Holidays

Skip the North Pole. Go to the airport.

Holidays

A record number of travelers are getting to their holiday gatherings by air this year. So airports are having fun bringing some of the North Pole into the terminals.

Here’s some merry.

Irish skies will be clear for Santa

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Airports everywhere are getting ready for a record-breaking number of holiday travelers. But one special traveler (Santa…) is assured of clear skies and no delays at Dublin Airport – and throughout Ireland.

Alaska Airlines offers early boarding to holiday sweater-wearers on Dec 15

Holidays,

December 15 is National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day and to mark the holiday anyone wearing a holiday sweater (ugly or not) will be offered priority boarding on Alaska Airlines or Horizon Air flights.

Holiday sweater-wearers with flights that day will be invited to board after group B and throughout December all travelers will be greeted with festive decor and boarding music, as well as holiday movies.

If you don’t have a favorite holiday sweater or want to add to your collection with the 2023 edition of Alaska Airline’s holiday sweater, you’re in luck. The carrier is selling this year’s sweater online (for $42) in sizes small to 5X large at its Company Store website and in the Alaska Company store near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. (Address: 19235 International Blvd, SeaTac, WA 98198).

You can also place an order via email (Company.store@alaskaair.com).

The Stuck at the Airport shopping team is based in Seattle and makes an annual pilgrimage to the Alaska Airlines shop for fun gifts for our favorite flyers. In addition to sweaters, t-shirts, and other apparel, the shop has a fun assortment of Alaska Airlines-themed gifts for everyone – including pets and kids – and several sizes of airplane models.

Holiday Travel Tidbits

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The Stuck at the Airport team was in Geneva, Switzerland this week for an education day with officials at the International Air Transport Association, IATA.

Topics ranged from passenger rights and travel accessibility issues to earnings, sustainability, biometrics, safety, security, air cargo, and more. We’ll be folding what we learned into many of our stories going forward, but we are glad that the odd holiday ‘decoration’ we spotted a few years ago at Geneva Airport was nowhere to be seen this time through.

Airports and airlines elsewhere approach the holidays with a more festive outlook.

Munich Airport (currently recovering from the fallout of a snow closure) transforms each winter into a holiday destination complete with ice skating and curling rinks.

Orlando International Airport (MCO) and many other airports also go all out with holiday decorations throughout their terminals.

Air Canada released its annual charming (if somewhat syrupy) holiday video:

But we still love this heartwarming video with the story of the Heathrow Bears from Heathrow Airport .

Airline socks for National Sock Day

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Yesterday we did a round-up of airport socks for National Sock Day. Today, we’re putting the other foot forward and sharing some airline sock news.

First up: Striped socks from Condor Airlines

Condor Airlines – which is all about the stripes – is teaming up with the folks at Happy Socks for a line of striped socks to match the colored stripes on the Condor aircraft.

They are starting with the “Happy Socks X Condor – Arrive in Style” collection for employees and will soon make the socks available to the general public. So you will soon be able to match your socks to your plane.

The Stuck at the Airport sock team dipped into the archives to see what other socks we’ve picked up on airlines over the years. Let us know if you’ve got some to add.

These are from JetBlue:

Here are some socks that Delta Air Lines gave out.

And here are some socks designed by Luly Yang for Alaska Airlines