Plane Spotting At Pittsburgh International Airport

Pittsburgh International Airport

In May 2025, I visited the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to attend a Pearl Jam concert. When I go places, I try to build in some extra time to do other things instead of just the one thing that I’m there for. On that day, I visited the Pittsburgh International Airport outside of the city to hopefully do some plane spotting and photographing of arrivals and departures. The airport sits in kind of a rural area and was not very friendly to plane spotters.

Spotting Location 1 – Wright Brothers Drive

I did not have any trouble with access, but I was able to find an abandoned parking lot and was not able to see much of anything, period. The runway was about a mile in front of me. I saw some takeoffs happening on that runway. But it was not a very good viewpoint. It sat t kind of low to the ground from where I was, and there was a hump between where I was in the runway. So I could only see the tops of the planes. As far as plain spotting locations go, um, I would rank Pittsburgh at the bottom of all the places I’ve been, period. Now, I only spent a couple hours there, so there could be better spots.

I Won’t Be Plane Spotting At Pittsburgh Again

But based on everything I saw, this was going to be the best spot. NOW, I didn’t park in the parking garage at the airport. I didn’t try photographing from the parking garage. I only had two hours, so this was my best option. As far as Pittsburgh isn’t concerned, it’s a great city. There are so many things to do, sports, culture, entertainment, all kinds of stuff, period. This was the first time I had gone to PPG Paints Arena to see anything, and the show was great. I’m a concert photographer and an aviation photographer.