Airports

Chillin’ out at Philadelphia and Seattle International airports

Airports, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, ,

It may not be so bad to get stuck at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) this summer.

The airport has kicked off its summer-long “Just Plane Fun” program, which includes a full-schedule of special events, live entertainment, food and beverage samplings, artist demonstrations and children’s activities.

Coming up next week: instant giveaways, art demonstrations, beauty makeovers, a sushi-making class and more. See the full list on the PHL website.

There are also two locations of the popular “Chillin’ Room” – areas with sofas and tables where travelers can hang out, get work done and wait for their flights.

 

Look for the Chillin’ Room now in Terminal A-East, across from the Information Counter and in the Terminal D/E Connector, between the Life is Good and Mindworks stores, but keep in mind that plans are for the Chillin’ Room to be moved to various locations around the airport throughout the summer.

You’ll also find a spot where you can chill out – quietly – at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The airport has turned an empty gate area – B4 – into an official Quiet Zone where overhead announcements and TV monitors are turned off

Quiet Zone at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

There are signs asking passengers to keep the area as a quiet zone for working, reading and relaxing and soon there may be water features and other amenities added, but for now
“cellphones are not banned,” said SEA spokesperson Perry Cooper, “and we expect a natural self-policing and sense of respect for the area.”

How to get a free (public transit) ride from the airport

Airports, ground transporation, Transportation, ,

(Here’s my June “At the Airport” column for USA TODAY)

 

Want a free ride to town from the airport? In Boston this summer, you’ll get your wish.

In what is apparently a first for a North American airport, Boston Logan International is waiving the $2 fare for all passengers who ride the inbound Silver Line bus from the airport to South Station in downtown Boston. From there, the transfer to the subway – known as the “T” – is free.

The clean-fuel Silver Line buses have been in operation since 2005, have room for luggage and make the trip in from the airport in 20-40 minutes (depending on which terminal you board at), a bit longer than it takes to drive.

The 90-day, free-ride pilot program, called “On Us,” should be a hit with many of the city’s summer visitors, who might otherwise pay $25 or more for a cab ride into the city. But a major goal of the program is to convince locals to switch to the bus and stop paying to park their cars in the airport’s central garage.

At first glance, that part of the program seems a bit counter-intuitive. “Parking is a critical revenue source for North American airports,” said Debby McElroy of Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA), an airport trade group. In fact, according to the organization’s 2011 Airport Concessions Benchmarking Survey, parking accounts for 42% of non-aeronautical revenue at airports. “These funds allow airports to modernize facilities, which ultimately benefits travelers,” said McElroy.

So why would Logan Airport decide to spend close to $300,000 to subsidize free bus rides for three months and encourage customers to leave their cars – and their cash – at home?

The answer is space, and not enough of it.

Sprawling airports in Denver and Dallas/Fort Worth sit on vast tracts of land beyond or between urban centers, but Logan has a very small footprint – just 1,700 acres – and is only three miles from downtown Boston. And while the airport’s passenger numbers keep growing (BOS expects to serve close to 30 million passengers this year), due to a regulatory cap limiting commercial parking, space at the airport’s central garages cannot.

The bottom line, is that “Logan cannot build new garages to meet demand,” David S. Mackey, Massport’s Interim CEO & Executive Director said in a statement. (Massport, the Massachusetts Port Authority, owns and operates Boston Logan Airport).

Instead, Logan has been trying to wean passengers from driving to the airport. In March, the daily parking rate in the central garage was raised $3, to $27. At the same time, the daily parking rate at Massport’s suburban lots was lowered to $7, down $4.

The Silver Line “On Us,” pilot program is the next step in that weaning. As part of the effort to reduce curb congestion and bulk up high occupancy vehicle (HOV) usage, the airport has hired and placed extra staff outside the terminals to explain the program to passengers. “We’re collecting information and counting the boardings and the loads at the bus stops at each terminal,” said Carl Leiner, Massport’s deputy director of economic planning and development. “There are people with stop watches calculating the dwell times, which is the amount of time people spend waiting for the bus.”

While no other airports are jumping to match Logan’s free-ride offer just yet, many are watching closely.

“We applaud Logan’s efforts and the fact their parking is full,” said Perry Cooper, spokesperson for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which has a 13,000-space parking garage. “We have not reached a point where we are filling our garage regularly. However, we have been working to encourage light rail use with discount parking offers for sporting events to relieve the traffic and parking problems downtown.”

With 25,000 parking spaces on property, Los Angeles International Airport doesn’t have a parking problem either, but, as part of a longstanding emissions reduction program, it does operate express “FlyAway” shuttle buses to Van Nuys and Union Station (Fare: $7), Westwood (Fare: $10) and Irvine Station (Fare $25).

Miami International Airport (MIA) isn’t reporting a parking crunch either. But while “a good portion” of airport revenue does come from parking fees, airport spokesperson Marc Henderson says the airport is delighted that, since it began operating in December 2010, more than a million people have used the Airport Flyer Express bus that goes to Miami Beach and downtown Miami. The bus has luggage racks, free Wi-Fi and makes the trip in 35 minutes.

“It’s a good way to get people down to the beach who may not want to rent a vehicle and deal with parking,” said MIA spokesperson Marc Henderson. “At $2.35 each way, the service is inexpensive. And it’s done well,” he said.

The 90-day, free-ride pilot program, called ‘On Us,’ should be a hit with many of the city?s summer visitors, who might otherwise pay $25 or more for a cab ride into the city.

Moving people out of cars at the airport can be a challenge. While there is a local bus route in Houston that serves the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, in August 2011, the Metropolitan Transit Authority decided to cancel express bus service to the airport “because of low passenger numbers,” said airport spokesperson Darian Ward.

 

Back in Boston, airport spokesperson Matthew Brelis says while “no determination has yet been made,” passengers may find that the free bus rides from Logan into town extend past the 90-day test period. Brelis says that “improving curbside traffic flow and reducing parking congestion” is the main reason the airport is offering the free rides, but “if passengers are thrilled with the service and delighted that it’s free, it’s icing on the cake.”

Photos courtesy Boston Logan Airport

 

At some airports: iPads, balloons and movies

Airports, Entertainment, ,

Who says airports aren’t full of entertainment?

iPads for everyone

JFK DELTA


The company that installed complimentary iPads for passenger use near some gates in Terminals 2 and 3 at JFK and in LaGuardia’s Terminal D, plans to expand the concept to other areas of LaGuardia and to Minneapolis-St. Paul International and Toronto Pearson International airports within the next 12 to 18 months.

The currently installed iPads allow passengers to check email, play games, browse the web and order up a meal or snack from a nearby eatery.

Now, this  GigaOM article  tells us, OTG Management, which operates a variety of dining outlets at nine airports  plans to expand the program considerably, with up to 100,000 iPads installed in airports throughout the U.S.

BNA’s Big Balloon

As part of its 75th anniversary celebration, Nashville International Airport (BNA) will have balloon artists on site on June 17 to build a half-scale balloon model of a DC-3 aircraft, the first plane to land at the airport. The completed sculpture, to be made of environmentally friendly balloons, will stay in the terminal for about a month.

Movie night at SFO

And, Thursday evening, June 21st, will be movie night at the aviation museum inside San Francisco International Airport. On the schedule: The High and the Mighty, starring John Wayne, who plays Dan Roman, “a troubled commercial airline pilot who finds personal redemption when a Honolulu to San Francisco flight turns out to be anything but routine.” Admission to movie night is $10 and includes airport parking and, we hope, complimentary popcorn.

Tidbits for travelers: new airport, new avatar on duty

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Mari, a Stuck at The Airport reader who works in air navigation in Georgia – the country, not the state – wrote to draw our attention to the King David the Builder International Airport being built in Kutaisi, Georgia by the Dutch architectural firm, UNStudio.

The airport is scheduled to be completed by September, 2012. Here’s what the tower is going to look like:

(Photo courtesy UNStudio)

Very futuristic-looking, right?

At Washington Dulles International Airport, the future is already here.

A 3D-looking Tensator Virtual Assistant – Dulles has named her “Paige” – is on duty welcoming passengers, offering Customs and Border Protection information and sharing connecting flight information in the International Arrivals Building.

Here’s a video (taken by an airport representative) of Paige in action:

Perfume that smells like the airport

Airports, Souvenirs

I smell London, I smell France. And, if I shell out $45 per bottle, I can get a whiff of Miami, Munich, Tokyo and 14 other cities.

A new line of city-centric scents, identified by their airport city codes — CDG (Paris), LHR (London), DXB (Dubai) — and packaged in slender bottles with labels that look like checked baggage tags, are available at some duty free shops in international airports and a few beyond-the-airport-boutiques.

Scent of Departure is advertised as “the essence of a city in a bottle.” Each 50-milliliter bottle (about 1.7 ounces, which means it won’t be confiscated by TSA) is collectible, offbeat and wearable by men and women.

“The packaging is great and they each smell like that city in a weird way,” said Jessica Richards, co-owner of Shen Beauty, a boutique cosmetic and beauty shop in Brooklyn. Richards prefers the DPS scent (Bali), a city she’s not yet visited. Tourists are coming in to buy multiple bottles of the NYC fragrance as mementos of their trips, she said. The scent is designed to “recreate a walk in the middle of Central Park” and smell “crisp … with sparkling and sourish notes of apple,” according promotional materials.

“You’re like, ‘Ew, New York City. What comes to mind are rats and the smell of nuts, hot dog stands and other street meat,” Richards said. “But the NYC scent doesn’t smell like trash at all. In fact, you’d never imagine that New York City smelled that good.”

Scent of Departure isn’t the first company to link scents to a city. “I definitely think of fragrances when I think of a place,” said David Klass, co-owner of Archipelago Botanicals which has an Excursion candles collection bearing the names and evocative scents of destinations such as Havana, Kashmir, Istanbul and Charleston.

“I like the association of the name of the airport with a fragrance,” he said. “I see CDG and I don’t think of just the airport. In my mind I’m in Paris, France. And that evokes very specific meanings in terms of what I will feel like when walking around that city. I think Scent of Departure will be successful, especially if the fragrances are true.”

My story, “New fragrance offers whiff of a city in a bottle,” first appeared on msnbc  Travel

 

Avatars to offer assistance at NY-area airports

Airports, Bathrooms, Power Outlets, Safety, Transportation, , , ,

On Monday, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey introduced a wide variety of customer service improvements at JFK, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia airports, but it was AVA, the airport virtual assistant, that got all the attention.

In July, when the computerized avatars begin offering automated information at LaGuardia’s Central Terminal Building, at Newark’s Terminal B and at JFK’s Terminal 5, it will be the first time the hologram-like technology will be used at a North American airport.

Other improvements to be rolled out in the next 90 days include additional (live) customer care agents during peak travel times, an expanded effort to halt taxi hustling, the installation of additional power poles to charge electronic devices and cleaner restroom facilities.

Here are some more details from the plan:

At Newark Liberty, more than 100 chairs and more than 50 tables will be added to food courts in Terminals A and B, full-time restroom attendants will be on duty in Terminal A and additional quality control visits will be made to airport stores “to ensure customers are treated fairly.”

Newark, JFK, LaGuardia (and Stewart International Airport) are now included in the free FlySmart mobile app that offers real-time flight notifications for smart phones, terminal maps and basic listings for ground transportation and concessions.

The Port Authority is also starting a “We Listen” campaign to give travelers a chance to meet with airport management.

These short-term initiatives, the Port Authority points out, dovetail with the agency’s long-term efforts to improve the infrastructure at all three airports.

It all sounds promising. Except perhaps for those virtual assistants. In the promo “AVA” says she never takes a vacation, but when I arrived at Dubai International Airport recently, the representative meeting our group said the virtual assistants that were supposed to be on duty there hadn’t been working “for quite some time.”

At JFK airport, some workers getting trained to be N.I.C.E.

Airports, Etiquette, ,

Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone who worked at the airport was nice?

At John F. Kennedy International Airport, they’re working on it.

On May 22, 30 veterans who work at the airport for several airlines, government agencies and private security and service companies will get N.I.C.E (Neutralize Irritations Customers Experience) program training to teach them how to use skills learned in the military to help frustrated passengers at the airport.

Many other airport employees at JFK have already gone through N.I.C.E training offered by the Human Resiliency Institute based at New York’s Fordham University, which also has a special program for veterans. Now the program is tapping vets already working at the airport to use their leadership skills to help enhance customer service.

“Through our Edge4Vets program, we at Fordham have first-hand knowledge of the strong leadership strengths vets possess,” said institute director Tom Murphy. “Now we’re tapping resources offered by vets working at the airport and training them to apply their inherent leadership strengths and their ‘N.I.C.E.’ tools to help their airport enhance service.”

Murphy said the special N.I.C.E. Corps training for veterans at the kick-off event in JFK Terminal 4 Tuesday will include will include role–playing exercises in which the veterans will use the keen observation skills they’ve learned in the military to spot and come to the aid of passengers in need of assistance. Members of the N.I.C.E. Corps will also be trained to note when other airport employees go out of their way to help frustrated passengers and to document those success stories on the ‘N.I.C.E’ website.

Employees caught using N.I.C.E. skills become eligible to win a variety of incentive awards, including gift checks, meals, and hotel stays. Two veterans participating in the JFK N.I.C.E. Corps will win a fishing trip to Alaska so they can catch salmon for a salmon-bake for the whole team.

The chance of winning that fishing trip isn’t what convinced veteran Egbert Haynes, a TSA supervisor at JFK, to volunteer to be captain of the JFK N.I.C.E. Corps. “I’m from New York; when I need fish I go to the fish market,” said Haynes. “But when I heard of the program and saw the potential to recognize the good things done daily by airport employees outside of their job description, it all made sense.”

In addition to JFK, employees at Los Angeles International Airport, Pittsburgh International Airport and Manchester-Boston Regional Airport have been trained in the N.I.C.E. program.

*My story, JFK trains its workers to be N.I.C.E., first appeared on msnbc.com.

Berlin Brandenburg Airport opening date now March 2013

Airports, Design,

Things seem to be going from bad to worse at the yet-to-open Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport.

(Photo courtesy: Alexander Obst/Marion Schmieding/Berlin Brandenburg Airport)

After announcing that the planned June 3 opening date would be postponed for about three months, yesterday the airport’s supervisory board announced that the opening will now be pushed back until March 17, 2013.

The airport also announced the dismissal of the managing director for operations and construction and termination of the contract with the project management company for the airport.

On May 8, the airport company announced that the planned June 3 opening date for the new airport would be postponed due to a problem with fire safety systems at the airport. They thought they could solve that problem in three months by putting together an interim, partially automated system. But, evidently, that solution won’t work.

The plan now is to complete the fire safety and control system by December 2012 and open the airport once winter – and the potential for more headaches from adverse winter conditions – is over.

According to a statement released today,

“The Supervisory Board …followed the recommendation of the management and decided that all construction work should be completed first before the remaining necessary steps are taken that will allow the airport to commence operations. These steps entail the so-called impact and complex inspection by certified experts, subsequent inspection by the Building Standards Authority, further trial runs, designation of the airport site as a security area, and delivery of goods to storage facilities, shops and restaurants.”

Spend Mother’s Day at the airport

Airport shops, Airports, Events, Free Stuff, Holidays, , , , , ,

Airports around the country are rolling out the red carpet for Mother’s Day with special events, free gifts and shopping discounts. Here’s a round-up:

Keeping with their tradition, Volunteer Airport Ambassadors at Florida’s Jacksonville International Airport will have about 1000 carnations to hand out to moms passing through the airport on Mother’s Day.

At Miami International Airport they’re celebrating Mother’s Day Friday through Sunday with discounts, gifts-with-purchase and freebies in the shops, foil-wrapped chocolate roses for moms and events that include live music, a pick-a-pearl game with real oysters and a chance to make last-minute Mother’s Day cards and photo postcards.
(Find the coupons and event locations here.)

At Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway Airports, food and retail concessions posting the sign above will be handing out free flower seed packets (zinnias) to moms from Friday, May 11 through Sunday, May 13, 2012. (While supplies last).

There are also special Mother’s Day sales and gift-with-purchase offers going on at Philadelphia International Airport , at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, at the Swatch stores in JFK International Airport, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and at Boston’s Logan Airport.