You don’t even have to be an ‘avgeek’ to be fascinated by the picture above and to want to know what’s going on, with the A380 on an apparent intersection with the Autobahn.
But, you won’t be surprised to find that it’s not really what it seems; the plane is on a taxiway at Germany’s Leipzig/Halle Airport, where there wasn’t enough land for a full 3.6 km runway without crossing the road, or rather, the road cuts across the airport, necessitating a taxiway bridge over the highway between Wismar and Nossen.
While the airport has limited passenger service from Ryanair, Lufthansa and Austrian airlines, it’s the main hub for DHL Cargo and some other freight operators—and a magnet for locals and visitors with cameras.
A number of other airports, including New York’s JFK, have taxiways that cross airport internal roads, but this may be unique for a main highway, although expansion plans, now on hold, for Amsterdam Schiphol would require a taxiway to cross a main artery.
