Plane spotting at Leipzig/Halle: DHL hub, Antonovs, military charters and night traffic

Updated: October 2026 – If you arrive at Leipzig/Halle at midday, you will wonder what the fuss is about: a few passenger jets, lots of parked freighters, the occasional landing. Then it gets dark, and the airport transforms. Yellow freighters land every few minutes, Antonov giants stand on the apron, and toward morning the aircraft taxi out to the south runway in waves. Plane spotting at Leipzig/Halle therefore mostly means one thing: night shift. This guide explains how the airport ticks, which types you will see, where you can stand and what to watch out for since the drone incident of August 2026.

Leipzig/Halle at a glance

Leipzig/Halle Airport (IATA LEJ, ICAO EDDP) lies about 16 kilometers northwest of Leipzig and a good 20 kilometers southeast of Halle, right at the Schkeuditz interchange of the A 9 and A 14 motorways. It has two parallel runways, each 3,600 meters long: the north runway 08L/26R (45 meters wide, in operation since 2000) and the south runway 08R/26L (60 meters wide, since 2007). A motorway and a railway line run between the runways, and taxiway bridges connect both sides – taxiing widebody freighters above a motorway are a shot you will hardly get anywhere else in Germany.

DHL has operated its largest European air hub here since 2008. That shapes the numbers: in 2025 the airport counted around 1.39 million tonnes of air cargo but only a good 2.1 million passengers. This has made Leipzig/Halle one of the most important cargo airports in Germany and Europe for years.

The rhythm: why you should come in the evening

The business model of an express integrator dictates the daily schedule. Parcels are collected across Europe during the day, flown to the hub in the evening, sorted overnight and distributed again before sunrise. How the model of DHL, FedEx and UPS works in principle is explained in the background article Express integrators DHL, FedEx and UPS.

Legally, Leipzig is tailored to this. The Federal Administrative Court approved night operations for express cargo in 2006, and cargo has since been allowed to fly without time restrictions. Passenger flights, on the other hand, observe a night curfew from 11:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. How strictly other German airports handle this is shown in the comparison Night flight bans at German airports.

For your planning, that roughly means:

Time of day	What typically happens	For spotters
Morning to afternoon	Passenger flights, a few freighters, Antonov movements depending on orders	relaxed, little traffic, plenty of time for apron shots
Early evening	first cargo feeders, leisure airlines return	best light in summer, a good way to start
Evening to midnight	main wave of landings	lots of movement, night photography from dusk
Second half of the night	departures after sorting	many takeoffs, mostly over the south runway
Dawn	last freighters, first passenger flights	in summer, low-angle light and often calm air

The table describes tendencies. The exact times vary with the day of the week and the season, and on weekends the express network runs differently than on weekdays. A look at a flight tracker before you set out is always worthwhile – how to use ADS-B data for this is explained in Flight tracking with ADS-B for spotters.

Which runway is active at night?

For residents, runway use has been a point of contention for years; for you, it is the most important planning factor. According to analyses from 2017, more than 90 percent of night takeoffs and landings ran over the south runway 08R/26L. That is no guarantee for every night, but it describes the typical picture: during the day a lot of passenger traffic uses the north runway, while at night cargo concentrates in the south.

Which end of the runway is in use depends on the wind, as everywhere. With a westerly wind, aircraft land and take off toward the west (runways 26); with an easterly wind, toward the east (runways 08). How to estimate this in advance is explained in the guide Understanding runway direction in use at airports.

The yellow fleet: DHL, EAT and AeroLogic

Most freighters in Leipzig wear DHL yellow. Behind the color, however, are several different operators, and that makes logging exciting.

• European Air Transport Leipzig is DHL’s own cargo airline, based in Schkeuditz. Its backbone is the Airbus A300-600F, along with Airbus A330 freighters such as the A330-200F and converted A330-300s, as well as the Boeing 757 in freighter version. The aircraft carry only “DHL” – you can tell them apart by the ICAO code BCS and the D- registrations.
• AeroLogic is a joint venture of DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo and flies only the Boeing 777F. Part of the fleet wears DHL colors, the rest its own, predominantly white design.
• Partners in the DHL network bring more types and registrations from abroad, including widebody freighters of American and European airlines. Which airlines currently fly for DHL changes with the contracts. The profile DHL Aviation gives an overview of the network.

That makes Leipzig ideal for collectors: the fleets are manageable, the registrations repeat, and you can wait specifically for gaps in your list. If you can’t yet tell the types apart with confidence, read Identifying cargo aircraft and Telling the Boeing 757 and 767 apart first.

The Antonovs: SALIS and Antonov Airlines

Besides the yellow freighters, the Antonov An-124s from the manufacturer Antonov are Leipzig’s trademark. There are two reasons for that.

First, since March 23, 2006, Leipzig/Halle has been the base of SALIS, a program of several European NATO and EU states. They jointly charter civilian heavy-lift transports for military and humanitarian missions. At first the aircraft came from the Russian Volga-Dnepr Airlines and the Ukrainian Antonov Airlines. Volga-Dnepr left at the end of 2018, and since then Antonov has been the sole contractor.

Second, after the destruction of its home airport Hostomel near Kyiv in 2022, Antonov Airlines relocated its remaining aircraft to Leipzig. From there the airline operates its fleet of An-124 Ruslans, seven aircraft according to reference works as of August 2025. The legendary An-225 no longer exists – it was destroyed in Hostomel in February 2022. An Antonov maintenance hangar of its own is currently being built at the airport, with completion announced for the first half of 2027.

One special feature for photographers: next to the Volga-Dnepr hangar, which the airport built in 2012, stand Volga-Dnepr An-124s that are not allowed to fly because of sanctions. They have become permanent guests on the apron.

When an An-124 flies depends on the job. There are no fixed schedules, and often you only see them on the tracker shortly beforehand. If you want to catch a Ruslan taking off, you need patience and an alert.

Military charters and special flights

Leipzig also has a military side that often looks civilian. Since May 2006, troop rotation flights of the US military have run here. In the peak years, when soldiers rotated into Iraq and Afghanistan, up to 80 flights a month were handled at times. With the troop withdrawal the volume has dropped significantly, but it has not disappeared entirely.

These transports are flown by civilian charter companies. Over the years, ATA Airlines, Ryan International, World Airways and North American Airlines were among those in service, all now history, plus Miami Air International (ceased operations in 2020) and Omni Air International. For you, that means a widebody jet of a US charter airline at the terminal is no coincidence in Leipzig.

Genuine military aircraft are rarer but do turn up – for example transports picking up equipment for missions or relief supplies. How to tell types like the A400M, C-17 or Il-76 apart is shown in the article Identifying military transports. And how to follow such flights online is explained in Tracking military aircraft online.

Passenger traffic: the daytime backdrop

During the day, scheduled and leisure flights shape the picture. Lufthansa connects Leipzig to its Frankfurt hub, and Eurowings has been flying to Düsseldorf again since April 2024. Since the summer 2025 schedule, Marabu Airlines has had its own base with Airbus A320neos at the airport. Leisure airlines heading for the Mediterranean, Turkey and Egypt add to that. Routes and airlines change with every schedule, so check the current offering directly with the airport.

The spots: what works in October 2026

For a long time, Leipzig had a convenient answer to the spot question: the observation deck in the old tower. Since summer 2026, however, it has been closed.

Background: the drone incident

On the night of August 5, 2026, a drone loaded with explosives flew low over the grounds, near two parked Antonov Airlines aircraft. An airport bus driver brought it down, and it did not explode. Nine days later, on August 14, a second drone was found in nearby Kabelsketal. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office took over the investigation, and on September 1, 2026, the federal government blamed Russia. As early as July 2024, an incendiary device in a parcel that caught fire in a DHL container at the cargo center had caused a stir.

Shortly after the incident, the airport temporarily closed the observation deck and suspended tours. In mid-October 2026 it was still closed according to spotter reports. What else you need to know about drones near airports is in Drones at airports.

The options at a glance

Spot	View of	Light	Status October 2026
Observation deck in the old tower	South runway 08R/26L, terminal and east apron	Summer: early morning and evening, backlight during the day	temporarily closed
Parking garage at the terminal, upper levels	North runway from the north end, taxiway bridge, south runway from the south end	varies depending on the end, heat shimmer in summer	public parking garage
Visitors’ hill at the north runway	North runway 08L/26R	Summer: early morning and evening	freely accessible, best reached by car

The spot profile Leipzig/Halle observation deck describes all three locations in detail, with light windows, focal lengths and directions. For the nightly cargo wave on the south runway, the parking garage is currently the obvious choice; for passenger traffic and daytime takeoffs, the hill in the north.

Shooting at night in Leipzig

In Leipzig you can hardly avoid night photography – and that is an opportunity. Lit-up freighters on the apron, light trails of departing aircraft and landing lights in the haze make for pictures that are barely possible at typical daytime airports.

The technical basics are in Photographing aircraft at night. Which freighter is currently approaching as just a string of lights, you can tell with the guide Identifying aircraft at night – or simply with the tracker on your phone.

Getting there and logistics

Leipzig/Halle is well connected by rail: the S-Bahn lines S5 and S5X run through the City Tunnel to the airport station, and the IC line 55 stops there as well. The station is right at the terminal, and you can reach the parking garage and the deck on foot. For the visitors’ hill at the north runway, the car is the more practical choice.

For a night session, bring food and warm clothing. Tips for long evenings at the fence are in the article Spotting at night or alone. On the open parking deck and at the hill it gets chilly after midnight even in summer. If you want to take the train back late, check the last connection beforehand.

Is a combined trip worth it? Dresden Airport is a good hour away by car and works as a quiet daytime spot – the Dresden guide shows what to expect there. Dresden by day, Leipzig in the evening is a combination that works well. If you want to compare other big cargo hubs, look at Liège or the East Midlands Aeropark.

Conclusion

Leipzig/Halle is not an airport for a quick midday visit. It shows its strengths in the evening and at night, when the DHL freighters land and take off in waves, An-124s stand on the apron and now and then a troop charter waits at the terminal. If you know your types, don’t shy away from night photography and find out about runway direction and spot status beforehand, you get shots here that no other German airport offers in this density. The security situation after August 2026 makes a visit somewhat more complicated, but not impossible.