Plane Spotting at Glasgow Prestwick Airport, PIK | Includes 747, DC10, KC135 & more | September 2025

Filmed over 2 days in September 2025, more specifically on the 25th & 26th, & there was some very interesting traffic on these 2 days at Glasgow Prestwick Airport (PIK)! Most of this video was filmed on September 25th, & on this day the airport saw the only Boeing 747-400ERF that One Air operates, as well as the Cargolux Boeing 747-8F that is in the airlines 50th Anniversary Livery, so 2 Boeing 747s in 1 day which isn’t very common at the airport these days but occasionally happens. In the morning on September 25th 2025, the main runway at PIK, which is runway 12/30, was closed. I was informed that it was due to work being done on that runway but I saw no work being done at all. This means that the second & smaller runway, runway 20/02 was in use for a few hours. The first movement I filmed on that day was a United States Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III landing on the smaller runway. As you can see from the footage, it isn’t possible to see aircraft while they are either slowing down or accelerating down the smaller runway from the spotting mound, but any aircraft that use that runway do pass by while taxing either passed the mound or backtracking the main runway. It’s definitely been a long time since the airport has seen a C17 use the smaller runway so it was great to see it happen on this occasion. Another highlight on September 25th was seeing a United States Air Force Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker. Managed to catch that KC-135 departing to head to RAF Mildenhall (MHZ) & a few hours later it return to PIK. On top of all that there was the usual Ryanair Boeing 737s operating in & out of PIK, which even though aren’t the most interesting thing to see as they are super common all over Europe, they are unique for PIK as Ryanair are the only airline that have regular passenger flights in & out of the airport. Moving onto the 2nd day of spotting at PIK, September 26th 2025. This was one very interesting day of spotting, as one of the world’s very last operational DC10s took off from PIK. This McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30CF is operated by Omega Aerial Refuelling Services & it was refuelling some Japanese Air Force F15s across the pond over to Canada as part of Operation Atlantic Eagles. The DC10 arrived roughly a week before departing back to Canada but I wouldn’t have made to to see it landing so I didn’t bother going to see it but it was so cool to be able to film a DC10 in 2025! The final movement of these 2 days of spotting I recorded was one of the regularly scheduled cargo flights from China, which was operated by China Southern Cargo who utilised their Boeing 777Fs on their flights to & from Prestwick. The One Air Boeing 747-400ERF was supposed to depart on the 25th, however the 747 experienced problems with engine 2, so the aircraft went tech & departed the following day on the 26th after 9am, so unfortunately I couldn’t see it departing but I have seen this 747 takeoff from PIK back in late August.

THIS VIDEO INCLUDES: One Air 747-400ERF, Cargolux (50th Anniversary Livery) 747-8F, United States Air Force Boeing KC-135 & Boeing C-17A, Omega Aerial Refuelling Services McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30CF, & more

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