Airport runways

Why is AUS airport messing with runway numbers?

We admit it. We’ve always been mystified by the numbers on the signs along airport runways.

The signs seem even more perplexing when an airport reports that the numbers must be changed because of something going on with magnetic changes in the earth.

So we paid extra attention to this Twitter thread from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS). Now we want to find out more.

World’s Best Airport Hotel: Crowne Plaza Changi Airport

Just like Singapore’s award-winning Changi Airport, there are plenty of reasons to love the award-winning Crowne Plaza Changi Airport.

For starters, it is attached to Changi Airport. That makes the hotel a convenient and very welcoming place to land after, or before, a very long flight.

Amenities such as superb service, deep soaking tubs, an outdoor pool and some rooms with bonus views overlooking the runways are truly delightful.

I’ve just checked in for my second stay at the property. The welcoming vibe after a 17-hour journey is another reason why it is easy to understand how the hotel snags the Skytrax Best Airport Hotel in the World year after year.

Even better, the hotel’s USB press kit comes in the shape of an airplane! That garners the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport another award: Stuck at the Airport’s occasional award for “USB Press Kit of the Week.”

The airport runway: a thing of beauty?

Do you find beauty in airport runways?

Jerome Daksiewicz does.

ORD Runways

He got the idea for the Airport Runway Screenprint Series while working on an architectural project and stumbling across an aerial imagery of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport on Google Earth.

“I simply redrew Sky Harbor, vectorizing the runways and taxiways, then redrew Los Angeles International Airport and Chicago O’Hare,” said Daksiewicz. He let those sit a while and then went back and made runway diagrams for MSP, SFO, LHR, ATL and others.

SFO Runways

Why runways?

“I like how the runways are so purely functional, disregarded by the beauty and attention of multimillion dollar terminals; many of them considered architectural masterpieces. I like how the runways themselves are interconnected and defined by the context of their cities, such as DEN’s weather and wind patterns. And I like how airports are our new gateways: runway concrete or asphalt connecting our cities as the airplane’s wheels first and last points of contact between our destinations.”

Daksiewicz has posted all his airport runway diagrams on the NOMO Design website, where he’s also offering them for sale.