Posts in the category "Air Travel":

Getting to the airport, going through the security line, and waiting with a herd of other travelers to board a plane takes all the fun of out of air travel, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t you rather get right to the thrilling part – flying?

For a story that went live on Bing Travel today, I found 10 small airports and flying experiences where you get to skip the TSA routine.  Here are a few photos we didn’t get to use in Easy Flier: 10 Airports that Reduce the Hassle.

For a tiny airport, the New Bedford Regional Airport in Massachusetts offers some surprising options.

(Courtesy Greg Cormier)

The only Ben & Jerry’s ice cream vending machine at an airport is located here, along with the Airport Grille, which has a pretty snazzy logo and, we hear, great food.  Learn about the airport’s candy-blue chairs and the routes-served here.

At the Rotorua Airport in New Zealand, you can usually skip security screening if you’re flying on a regional jet with fewer than 90 passengers. So you can spend your time instead learning about the life of Rotorua-born aviatrix Jean Gardner Batten and getting your picture taken with one of the 10 6-foot tall Maori-style carvings in the terminal.

The Easy Flier slide show has more information about 10 small “no-hassle” airports and flying experiences, including the King County International Airport/Boeing Field in Seattle, the Trail Regional Airport in Trail, British Columbia, which doubles as the clubhouse of a local flying club, and the Lake Hood Seaplane Base in Anchorage, AK.

Have a favorite small “no-hassle” airport? Share details of your find here.

Categories: Air Travel, Airports, Security, TSA
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Monday evening I was fortunate to be in the audience at Seattle’s Museum of Flight for a  presentation by the recently retired Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the now-legendary pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 who was able to successfully land a plane in New York City’s Hudson River.

He began the evening by showing the NTSB’s animated version of the US Airways 1549 flight path (below) and then went on to talk a bit about his family, his upbringing, his training as a pilot, the importance of preparation and teamwork, and his philosophy of work and life. After he was done, some of the kids in the audience got to ask a few questions as did some of the aviation geeks from our high-tech community.

(Here’s a link to a more detailed report on the evening by SeattlePI.com aerospace reporter Aubrey Cohen)

Before Captain Sullenberger’s speech, I spent some time in the Amelia Earhart exhibit, which will be at the museum until May, 2010. In addition to photo panels and film clips telling Ms. Earhart’s life story, there’s a section showing some of the products she endorsed to help pay the bills, including Amelia Earhart luggage and Lucky Strike cigarettes.

All in all, quite an inspiring evening.

Categories: Air Travel, Air traffic control, Aviation history, Celebrities, Exhibits, History, aviation
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“Travel/Places,” a new exhibit at Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) combines hand-scripted, journey-related quotes with illustrations of places traveled.  10 members of Austin’s Capital City Scribes contributed 12 works to this exhibit, which includes a piece by Abigail Hutchison incorporating the travel quote attributed to Saint Augustine: “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page,” and this piece by Dee Day titled “Gone to Texas.”

You can see – and read – the entire “Travel/Places” exhibit in the Austin airport’s Airside West Gallery,  post-security, on the concourse behind the BookPeople bookstore, across from Gate 11.

Also, if you missed it at the Albuquerque, Pittsburgh or Atlanta airports, you can now see Nancy Judd’s Recycle Runway exhibit at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The exhibit includes dresses and accessories made from items such as aluminum cans, water bottles and junk mail. Highlights include a Rusty Nail dress made of, yes, rusty nails, a Red Glass Gown made of crushed glass, and this Faux Fur coat made of videotape.

Look for the Recycle Runway exhibit in Phoenix Sky Harbor’s Terminal 3 through August 8th.

Categories: Air Travel, Airports, Art
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My Well Mannered Traveler column - Mishandled baggage: Mission Accomplished? - on MSNBC.com this week is all about the odds of having your checked baggage arrive at your destination airport when you do – and the airlines’ efforts to improve those odds.

The good news is that those odds have been improving.  According to statistics released recently by the Department of Transportation (DOT), in 2009 the major U.S. carriers reduced the rate of mishandled, mangled and lost bags to the lowest level recorded since 2004.

Hooray, right? Well, just maybe.  In 2009 major airlines mishandled “just” 3.91 bags per 1,000 passengers.  That’s an improvement over 2008’s rate of 5.26 but, still, more than 2.19 million pieces of luggage went astray in 2009.

What’s behind the numbers?

The numbers are better, so we might conclude that airlines aren’t just pocketing our checked bags fees but using that money to improve  baggage handling systems.

Some actually did. But last year’s improved statistics have more to do with depressed travel patterns than with airline attentiveness.  In 2009, there were fewer passengers, fewer flights and, therefore, fewer checked bags to be mishandled.

Will it last?

The improved baggage handling numbers will only last, says Catherine Mayer, a vice President at SITA, a company specializing in information technology (IT) for the air transport industry, if airports, airlines, and ground handlers “use this slow travel period to invest in fixing the baggage management system.”

One tool being used by airlines, airports and ground handlers is the baggage improvement program, or BIP. Created by IATA, the International Air Transport Association, the program’s goal is to halve the global rate of baggage mishandling by 2012.  Not just to make passengers happy, say IATA spokesman Steve Lott, but to help airlines fix their bottom lines: “Globally, mishandled baggage cost airlines $3.3 billion in 2008. So the airline industry has a financial incentive to make sure they close the gap.”

The fixes include some costly, sophisticated technology but also some cheap common sense ones, such as painting spacing lines on the belt behind the check-in counter so bags don’t begin their journey all bunched up.

There are also some things you can do to help increase the odds of your bags arriving safely. In addition to putting your contact information and travel itinerary inside your baggage, inspect the outside of your bags before each trip. If there are old tag stubs and bar code labels stuck on your luggage from a previous journey, remove them.  That way you won’t run the risk of confusing the automatic barcode readers in the baggage handling system and having your bags end up in a city you visited back  1999.

Categories: Air Travel, Baggage
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When I toured one of Boeing’s test 787 Dreamliner planes recently, I was pleased to see that the lavatories feature touchless faucets and flushers, as well as a nifty feature that automatically puts down the toilet seat lid.

(Photo by Jerome Tso)

And back in November, 2009, I was intrigued by the news from ANA (All Nippon Airways) that it was the first airline to install warm water “washlets” – bidet toilets – in the First and Business Class lavatories onboard its Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft.

Now comes news that on March 1^st (the beginning of Women’s History Month), the airline will designate one ladies-only lavatory on each airplane serving international routes (except those served by A320/B737 aircraft).

(You’ll know it’s the ladies-only lav by the pink sign!)

Why a woman’s only lav?  Women who have flown on long flights don’t even need to ask. But an ANA spokesman explains it this way: “Many customers requested it, so, in order to enhance their in-flight experience, comfort and convenience, we’re implementing it.”

Enough toilet talk?  Before you go,  take a moment to watch the “Art of Arrival” animation on the ANA website.  It uses the Japanese animation style known as anime  and, like the ladies-only lavs, is quite unusual.

Categories: Air Travel, Airline policies, Bathrooms
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