Food	Available at the spots.
Hotels	Few hotels could be found next to the airport or in the city. But I recommend “The Leprechaun Resort”.
Season	It’s pretty difficult to get some good weather as it’s unpredictable. Really humid, hot lots of thunderstorms.
Runway Usage
18/36	Mmostly used by military, small props, the Australian border coast as well and some airnorth aircraft.
11/29	Mostly used by all other aircraft (Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Australia, etc.)

	Spot #1 – The Leprechaun Resort
WHERE	From the airport, take the car or the taxi and go to the opposite of the airport (south) and you will find “The Leprechaun Resort” on Stuart Hwy next to a petrol station. Easy to find it.
WHAT	The best spotting location to get arrivals runway 36 and take-off runway 18. You are spotting directly from your hotel, next to the swimming pool or your room. Free WIFI is also available all inside the complex of the resort. So you can easily check on FR24 when something is coming. Remind you, that on this runway you will get only small props, some military, Australian border coast (dash8) and sometimes airnorth EMB120.
TIME	Approx 1200 to sunset.
MISC.	Everything you need could be found at this spot.
FOCAL LENGTH	50-300mm enough

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	Spot #2 – Australian Aviation Heritage Centre
WHERE	From the resort, continue on “Stuart Hwy” direction east for a few minutes then you will see the heritage museum centre on your left side.
WHAT	Aircraft park at the museum and you can managed some arrivals and departure on the runway 11/29.
TIME	From approx 10am to sunset.
MISC.	Open Every Day : 9am to 5pm, closing noon 24 December, closed Christmas Day 25 December. Reopening 27 December at 9am. Entry Fee : Adults 15$, Seniors/Pensioners 10$, Children (under 12) 7$, Students 10$ and family 35$. More information can be found directly on their website : https://www.darwinsairwar.com.au/
FOCAL LENGTH	18-55mm for the museum and 500mm for arrivals & departures.

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	Spot #3 – Terminal 1 (Domestic)
WHERE	Go to the terminal, pass the boarding security check on the domestic one. Then find a good spot where you can shot throw the windows. Plenty of opportunities all along.
WHAT	Parked aircraft otherwise you are in backlit mostly of the time.
TIME	Mostly all day but only when the aircraft are parked otherwise is backlit.
MISC.	Everything you need can be find in the terminal.
FOCAL LENGTH	18mm to 200mm is enough.

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