I have been to Manchester airport precisely four times; twice flying MAN-somewhere in the USA, perhaps Florida – Montego Bay in Jamaica with Air2000 in 1992. More recently, I flew LHR-MAN-LHR with BA.

I am attending a conference in Manchester and I chose to stay at the airport because I knew that I would get parking, could take the train into town and that I would get a cheaper room than in the city centre. But added to this was the opportunities to unleash my inner aviation geek! I have booked a tour of Concorde for Sunday, but I also came across this place on the drive in.

The Airport is a pub on the edge of Manchester airport with a massive beer garden out the back. It is practically at the end of the runway with unrivalled views.

This has to be any plane spotter’s dream; a pub with craft beer and a garden to sit out in and watch planes go in and out.

I arrived on a chilly evening about 2030 and stayed for an hour. In that time there were plenty of movements, including the Emirates A380. Ignore the timings on the pub’ s notice board!

 

Clearly, the dusk into night is not ideal for photographs, but it was certainly fun. It was only a 10 minute walk from the terminal, so easily possible if you arrived early for a flight, or had a connection.

 

Now if only they could open one like this where there is currently business parking and car hire on the Northern Perimeter Road at Heathrow…!

 

As a complete aside, I recently bought a pair of Beats by Dr Dre noise cancelling headphone from Tesco. Not only were they half price, they also had a bonus of 1,000 Clubcard points (which is still running). Sitting in the beer garden with them on, mostly to keep my ears warm, it was incredible to realise how effective they were. Whilst they didn’t cut out the high pitched whine of the jet engines, they almost completely got rid of the deep thunder as the aircraft rolled down the runway.