Best Aviation Travel Instagram Hashtags

By Last Updated:March 27, 2021

Taking Instagram photos while en route to a destination from airline lounges to wings over scenery is one of my favorite things to do. I finally decided to investigate the best aviation travel Instagram hashtags for the times I’d like to share these (in addition to my secret airplane food obsession) with a like-minded audience.

Going forward, I’ll use a combination of the hashtags below. Of course, there are a number more out there but these seem to be the most efficient.

Hashtag the Type of Airplane

Frequent travelers like me know what kind of plane to expect well in advance of each journey and perhaps even make reservations accordingly. But, hashtagging the model of plane is extremely common. You could use #757 or #Boeing757 (or both), however, the former will bring up a hodgepodge of irrelevant photos. When you click on #Boeing757, you know exactly what you’re going to get, right?

You could add in exactly what kind of 757 it is by using #Boeing757200, for example, but I might classify this as excessive hashtagging unless you are a diehard plane enthusiast..

#Boeing757
#Boeing777
#Boeing787
#Boeing737
#Boeing
#Airbus
#A380
#A319
#A320
#A330
#Airbuslovers
#Boeinglovers
#Bombardier
#Embraer

In the case of Airbus, you could use #Airbus380 (8500 photos), for example, but #A380 is much more popular (155,000 photos). Of course, there are many more airplanes than the ones listed above but you get the gist.

Hashtag What’s in the Photo

#airplanefood (Yay, it’s surprisingly popular with over 9000 photos! #inflightfood doesn’t have many photos posted at all.)
#wingview
#sky
#clouds
#landing
#takeoff

Hashtag the Departure City, Destination City or Airport

Include where you’re at and/or where you’re going. Or, if you’re in an airport, use the airport’s preferred hashtag. Examples include:

#losangeles
#flylax
#heathrow
#airport
#narita
#tokyo

Hashtag the Airline

Airlines create their own aviation travel Instagram hashtags if running a promotion or to create an individual theme. Also be sure to tag the photo with or include the Instagram name of the airline in your comment so that they are notified of your post. This happened to me on the Instagram version of the photo above. American Airlines stepped in and added the hashtag #AmericanView which resulted in another 50+ likes on the photo as well as some like-minded followers.

#AmericanView
#AmericanAirlines
#DeltaAirlines
#AlaskaAirlines
#iflyAlaska
#UnitedAirlines
#JAL or #JapanAirlines

Unless it’s a specific promotion, like #AmericanView, make sure to keep “airlines” in the hashtag to weed out the riff-raff. If you just punch in #delta, you’ll get sorority girls and all sorts of random stuff, for example. The beauty of in-flight WiFi is that you can search to see what hashtag the airline is currently using and why.

Hashtag the Airline Alliance

The two big players are:

#oneworld or #flyoneworld
#staralliance

General Aviation Travel Instagram Hashtags

Definitely try to lob in at least several of these because each are extremely popular with hundreds of thousands of photos:

#aviation
#avgeek
#instaplane
#instaaviation
#aviationpic
#avporn (I tend not to use hashtags with the “p” word in them but as far as I can tell, this one shows only planes)

Interesting Aviation Travel Instagram Hashtags for Viewing

Unless you work in aviation, these are likely off-limits travel Instagram hashtags but can be fun to check out if you’re an enthusiast, like to see flight attendant uniforms and what they do during trips. I read somewhere that it’s not cool to take photos in uniform while on the job, but I think it’s great and can be good promo for the airline.

#pilotlife
#crewlife
#cabincrew
#planespotting (this, I assume means you’re not actually on the plane)

Other Thoughts

I’m torn about whether or not there’s any benefit to tagging #firstclass, #businessclass or #economyclass because they typically bring up so much more than airline photos.

It doesn’t hurt to diversify by adding in other common hashtags such as #instagood, #yum, etc. in addition to aviation travel Instagram hashtags.

Aviation enthusiasts tend to use a lot of hashtags in one post. But, I still tend to stick to a few initially and then add more in the comment section, if there are some I’d like to add or forget to add.

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Which aviation travel Instagram hashtags am I missing?

Katie Dillon is the managing editor of La Jolla Mom. She helps readers plan San Diego vacations through her hotel expertise (that stems from living in a Four Seasons hotel) and local connections. Readers have access to exclusive discounts on theme park tickets (like Disneyland and San Diego Zoo) and perks at luxury hotels worldwide through her. She also shares insider tips for visiting major cities worldwide, like Hong Kong, London, Paris, and Shanghai, that her family has either lived in or visits regularly (or both).