Mike Graziano and Phil Holst spent their lunch break Friday standing on a picnic table.

The two co-workers were at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, watching planes arrive and depart from a recently opened observation area that allows aviation enthusiasts to get close enough to hear the roar of the jet engines.

Looking through their cameras and telephoto lenses, they clicked away as a plane landed and then checked an app on their smartphones for information on the flight.

“It’s a 757 from L.A.,” said Graziano, before he and fellow Minneapolis resident Holst turned back to the sky for the next plane.

The observation area, which opened officially Oct. 17, was created at the behest of Metropolitan Airports Commission members who wanted a space for people to watch planes, said airport spokeswoman Melissa Scovronski.

“That certainly is something people have wanted to do for a long time,” she said. “We’re excited to be able to able to provide something to the aviation geeks and anyone, really, who is interested in aviation.”

The viewing area looks out to Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 and puts observers “right in the nexus of the four runways that are out there,” Scovronski said.

The airport previously had a public observation deck, but that changed when new security measures were put in place in 2002, and the airport hasn’t had a designated space for plane viewing until now.

Before the new area opened, aviation enthusiasts had to be a bit more resourceful in finding places to watch planes coming and going. One spot was a lot on Post Road designed for drivers waiting to pick up air travelers, Scovronski said.

“You’d see people hanging out there, sometimes even sitting on the roof of their cars so they could see (the planes) better,” she said. “So, we knew that it was something that people loved.”

Aviation enthusiast Tyler Schuett of St. Paul used to go to a nearby dog park to plane-watch, but he couldn’t get as close to the planes as he can at the new viewing space. Plus, “there was a lot of dog poop,” he said Friday as he watched the planes and listened to air-traffic chatter through an app on his phone.

His assessment of the new plane-watching spot: “It’s really awesome.”

The viewing area, open daily from dawn to dusk, is at the end of Cargo Road on the west end of the airport. View map

Andy Rathbun can be reached at 651-228-2121. Follow him at twitter.com/andyrathbun.