With Bremen Airport having a free Spotters’ Terrace within the terminal building, it would have been rude to spend a couple of days in the city without at least paying the terrace a short visit. I actually ended up visiting twice, once immediately after arriving, to enable me to see my inbound aircraft depart back to Stansted, and once the afternoon of my first day in the city before heading to my hotel. So, is a visit worth it?
The visitor’s terrace is easily accessible via lift from the ground floor arrivals area of the airport terminal and is open from 0800 until 2100, but only if the temperature is above 5°C. The lift takes you up to the ‘BRE World of Discovery’ which has a small exhibition in German about the airport and the city’s role in the aviation industry. Entry is free and there’s no barriers or security check to go through, and once you’re outside on the terrace. you’re on the roof of the terminal building with views over most of the apron and aircraft stands.
Unfortunately, there’s a large glass wall for security, meaning that photographs can be quite difficult at an angle, however for those aircraft parked directly below, photos tend to turn out ok. In terms of facilities, there’s nothing actually up on the terrace itself other than some toilets within the ‘World of Discovery’, although it did look like there may be a café that’s open during the busier summer months. Obviously, there’s all the facilities within the terminal below, so you won’t go hungry, but there’s not even a vending machine within view of the aircraft.
Bremen is a relatively small airport, and so doesn’t have a large number of airlines, however, does have a reasonable mix given the city is home to Airbus’ military and space divisions. Aswell as low-cost carriers such as Eurowings, Pegasus and Ryanair, Bremen is also served by a number of European flag carriers including Lufthansa Group trio Austrian, Lufthansa and Swiss, as well as KLM and Turkish Airlines. With Bremen being the 11th largest city in Germany, the airport also has a large increase in traffic during the summer, as several Charter airlines increase their operations, whilst some of the year round airlines also add seasonal routes.
The vast majority of commercial flights serving Bremen are operated by either the Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 families of aircraft, although the KLM flights to/from Amsterdam tend to be operated by an Embraer of their Cityhopper subsidiary. During my second visit to the terrace, I saw the afternoon flight from Amsterdam arrive and on that occasion it was actually be operated by German Airways on behalf of KLM, however still using an Embraer E-jet. The only other variety in aircraft types comes from the odd CRJ operated by Lufthansa and any private or military flights using the airport, with visitors to Airbus bringing the occasional interesting movement. However, to make up for the monotony, during my visit I was treated to the sight of C-GAWI, a beautiful C-47/DC-3 Dakota that has been modernised as a Basler BT-67 and operated by Canada’s Kenn Borek Air.
In conclusion Bremen Airport’s Spotters’ Terrace is an okay place to go spotting if you’re passing through the airport and have a bit of time to waste. However, with the limited range of airlines and very limited variety of aircraft, I certainly wouldn’t make a special trip to the city to go spotting. Although there’s limited facilities on the terrace itself, the open access means you can pop back into the terminal when needed, and there’s plenty of breaks in traffic meaning you won’t miss anything.
Viewing location 3*
Charge (free) 5*
Facilities 0*
Variety of Traffic 2*
BRE (Spotters’ Terrace) Overall Score 2.5*
Flights & Times 