One of my favourite things is flying over big cities — I always choose window over aisle. Landing in Heathrow from the east usually means a couple of loops in a stack, then over the Olympic Park, turn right at the O2 and then slowly descending along the river, past our office, the Houses of Parliament, Fulham FC and Kew Gardens. The photo on the homepage for this site was taken a year or so ago on a flight back from California. Taking off from San Francisco, the plane heads out towards the Pacific ocean as if you’re leaving the city behind but then turns right, straight over the Golden Gate bridge with a view of the city and the Bay Area below.
Vincent Laforest hit the front page of HN yesterday with a series of amazing night time high altitude shots of New York (incidentally this set me off down a rabbit hole of wondering how New York came to also be known as Gotham — it’s not straightforward!) and Jason Hawkes photos got a lot of coverage a couple of years back for his aerial shots of London.
I know it’s probably not great for the people who live on these routes, but where are the best airport approaches in the world? I’d love to see more.