Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci – Fiumicino Airport

Airports celebrate July 4th and the freedom to travel

Like you, airports are celebrating the freedom to travel (again) and also marking July 4th.

And we’re gathering up some of the best July 4th messages airports are sharing.

Kicking us off: the patriotic water feature show in Terminal B at LaGuardia Airport. Also: a cool mural you can watch being made at Leonardo da Vinci airport in Rome featuring some celebrity travelers. And aviation-themed matchbooks from the SFO Museum collection at San Francisco International Airport.

And these great aviation-themed matchbooks from the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport (SFO)

Airports upping their safety act with helmets and more

What are airports up to now?

If you’re heading to an airport now or sometime in the future, the new normal is going to be, well, different.

Masks for everyone, please.

As more and more airlines now require each employee and passenger to cover their mouth and nose with a mask or cloth, airports from Seattle to Singapore are adding that requirement to anyone entering the terminals.

Temperature checks may become the new normal.

Airports in Asia have been scanning travelers’ temperatures for quite some time.

Now Fiumicino Airport in Rome is using ‘smart helmets’ to check the temperature of passengers.

The device is worn by airport workers and allows them to check and measure the body temperature of passengers at a distance.

Frontier Airlines, which stepped back from charging an extra fee to keep middle seats free, will begin pre-boarding temperature screenings for passengers on June 1.

Customers will be screened via touchless thermometers prior to boarding.

If the temperature reading is 100.4 degrees or higher, they will be given time to rest and, if the flight departure time allows, get another temperature check.

“If the second check is 100.4 degrees or higher, a Frontier gate agent will explain to the customer that they will not be flying that day for the health and safety of others,” the airline said in its statement. Any passenger with a 100.4 degrees or higher fever will be offered the option to rebook travel on a later date or make other arrangements.

And don’t be surprised if in the not-too-distant future TSA officers scan you for a fever at the same time they’re looking through your stuff.

What do you think of these moves? Will it make you feel safer when you fly?

Gelato sounds good right now

Some people prepare for a big trip abroad by studying guide books or printing out maps of the airport.  Not my friend Bob Rini. He’s heading to Italy in a few weeks and, as he says, he’s been “soaking up Italian art and history like bread soaks up olive oil.”

From the looks of some of his recent blog postings at the Nine Pound Hammer, he’s also gearing up for some serious immersion adventures.

pleinsoleil1960bel350Hopefully he’ll stay out of trouble.  There are 160 shops at Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci – Fiumicino Airport and I’m counting on him to bring back some goodies for me to feature on Souvenir Sunday.

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