Nashville International Airport (BNA)

Nashville, Tennessee

Click map to go to Google Maps satellite view

This airport has an "official" observation area located next to the cargo terminals on the west side of the field.  Its easily accessible, safe, and free but A major drawback of this spot is lack of traffic.  On a typical day Nashville uses all 4 of its runways but only traffic on 2L/20R is close to the observation area.  You can see the entire airport though. 

There is another spot on the south side called Portview Drive.  To get here, go east on Murfreesboro Pike to Mcgavock Pike and make a right, and then go a few blocks.  Portview and the streets surrounding it were once a residential neighborhood but many of the houses have been bought out and removed due to noise issues from being so close to a runway.  You can park along this street (not on the grass) and watch planes approaching BNA's center runway.

Traffic at Nashville is mostly 737, MD80, and Regional Jets and the largest airline is Southwest.

I would have to give Nashville an overall score of 3 jets.  There's not too much variety of traffic but at least they have a designated area for plane spotters and the airport police are generally friendly.

Click here to see photos from the observation park.

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