Search

Gabriel Leigh

Gabriel Leigh grew up on long-haul flights and has been fascinated by airplanes since he can remember. Now based in Sweden, he writes about transport, travel and more for publications like The New York Times, Monocle and Forbes.

Q: What’s the most memorable flight you’ve been on?
A: Probably the first Air Greenland Dash 8 flight I ever took (and made a video about) flying from Kangerlussuaq to Ilullissat to the north via Aasiaat – we came in over Disko Bay’s hundreds of massive icebergs at 3000 feet (“sightseeing altitude”). Being in this remote and incredible place, with the expansive view from the flight deck, and seeing how much the pilots loved it too – that’s a core aviation memory for me.

Q: What’s your favourite Flightradar24 feature?
A: It’s a tie between bookmarks & filters. When I want to keep track of what a certain flight is doing, or when I want to look around and get a quick sense of which aircraft at which airlines are flying where, these are such useful tools.

Q: Any earliest aviation memories?
A: One of the earliest is flying Aeroflot’s IL-62M long-haul with my family at age 6; at the time I didn’t know what it was, just that it was quite an experience. Later on I found the boarding passes and pieced together that’d I’d actually flown the IL-62, a nice feather in the avgeek cap. Though in terms of comfort and ease, I’m not sure I would have recommended the Aeroflot experience at the time.

Q: How do you keep up to date with the aviation industry?
A: I’m reading constantly. I especially enjoy The Air Current, both its own reporting and its collection of aviation stories from across the web. Social media can be really useful to be aware of things as they happen too, of course. And of course speaking to friends I’ve made at airlines around the world.

Expertise

  • Journalist, writer & filmmaker
  • YouTube and social media creator
  • 20 years reporting on aviation, travel & transport industries
  • 75 countries visited and counting

“The best thing about going around the world representing Flightradar24 is the way people’s eyes light up when you say who you work with, both within the industry and among travelers; it helps break the ice and open doors, meaning I get to see a lot behind the scenes that I wouldn’t otherwise

Follow Gabriel Leigh on:

Latest articles by Gabriel Leigh

Basler BT-67 in Antarctica
A recap of our incredible trip to Antarctica including flights on the A340-300, Basler BT-67 and Twin Otter, plus a look at what it…