Air Travel

Will in-flight Wi-Fi kill seat-back entertainment?

Air Travel, Entertainment, Wi-Fi, , ,

(From my post earlier this week for msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin)

 

On the ground, the Internet, Wi-Fi and portable mobile devices have completely transformed everything from shopping, working and dating to how we get our news and entertainment. But what about off the ground?

One of the last spaces yet to be completely changed by the Internet is the airline cabin, where in-flight entertainment systems with content controlled by the airline and delivered on seatback screens are still the norm.

But now that in-flight Wi-Fi is fast becoming ubiquitous and affordable — in some cases, free — and as an increasing number of people travel with their own mobile devices, many predict seatback systems will soon go the way of LPs, cassette tapes and film cameras.

“Connectivity will destroy the walled garden,” said Greg Dicum, co-founder and president of MondoWindo, a company that provides web-based, location-aware content to passengers traveling on Wi-Fi equipped planes. “I see no seatback systems on new planes in five years. Especially not on planes flying heavily traveled routes less than five hours in North America, Europe and Asia.

Dicum made his comments at the 2011 Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) Expo in Seattle.

“It’s going to be harder to compete,” he said. People with their own devices who can get to a browser are going to be able to get much better content. And I, for one, would rather have the airline carry my bag or give me some legroom than buy me talking dog movies I have no intention of viewing.”

In an exhibition hall filled with scores  of companies selling the latest in in-flight entertainment equipment and content, few agreed with Dicum’s declarations.

“It may happen. It probably will happen, but so far it’s not happening,” said Adrian Lambert, the head of marketing for IFE Services, a provider of in-flight entertainment. “Airlines moves quite slowly.”

“Yes, more people will bring their own devices, but are my mom and dad going to take an iPod or iTouch with them on vacation?” said Christopher Mondragon, senior manager, design and brand development for Thales Avionics, a provider of in-flight entertainment and connectivity systems.

As he demonstrated one of the company’s latest products — a screen that can be operated by gestures instead of a touchpad — and shared details about the company’s experiments with 3-D programming, he added, “I think it’s going to be more about merging technologies, being innovative and providing a unique experience to any age group.”

What do you think?  WILL in-fight Wi-Fi made seat-back entertainment systems on airplanes obsolete?

 

O’Hare Airport grows an aeroponic garden

Air Travel, Food, , ,

Let’s hope this becomes a trend:

On Friday, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport is opening “the world’s first airport aeroponic garden.”

What’s aeroponic? It’s a way of growing things with just water and a mineral solution; no soil.

What will the garden grow? Fresh vegetables to be used by O’Hare restaurants. It will also, hopefully, be a nice spot for passengers to visit and relax.

I’m planning on heading that way soon to see, and maybe nibble, for myself. But in the meantime, I was pleased to see that WLS-TV got a sneak preview of the garden and of the 44 different types of organic herbs and vegetables growing right there at the airport.

Look for the garden in the rotunda building, between terminals 2 and 3.

Book preview: Checking In/Checking Out

Air Travel, Airplanes, Airports, ,

It’s always nice to discover that you’re not alone. So when I stumbled across the work of Christopher Schaberg, an assistant professor of English at Loyola University in New Orleans, whose book The Textual Life of Airports: Reading the Culture of Flight is due out in November, 2011, I made a note of it here on StuckatTheAirport.com.

Now comes word that Schaberg has rolled out two other airport and air travel-related projects:

The first is a small, sweet, two-sided, reversible book he wrote with poet and Loyola University colleague Mark Yakich titled Checking In/Checking Out.

The book arrived, appropriately enough, on a day I’d spent listening to industry insiders discuss the “passenger experience,” and when I get on the bus to go back to the conference tomorrow I look forward to reading Schaberg’s stories about working at Gallatin Field Airport outside Bozeman, Montana (the Checking In part) and Yakich’s tales of trying to cure his fear of flying (the Checking Out part).

The co-authors have also launched a website called Airplane Reading, dedicated, says Schaberg, “to people’s ordinary and extraordinary stories of air travel.”

How 9/11 changed the airport experience

9/11, Air Travel, Airplanes, Airport guides, Airports, free Wi-Fi, Safety, Security, , ,

 

As the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy rolls around, many travelers are thinking back to where they were that day and what they were doing as the horrific details began to emerge. Some are recounting their blessings, remembering how close they came to being part of the carnage.

Count me among them.

In the summer of 2001, I was on the road promoting my guide book, Stuck at the Airport, which detailed services and amenities at the many of the nation’s airports. (Modern versions of those guides are now online at USATODAY.com) Airport shops offering massages or manicures were a rare find back then; an airport with a website was even rarer.

I got a call from a woman at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, the operator of LaGuardia, JFK and Newark airports. She invited me to visit her office at the World Trade Center and chat with her staff about how airports could be more welcoming. “We can’t pay you to come out here from Seattle,” she said, “But if you’re in town anyway and can come by, we’ll take you out for a nice meal.”

That seemed like a good excuse to visit family back east. So we picked a date: September 12. My thank-you meal would be at Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the North Tower.

Then and now

Since then, as you well know, pretty much everything about the airport experience has changed.

Before 9/11, my airport review ritual went like this: I’d fly into an airport, stash my belongings in a gate-side locker (remember those?), and spend several hours walking from concourse to concourse, terminal to terminal, asking questions, taking pictures and making detailed notes.

On a cheap weekend fare I’d often fly in and out of an airport (or two) on the same day, taking advantage of the long layovers other travelers despise.

I visited more than 100 airports this way, many of them multiple times, and only once – in July, 1999 in Memphis – was I ever stopped by someone from airport security and questioned about what I was doing.

More often than not, it was other travelers who noticed my note-taking and assumed I worked for the airport. They’d stop me to ask for directions and tips on where to shop or find something to eat.

I not only took notes about what was offered inside airports, I made note of what people did in the airports.

Read. Sleep. Chat. Try to get some work done. Eat. Drink. Talk on the telephone. The same as now, but without all the cell phones, laptops and searching around for an electrical outlet.

Back then there were a lot of small children squealing “There’s daddy!” as tired-looking businessmen streamed off planes. And plenty of grandmas and grandpas rushing to plant wet kisses on squirmy babies they may have been meeting for the first time. There were waves of teary goodbyes and joyous reunions at the gates. And thinking back now, I realize the last time I saw my father smile at me before his final illness was at an airport, while we chatted as I waited to board a delayed flight.

Now it’s all grumbling about the Wi-Fi signal and jostling for a good spot so you can board the plane first and find a place to stash your carry-on bag. No last minute kisses, hugs and good wishes as the door to the jet way is about to close. No waves and tears at the window as a plane backs away.

I miss that.

But, setting aside for a moment the long lines, x-ray machines, body scanners and icky, intrusive pat-downs we must now endure at the security checkpoints, the post 9/11 world of airports has some upsides.

Recognizing that passengers were spending lots more time inside airports – and needing to diversify income sources once cash-strapped airlines began balking at footing the bills – airports began bulking up on services and amenities in the terminals.

Now, kiosks offering manicures and massages are no longer rare sightings at airports. Many terminals have wine bars, sports bars and fine restaurants where you can settle in and really relax. The selection of shops at some airports now rivals those offered at neighborhood malls and, with medical clinics, hair salons, pharmacies, convenience stores, play areas, art galleries and – hooray – free Wi-Fi, popping up along many airport concourses, it’s getting easier and easier to get distracted and miss a flight.

I’ve done that; more than twice.

But, as pleasant as it may be to have fun while being stuck at the airport, the sobering reality is that some of these amenities were ushered along in response to tragedy. And while I’m all for safety and security in the skies, I’m still mourning the loss of that one airport amenity that allowed for a last hug from a loved one before stepping onto a plane.

What pre-9/11 airport experience are you missing?

(This article originally appeared on USATODAY.com as my September, 2011 At the Airport column.)


Souvenir Sunday: Alaska Aviation Museum

Air Travel, aviation, Aviation history, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs,

The Alaska Aviation Museum in Anchorage, just down the road from the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, may look small from the outside, but don’t let that fool you.

The museum is jam-packed with restored vintage aircraft, flight simulators, two theaters featuring Alaska aviation films and three hangers filled with bush pilot, military aviation and commercial aviation memorabilia, including items related to Alaska Airlines and other airlines integral to a state with limited ground transportation options.

The museum also has an active restoration hanger and a well-stocked aviation-themed gift shop where I found a few Souvenir Sunday treasures, including these stickers –

And this great 3-D float plane puzzle:

Finding water at the airport

Air Travel, Food, Security, , , ,

Each Friday I have the great pleasure of answering travel questions sent in by readers to msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin blog.

This week the question was about water at the airport.

When Heather Snodgrass flies she likes to stay well-hydrated. But she’d rather not add to landfills by buying bottled water at the airport. “I usually see water fountains, but prefer to have a supply of water with me rather than take multiple trips back to a fountain.”

So in preparation for her next trip, Snodgrass asked Overhead Bin: “Can you travel with an empty bottle, such as sports top bottle, and refill it at water fountains past the TSA checkpoints? I want to avoid losing a great water bottle.”

The short answer is yes.

In fact, many airports around the country are actively encouraging travelers to bring their own empty water bottles along, in part because it’s time-consuming and expensive to cart away all those full or half-full bottles, cans and cups that passengers discard at the security checkpoints.

Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and a growing number of other airports around the country are installing beverage collection stations at the checkpoints to try to cut down on what gets carted off to landfills. “Travelers can pour beverages into the drains and keep the bottles,” said Steve Johnson of Oregon’s Portland International Airport.

For travelers like Snodgrass, who want to make sure they can find a place to fill a water bottle post-security, airports such as San Francisco International Airport and Chicago’s Midway and O’Hare airports are also installing special water bottle refill stations.

SFO has four “hydration stations,” and Chicago’s Midway and O’Hare airports each have two. (The Midway stations are at the entrance to concourses A and B; at O’Hare they are in Terminal 2.) The hands-free, sensor-activated stations at O’Hare also have counters that have been tallying the number of 16-ounce bottles diverted from landfills.

“Together, the two stations at O’Hare have saved 220,717 bottles,” since their installation in June and July 2010, said Gregg Cunningham of the Chicago Department of Aviation.

Advertising & airport checkpoint bins

Advertising, Air Travel, Airports, Security, ,

For my At the Airport column on USATODAY.com this month, I took a look at a program that puts advertising inside the airport checkpoint bins at more than two dozen airports – and how that just may help airports – and the TSA – make the checkpoint experience just a tiny bit better.

Next time you’re inching your way through the line at airport security checkpoint, take a look around.

Do the plastic bins where people plop their laptops, carry-on bags and slip-off shoes look worn and industrial gray or do they look crisp, white and new?

At the majority of the more than 400 U.S. airports, the checkpoints are stocked with those generic, government-issued gray bins. They’re boring, yes, but they do what the TSA needs them to do: they contain your stuff as it sits on the belt that passes through the x-ray machine.

But the checkpoints at more than two dozen airports have those crisp, white bins. In those airports the bins do not only what the TSA needs them to do, they also save the TSA time and money. And because there are advertisements inside these bins, they generate income for the airports.

Not bad for a bunch of recyclable plastic.

Post-9/11 need

The advertisement-bearing bins are the brainchild of Joe Ambrefe, CEO of Security Point Media (SPM) who came up with the idea not long after 9/11, while standing in a long line at an airport security checkpoint.

He realized everyone had to grab a bin and that an advertisement inside each bin was a sure-fire way for a company to reach the desirable demographic of business and leisure travelers.

Ambrefe worked up a plan to provide free bins (and carts to move those bins around) in exchange for the right to sell advertisements on the bins. He chose white bins because “color is an emotive issue and white is a happier color than industrial gray.” He also promised to replace the bins every 90 days with brand new units so that “the components are opening day fresh all the time.”

Testing began in 2007 and now the Bin Advertising Program is in operation Orlando, San Diego, Seattle-Tacoma, JFK, LaGuardia and 21 other airports nationwide and is approved by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for all airports.

The TSA likes the program because it saves the agency money: the free bins represent an overall savings of between $200,000 and $700,000 on the costs of replacing bins. And TSA spokesperson Greg Soule said the program also “reduced injuries associated with lifting bins and improved durability and aesthetics of the checkpoint equipment.”

Airports like the program because it’s generates a bit of extra money and helps improve the checkpoint experience for passengers.

At Los Angeles International Airport, one of the program’s first test sites, spokesperson Nancy Castles says ad revenues helped purchase “the long tables, seating, floor mats, wheeled bin carriers, stanchions, and other equipment that helps streamline the TSA passenger security screening process.” The airport also gets to place its own advertising in some of the bins and is currently promoting its LAX FlyAway bus service.

At Nashville International, an early test airport which officially signed up with the program in 2010, spokesperson Emily Richard said, “We have experienced significant and consistent improvement of the appearance of the checkpoint since SPM started managing the process.” She added that year-to-date income from the program is $7,500.

And in Houston, where the Hobby and George Bush Intercontinental airports joined the program in June, Houston Airport System’s concessions manager Randy Goodman described the benefits as “bright new bins and a streamlined process,” and a share of the advertising income that’s should net the airport about $26,000 for the first six months.”

Even better bins?

Ambrefe hopes to expand the bin advertising program to other airports and continues to tweak the system. He said that while the company has not considered providing separate bins for shoes –a suggestion put forth by some groups concerned about checkpoint health risks – “antimicrobial products for use at the checkpoints are in research.”

In the meantime, both Ambrefe and the TSA might make note of the checkpoint procedures in place at Canada’s Prince Rupert Airport, in northern British Columbia. The airport has color-coded bins for boots and shoes and, for the past 18 years, the security team has cleaned all the bins after each of the six daily flights.

“It’s nice to know that when you lay down your suit jacket or coat that the bin has not previously contained any dirty boots or other contaminated item,” said airport manager Richard Reed.

“The bins are cleaned to protect the health of the screening agents and the traveling public,” said team leader Virginia Toro. “We treat the checkpoint as we do our home: clean is the rule of the day.”

Here are the 26 airports currently in the TSA-approved Bin Advertising Program
Source: TSA

1. Jacksonville International Airport, Jacksonville, Florida
2. John Wayne-Orange County Airport, Santa Ana, California
3. Lafayette Regional Airport, Lafayette, Louisiana
4. Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California
5. Lovell Field Airport, Chattanooga, Tennessee
6. McGhee Tyson Airport, Knoxville, Tennessee
7. Nashville International Airport, Nashville, Tennessee
8. Ontario International Airport, Ontario, California
9. Reno/Tahoe International Airport, Reno, Nevada
10. Richmond International Airport, Richmond, Virginia
11. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Seattle, Washington
12. Tulsa International Airport, Tulsa, Oklahoma
13. Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, Wichita, Kansas
14. Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina
15. Denver International Airport, Denver, Colorado
16. Newark Liberty International Airport, Newark, New Jersey
17. John F. Kennedy International Airport, Queens, New York
18. LaGuardia Airport, Queens, New York
19. Orlando International Airport, Orland, Florida
20. Chicago Midway International Airport, Chicago, Illinois
21. Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois
22. San Diego International Airport, San Diego, CA
23. McGhee Tyson Airport, Louisville, Tennessee
24. Houston Intercontinental
25. Houston Hobby
26. Miami International Airport

Free “Catch Me If You Can” show at JetBlue’s T5

Air Travel, Airports, Environment, , , ,

If you’re traveling to or through JetBlue’s Terminal 5 at JFK airport on Thursday, August 11, 2011, boy are you in luck.

At 3:30 pm, cast members from the Broadway musical Catch Me If You Can will be presenting a free performance featuring six excerpts from the musical.

The musical is based on the film that was based on the life of Frank W. Abagnale, Jr., who forged checks, posed as a pilot, a doctor and a lawyer, and generally lived the high life until getting busted by a determined FBI agent.

Here’s a sneak peek:

A Montana airport’s fun checkpoint video

Air Travel, Fun Stuff, Security, , ,

Next time you’re standing in line at an airport security checkpoint, look around to see if there’s a instructional video running to tell passengers how to prepare for the screening process.  If there is a video being shown, chances are it will be a yawner.

But as I discovered for this story on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin, there are ways to share this information that are lot more fun:

Cindi Martin was tired of seeing long lines at the security checkpoint at Glacier Park International Airport in Kalispell, Mont. And even though she’s the airport director, Martin felt her hands were tied. “I cannot tell TSA officers to work faster or change protocol to help streamline the process,” she said.

What she could do was change things outside the checkpoint. So she asked a popular local band that often performs parodies to put together a peppier version of the rather dry Transportation Security Administration video now shown to passengers at the checkpoint.

“We took the TSA video home. And, oh my gosh, it is the most boring sort of government video we’re all used to seeing,” said Steve Riddle, who performs with Nick Terhaar and Greg Devlin as the Singing Sons of Beaches.

The band began working on a song that included all the information in the TSA video. “Things like knives, liquids, scissors, belts and shoes off, etc.,” said Riddle. “We used it all. And we made it rhyme.”

And they made it funny, with a catchy beat.

Dressed in shorts and flowered shirts, band members sing instructions (“No guns or knives or pepper spray, no sharp pointy scissors on the flight today”) and are shown trying to take a shotgun, a six-shooter, a meat cleaver, a giant pair of clippers, a cartoon-style bomb and other forbidden items through the checkpoint. A TSA officer – a real one who was standing by when the airport terminal closed for filming – has a cameo as a finger-wagging screener.

“We are aware of this local video created by the airport and approve of the travel tips provided to prepare passengers for screening,” said TSA spokesperson Greg Soule.

The video now plays on a continuous loop at the airport, along with the original TSA video.

“I’m getting calls from people who are driving out to the airport, paying to park and going in just to watch the video,” said Riddle.

Glacier Park International Airport may have the most danceable checkpoint video, but it’s not the first to offer travelers something a bit different to look at.

In 2004 and 2005, McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas worked with local partners to create a 13-part TSA-approved, pre-checkpoint video series that features Las Vegas performers offering checkpoint tips. Included in the series are Wayne Newton, Rita Rudner, Carrot Top, the Blue Man Group, an Elvis impersonator, clowns from Cirque du Soleil, and Wolfgang Puck. You can watch those videos here.

Online museum of flight attendant uniforms

Air Travel, Aviation history, Exhibits, Fashion, Museums, ,

This was a treat: for msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin blog, I profiled Cliff Muskiet’s on-line museum of more than 1000 flight attendant uniforms.

The address for his website — uniformfreak.com — says it all.

Cliff Muskiet, an aviation-crazed kid who grew up to be a flight attendant for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, has amassed a collection of more than 1,000 flight attendant uniforms.

“Only stewardess uniforms,” said Muskiet. “The female uniforms come in various colors, materials and with different accessories like hats, scarves and gloves. Male uniforms all look the same: jacket, pants, plain shirt and a tie, most men’s uniforms are dark blue and quite boring.”

Muskiet got his first few uniforms in the 1970s and 80s. After a 1993 stop in Ghana, where he picked up some old Ghana Airways uniforms, he began collecting in earnest.

“I love the 1970s psychedelic patterns and color combinations: yellow, red, orange, purple, green, white and blue; every color was used and everything was possible,” Muskiet said. “Also flower prints, dots or checked fabrics were used a lot. I love the big pointy collars from the 70s and synthetic fabrics.”

Muskiet keeps his collection of uniforms and accessories in closets, containers, garment bags and suitcases in two rooms of his home in Amsterdam. For display in his online museum, he photographs each uniform on his one mannequin, which is a size 2.

“I have uniforms in a size 2, but also in a size 10 or 14,” he said. “When she has to wear a size 14, I use pins to make the uniform look nice at the front.”

Among his favorites are two KLM uniforms that have sentimental value: a circa 1971 uniform that was the first one given to him and an example of the KLM uniforms worn from 1975 through 1982. “The uniforms remind me of my childhood and the many trips I made to the USA on KLM with my mother,” said Muskiet. Some of his other favorites are the uniforms worn by female flight attendants on Asiana Airlines in the 1990s, on Kuwait Airways and United Airlines from 1968-1971 and the current outfits worn by TAP Portugal and British Caledonian.

“In the late 1960s and 1970s, a lot of different colors were used and that is something I really miss,” he said. “Especially in the USA, flight attendant uniforms have become a bit boring and look like business outfits.”

A tour through Muskiet’s online museum is anything but boring. “From looking at so many uniforms, you can see trends that correlate with the events of the time and learn about the role of the flight attendant throughout history,” said Kathrine Browne, collections assistant at Seattle’s Museum of Flight. Browne helped put together two popular exhibitions featuring flight attendant uniforms — called “Style in the Aisle” — taken from the museum’s 1,500-piece collection. She is unaware of an online collection that can compare with Muskiet’s. “The collection is exceptional.”

Muskiet is always on the lookout for more uniforms and says he enjoys everything about his job as a purser for KLM. “Except the time differences. One week you are in Hong Kong and the next week you are in New York: time difference 13 hours! The older you get, the more difficult it is to deal with this, but it is all worth it.”

Especially if you’re wearing the right, stylish uniform.