This looks like fun:
On Tuesday, June 7, 2011 there was a surprise, flash mob-style dance performance at Miami International Airport to celebrate TAP Portugal’s new Miami-Lisbon route.
Air Travel
Souvenir Sunday at Vancouver Int’l Airport
Each Sunday here at StuckatTheAirport.com is Souvenir Sunday – the day we look at fun, inexpensive and somewhat offbeat items you can pick up at the airport.
This week’s treats come from Vancouver International Airport.
I found this cute pink octopus at the airport’s Vancouver Aquarium shop:
A souvenir shop offered up these cute moose Mounties –
But my pick for Souvenir Sunday this week are these corny Bear Breath Mints:
Do you poke around the shops when you’re stuck at the airport? If you find something fun, inexpensive (around $10), and “of” the city or region, please snap a photo and send it along.
If your souvenir is featured on Souvenir Sunday, I’ll send you a fun air travel-related gift.
Airlines alter menus in response to E coli outbreak
The news about the outbreak of a “super-toxic” strain of E. coli bacteria in Europe is terrible: at least 18 people killed so far and more than 1,600 sickened.
As I wrote on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin, the culprit may be bacteria on cucumbers, lettuce and other salad ingredients, so just to be safe, American and some other airlines have decided to temporarily remove salads from menus on flights departing Europe.
“We are adjusting our menus out of Europe by eliminating leafy salads, lettuce and tomato garnishes and adding either a pasta salad or grapes,” said America Airline spokesperson Tim Smith. “We are replacing the salad menu items with other menu options to pre-empt any risk and alleviate concerns.”
The airline has alerted travelers to this action with a notice on its website, which also states:
“We will closely monitor and take direction from the local health authorities and the World Health Organization and return to the original menu when we believe it is safe to do so.”
Other airlines, and the companies that prepare in-flight meals for airlines, are also making menu changes.
Lufthansa Airlines spokesperson Martin Riecken said after the May 25 warning from the German Robert-Koch institute about eating cucumbers, salads and tomatoes in North Germany, LSG Sky Chefs, the company that prepares in-flight meals for Lufthansa and 300 other airlines, “initiated preventive action to adjust its meal production in Germany.”
The company stopped the use of raw cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce and is providing substitute products for meals on flights out of Germany until mid-June.
Delta Air Lines spokesperson Chris Kelly Singley said the airline is monitoring the situation, but “at this time, Delta is not pulling salads from our flights departing Europe.”
And I’m waiting to hear back again from a representative at Gate Gourmet, which on its website boasts 270-plus customers at 120 airport locations around the globe.
Their written statement to me at the end of the day didn’t say whether or not any of their airline customers had changed their menus in response to the E. coli scare, only that:
“We are monitoring very closely what the European and global regulatory agencies are reporting and working with our customers to quickly implement alternate suppliers, if necessary.”
Manchester United players in Turkish Airlines Safety Video
Here’s another celebrity airplane safety video: soccer players from Manchester United pop up for Turkish Airlines.
Are airports doing enough for families?
Are airports doing all they can for families?
Orlando International Airport has a Build-A-Bear store and a giant aquarium. Zurich Airport has staffed playrooms filled with toys, dolls, books, computer games, painting supplies and building sets. Singapore’s Changi International Airport has a four-story indoor slide. And like Las Vegas (above) many airports have fun aviation-themed play areas.
But as I wrote on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin blog today, a recent survey of more than 1,000 travelers conducted by Skyscanner, a European-based flight search site, suggests that many travelers think airports could do more.
According to the survey, almost 60 percent of participants would like to see soft play areas at airports, while more than half want areas where kid-oriented TV shows or films could be offered.
Also on the wish list were special play areas restricted to the under-five crowd, video game zones, storytelling services, stroller rentals and a kids’ café and bar with complimentary refreshments.
What kid-oriented amenities would you like to see added to airports?
American Airlines changes rules for gate-checking strollers
On msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin blog, I wrote about the new gate-check rule American Airlines is now enforcing for strollers.
Beginning June 1, 2011, American Airlines is no longer gate-checking certain strollers.
If you show up with a collapsible or umbrella-style stroller under 20 pounds, you’ll still be able to gate-check your stroller. But under the new policy, large, jogging and non-collapsible strollers will have to be checked at the ticket counter.
The good news is that checked strollers will travel fee-free.
“It is simply a matter of many strollers these days being very large and not being collapsible and easily handled at the gate and on the jet bridge,” said an American Airlines’ spokesperson.
United also requires passengers to check big strollers at the ticket counter, but Alaska, Delta, Southwest and several other airlines allow strollers of any kind to be checked at the gate. “We know that traveling with little ones can be a challenge,” said Southwest spokesperson Laurel Moffat. “We want to make that travel experience as easy as possible.”
Resources for traveling with your pet
Do you travel with your pooch?
If you take your dog to the airport, it’s good to know where the pet rest areas are located.
The folks at PetFriendlyTravel.com recently dropped me a note to let me know that they’ve updated their list of airline pet policies and the database listing the location of pet relief areas at airports.
And, just in time for summer, they’ve also updated the list of beaches that welcome dogs.
Photo via Flickr Commons
Airports employ nibble fish and honeybees
Forget the backrub. There’s now a fish pedicure spa at London’s busy Stansted Airport.
In a new airport offering, travelers can put their bare feet into aquariums filled with Garra Rufa or ‘doctor fish’ and let the fish nibble away at the dead skin.
This is in the news because it’s the first fish spa at a London airport, but it’s not the first airport fish spa.
A branch of Refresh Bodyworks at Singapore’s Changi Airport also offers passengers the opportunity to have their feet “polished” by fish.
The nibbling fish aren’t the only animals being put to work at airports.
In Germany, bees will help monitor the air quality around the new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (BBI), which is being built on the grounds of Schoenefeld Airport.
According to a statement from the airport, honey, honeycombs and bees belonging to beekeepers in the region will be monitored for signs of pollution caused by air traffic.
This isn’t the first airport to enlist bees. According to a June, 2010 article in the NYT, there are also bees on duty at Dusseldorf International and seven other German airports.
And while we’re buzzing about bees:
More than a dozen Fairmont Hotels in Canada, the US and other countries also have bees on duty.
Most have rooftop hives, but the Fairmont Vancouver Airport has 24 colonies at McDonald Beach Park, five minutes from the airport. The hotels use the harvested honey in everything from cocktails and special restaurant dishes to soap and honey sticks.
In my neck of the woods, the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle is just now getting five rooftop hives and the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria, B.C. is getting 10.
Sweet!
NASA: savvy art collector
Turns out NASA hasn’t been focusing all its energy on poking around in space.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has also been creating a unique and, now, very valuable art collection.
Chip and Batty Explore Space, by William Wegman. Courtesy NASA Art Program
It started back in 1962 with the creation of the NASA Art Program and ever since then the agency has been inviting well known artists to document the space program.
The work includes paintings, drawings photographs, sculptures and other media by the likes of Annie Leibovitz, Nam June Paik, Robert Rauschenberg, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, William Wegman (above) and Jamie Wyeth.
Curious to see what they’ve got? Starting Saturday, May 28, 2011, more than 70 pieces from the collection go on view in Washington, D.C. at the National Air and Space Museum.
Here are a few more samples:
This 1965 painting by Norman Rockwell shows astronauts John Young and Gus Grissom suiting up for the first flight of the Gemini program in March 1965. As in the William Wegman photo above, NASA loaned Norman Rockwell a spacesuit so the work would be as accurate as possible.
Liftoff at 15 seconds by Jack Perlmutter, 1982
Space Shuttle Columbia rises from Kennedy Space Center on its third flight into space, on March 22, 1982.
These and close to 70 other space-related art pieces from NASA’s collection are on display as part of NASA | ART: 50 Years of Exploration at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. May 28 – October 9, 2011.
Thanks, NASA!
At home, you can still read the in-flight magazine
Do you read the airline magazine tucked into the seatback pocket?
A lot of these publications are getting awfully thin and awfully boring. A few have disappeared altogether.
And some have popped up on-line.
Take a look at the latest issue of KLM’s iFly magazine.
The theme is “Light” and there are loads of great images, stories, videos, music, and audio clips and interviews.
There’s an interview with an astronaut, tips on visiting Berlin, a variety of other great multi-media features and an incredible slide-show of photographs by Censi Goepel and Jens Warnecke, who create images with amazing light effects.
The story includes videos showing how the duo make some of the images.