There’s been a lot of coverage of NATO-related activity in Chicago, but not much about the role O’Hare Airport has played in the summit.

So the folks at the airport tallied up some of NATO-related numbers relating to the arrivals of world leaders, international delegations and foreign press:

Number of Flight Arrivals:

O’Hare private flight NATO operations: 34

O’Hare commercial flight NATO operations: 68

Estimated number of delegates through O’Hare: more than 1,300

Estimated number of people greeting/assisting them at the airport: 700+

Agencies and organizations involved: U.S. State Department, U.S. Secret Service, Illinois State Police and the Illinois Air National Guard.

They even had time to take pictures:

Czech Rep arrives at ORD

Motorcade meeting plane bearing NATO guests at ORD

(Photos courtesy Chicago Department of Aviation/kp)

Keeping with their tradition, Volunteer Airport Ambassadors at Florida’s Jacksonville International Airport will have about 1000 carnations to hand out to moms passing through the airport on Mother’s Day.

At Miami International Airport they’re celebrating Mother’s Day Friday through Sunday with discounts, gifts-with-purchase and freebies in the shops, foil-wrapped chocolate roses for moms and events that include live music, a pick-a-pearl game with real oysters and a chance to make last-minute Mother’s Day cards and photo postcards.
(Find the coupons and event locations here.)

At Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway Airports, food and retail concessions posting the sign above will be handing out free flower seed packets (zinnias) to moms from Friday, May 11 through Sunday, May 13, 2012. (While supplies last).

There are also special Mother’s Day sales and gift-with-purchase offers going on at Philadelphia International Airport , at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, at the Swatch stores in JFK International Airport, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and at Boston’s Logan Airport.

With the London 2012 Summer Games less than three months away, Heathrow, the event’s host airport, is already under fire for the Olympic-sized lines that have been greeting arriving passengers in the immigration halls.

Customs checks for illegally smuggled drugs and arms have been reduced at UK airports in an effort to combat long lines and wait times, according to a weekend report in The Guardian, citing “senior immigration officers and border force unions.”

Last week, UK Immigration Minister Damian Green told the BBC that while “there is a problem,” improvements were being made. “For the Olympic period, we are guaranteeing that there will be, at peak times, full manning” of border control desks.

BAA owns Heathrow and five other airports that serve the UK, but is not responsible for immigration wait times.

Heathrow claims it is the world’s busiest airport in terms of international traffic. It
served nearly 70 million passengers in 2011 and is currently operating at capacity. It will be the entry point for at least 80 percent of Olympics-bound passengers, and an estimated 59,000 athletes, family members and spectators.

For my story on msnbc.com, I spoke with Colin Matthews and John Holland-Kaye, BAA’s chief executive and commercial director, respectively.

Q: When did Heathrow begin planning for Olympic Games traffic and how did you go about it?
A: Colin Matthews: Heathrow’s planning for the London 2012 Games began during the bid process for London about five years ago. Since then the Heathrow team has been in Beijing in 2008 and Vancouver in 2010 to observe the operational challenges created by both Summer and Winter Games. Heathrow also met with the airport operators who successfully delivered Games transport in Athens and Sydney.

Q: The news has been full of stories lately about arriving passengers having to wait for more than two hours in the immigration halls. Is that what visitors will encounter when they arrive for the Olympics?

A: CM: Immigration is controlled by the Home Office [the UK government agency that oversees immigration and passports]. Immigration waiting times during peak periods at Heathrow recently have been unacceptable, but the good news is that the government recently announced it is going to devote more resources in that area.

Q: The airport is really the front door to the city. It’s the first — and last — place visitors will see. What are you doing to insure Heathrow will make a good impression?

A: John Holland-Kaye: Our strategy involves best practices and recommendations from prior host airports, construction of the temporary terminal for Olympic athletes departing from the Games and investment in additional facilities for Paralympians in the existing terminals. We’ve also been working in collaboration with other airport stakeholders and rehearsing and testing our facilities at their capacity.

Q: How much is Heathrow spending to make the airport games ready? Where do the funds come from?
A: JHK: Heathrow has invested over £20 million [about $32.4 million] in providing a great experience for athletes and regular passengers during the Games period. These funds are entirely Heathrow’s contribution.

Q: What special amenities, exhibits or temporary services will be in place?
A: JHK: We’ll be dressing up the airport. There will be Olympic-themed art exhibits and each passenger terminal will feature theatre and celebrations to surprise and delight passengers. For example, one walkway is going to look like a swimming pool and you’ll feel as if you’re walking on water. There will places where passengers can take photos standing on podiums, next to images of athletes. And we’ll do things like set up a 100 meter track so kids can race against each other.

Q: Everyone loves Olympics-related souvenirs. Will passengers be able to shop for those at the airport?
A: JHK: Yes, there are special souvenir shops set up for Olympics souvenirs. It’s also the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee [marking 60 years of the Queen’s reign], so we’re selling a lot of souvenirs for that. And, royal wedding souvenirs are still very popular.

Q: What are some insider tips about Heathrow you can offer to travelers, Olympics-bound or not?
A: JHK: A few quick ones: There’s an Olympic-themed art exhibit land-side in Terminal 5; there are two family security lanes in each terminal [look for the rainbows] and kids get a sticker when they go through; and at the duty free cosmetic shops in each terminal, you can get a facial or a hand massage for free.

We’re used to seeing passengers in airports running to catch their flights. But on Sunday, May 6, many of the people running through Germany’s Dusseldorf Airport won’t be trying to catch a plane – they’ll be demonstrating their Olympic sport.

On Sunday, from 11 am till 6 pm, Dusseldorf Airport will present “Airport Games.” The event that will feature athletes and Olympic participants in full gear playing tennis, soccer, table tennis, rowing and many other sports.

In addition to watching the sports performances, regular airport visitors will be able to participate in the sports. According to an airport statement, “Athletes will guide the audience through various sports, including headis (table tennis played with your head) and crossboccia (boccia played with bean-bag like balls in a borderless, 3-dimensional area.”

Airport Games is part of the monthly event series “Airlebnis” (Air Experience) at DUS, which turns the terminal into a public event space the first Sunday of each month. Past events have included circus performances, ski jumps, singing concerts and other events.

The Kentucky Derby is coming up on Saturday, May 5th and this whole week is the busiest time of the year for Louisville International Airport, SDF.

To make all those horse racing fans feel welcome, the airport decorates the terminal with approximately 2,000 roses and hires musicians to play in the rotunda.

Better yet: volunteers greet arriving passengers with Woodford Reserve bourbon balls.

From the photos airport officials sent me, it looks like everyone – even the airline staff – gets into the race-day spirit.

Be sure to swing back here on Sunday when our Souvenir Sunday feature will share some of the Derby-related souvenirs race fans can pick up at Louisville International Airport.

All photos courtesy of the airport.

Even if you’re not into the “lights out” movement, the idea that places as diverse as casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, the John Hancock Tower in Boston and the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. will turn off the lights for an hour is quite impressive.

Some airports will be participating in Earth Hour as well.

For example, at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the 100-foot-tall LAX Gateway pylons at the airport’s entrance will light solid green one hour before Earth Hour on Saturday, March 31. Then, during Earth Hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., the pylons will be turned off.

And in Chicago, O’Hare and Midway Airports will participate in Earth Hour by turning off non-essential lighting in the terminals, airport facilities and office buildings.

If you know of other airports planning to dim the lights on Saturday, please use the comments section to let us know.

Clinton National Airport? It could happen

The folks who run Little Rock National Airport, in Little Rock, Arkansas (LIT) have big plans for upgrading and expanding the airport.

And with those plans comes a new name: the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration will have to sign off on the new moniker, but at its March 20th meeting, airport commissioners cited the many contributions President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have made to Arkansas through more than three decades of service to the state and to the nation as the reason for voting to rename the airport.

“Hillary and I are humbled by the Little Rock Airport Commission’s decision this morning,” said President Bill Clinton in a statement. “We are grateful for this honor and for all that the people of Arkansas have done for us. And we look forward to many happy landings at the airport in the years ahead.”

While commissioners plan on changing the airport’s name, they’re going to keep the name of the airfield – Adams Field – intact. That names honors Captain George Geyer Adams, 154th Observation Squadron, Arkansas National Guard, a former city council member and airport advocate who was killed in the line of duty on Sept. 4, 1937.
This is, of course, not the first airport to be named for a former president. Others include;

• Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport (SPI) in Springfield, Ill.

• New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)

• The Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR) in Grand Rapids, Mich.

• Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)

• George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) in Houston, Texas

No time to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras? You could go instead to St. Louis.

Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is ready to welcome the thousands of visitors expected to visit St. Louis for the annual Historic Soulard Mardi Gras celebration.

For the third year, the airport is hosting an exhibit of St. Louis Mardi Gras posters dating back to 1982. The month-long exhibit is in the Terminal 1 Baggage Claim and in the Terminal 2 ticketing lobby.

February 17, the day prior to the River City Casino Grand Parade, will be Mardi Gras Day at the airport, so don’t be surprised to find airport employees in Mardi Gras garb and to hear live music in both terminals.

The River City Casino Grand Parade takes place on February 18. The city’s month-long calendar of Mardi Gras events wraps up with the Lumiere Place Light Up the Night Fat Tuesday Parade in downtown St. Louis on February 21. For more information see: www.mardigrasinc.com.

Here’s what’s coming up:

February 10: Charles Marshall “The Jazz Ambassador”

February 17: The Sounds of Essence

February 24: Satin Finish Band

While you’re at ATL, be sure to take a moment to visit the airport’s exhibit honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Located on Concourse E, the exhibit features photographs and artifacts, including the suit King wore when he met with President Lyndon Johnson, a radio he used to listen to news reports while on freedom walks and the robe he wore to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.

And you shouldn’t have to wait until you’re in the city to start your aural adventure.

That’s why I’m delighted to learn that this weekend Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
will be kicking off the Sea-Tac Airport Music Initiative.

The program will include overhead music featuring local artists such as Fences, Beat Connection and Allen Stone, along with local legends ranging from Ray Charles to Heart and Nirvana.

There will also be safety and informational announcements read by local musicians such as Ben Gibbard, LeRoy Bell, Macklemore, Jerry Cantrell and Sir Mix-A-Lot, and video segments on the terminal monitors.

But wait, there’s more:

The project will include a web-based music player available via the airport’s free WiFi and an Android mobile app, that will offer links to the music playlist, videos and local concert listings. (iPhone, Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry apps should be coming soon.)

It’s going to be party-time all the time at Sea-Tac.  So I hope the TSA doesn’t start pulling people out of line for dancing.

I’ll have lots more information shortly, but in the meantime, here’s a video of some of the music you’ll likely hear.