IAH Airport

IAH: 5 Thing We Love About George Bush Intercontinental Airport

Our “5 Things We Love About...” series celebrating features and amenities at airports around the country and the world lands at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH).

The airport is located about 23 miles north of downtown Houston and is served by more than two dozen airlines offering flights to about 185 non-destinations.

Keep in mind that some of the amenities we list may be temporarily unavailable due to health concerns. We’re confident they’ll be back.

If we miss one of the things you love about George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), be sure to leave a note in the comments section below.

5 Things We Love About George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)

1. The art at IAH Airport

The Houston Airport System owns one of the largest collections of public art in Texas and a good amount of that art is on display at IAH Airport.

Travel Light – by The Art Guys
Moonwalking Cow – Silvestri
https://player.vimeo.com/video/188034019

2. Live music at IAH Airport

The Harmony in the Air performing arts program at IAH presents live concerts in Terminal A, Northside Atrium, and in Terminal D, near gate D8.

Concerts are scheduled Monday through Friday and include classical, jazz, pop, and International music. See the IAH website for schedule and concert times.

3. The IAH Yoga studio

IAH has a yoga studio for passengers in Terminal A, near Gate A3.

4. Shopping at IAH

We’ve picked up some great souvenirs in the shops at IAH

5. The Inter-Terminal Train at IAH

All five terminals at IAH are connected by an above-ground automated people-mover (the Skyway) and the underground Subway, which dates to 1981 and runs on a circuit that makes a curving and somewhat amusing round-trip every 18 minutes.

As of September 2020, the subway was undergoing some major repairs, so the video below may be the closest you’ll get to this unusual ride for a while.

The Inter-Terminal Train at IAH has a great backstory.

In the late-1970s a Disney executive who traveled through IAH on a regular basis became irritated with the unreliable tram system then operating between terminals. Not long after, a Disney-made people mover opened at IAH.

That’s why Mickey Mouse was on hand for the subway’s opening day.

Did we miss one your favorite features or amenities at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)? Be sure to leave a note in the comment section below.

Looking ahead: Will we ever be able to travel again? And, if so, what will that be like?

Will we ever be able to travel again? And, if so, what will that be like?

No one knows for sure, but an interesting group of travel experts is going to talk about it on October 7-8 during the online Travel 2021 Summit.

I am on the agenda talking about what airlines and airports are doing to make travelers feel safe now and what air travel may be like in the future.

Want to attend? Here is a link to the Travel 2021 Summit where you can get a discount on tickets.

Early bird pricing ends September 17. 

Use code SEPT50 for $50 off the registration fee.

Souvenir Sunday at IAH Airport

It’s Souvenir Sunday – the day StuckatTheAirport.com takes a look at the fun, inexpensive, locally-themed items you can find at airport gift shops.

This week’s treat comes from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, where we spotted these cool spacemen pens on a cart filled with souvenirs inspired by NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston.

IAH - space man pen

Stuck at … IAH Airport

IAH airport

Travel enough and you’ll have one of those days when a short flight delay turns into a long one.

Then that long delay turns into an unreasonably long one.

And then the airline informs you that, contrary to what the mechanics have been saying for the past three or four hours, the airplane you’ve been sitting on isn’t going to fly.

And then you’re in line with a lot of really cranky people at the customer service desk waiting for a hotel voucher so you can try again in the morning.

After a forty minute wait for the hotel van, you arrive at the hotel the customer service agent described as “really, really nice, you’ll love it!” to discover that it’s a really creepy hotel with a no-smoking floor that reeks of smoke.

But you consider yourself lucky, because the front desk clerk exchanges your food voucher for the bar’s last bottle of wine which, she admits, the bartender ran out to buy at the grocery store because the bar had somehow run dry.

iah wine (2)

EVA’s Hello Kitty jet lands in Houston

HEllo KITTY ARRIVING

With a great deal of fanfare and classic Hello Kitty cuteness, EVA Air’s brand-new, specially painted Boeing 777-300ER landed at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport on Friday, June 19, 2015, with the carrier’s Chairman KW Chang serving as captain.

EVA AIR CHAIRMAN

Named the Hello Kitty Shining Star Jet, the plane’s livery features Little Twin Stars Kiki and Lala, Hello Kitty and My Melody and is EVA Air’s seventh specially painted aircraft and its second using a long-range Boeing 777-300ER. The plane will fly on EVA Air’s new route between Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental and Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport three times a week. A fourth flight, using a Boeing 777-300ER with standard EVA livery, will be added on July 8, 2015.

Here are a few pictures from the arrival event at IAH Airport. More pictures of the Hello Kitty-themed items on board – and available for purchase on board the airplane – tomorrow on Souvenir Sunday.

EVA HelloKit Shining Star in flight

EVA AIR HELLO KITTY JET – in flight. Courtesy EVA AIR

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More tomorrow…

(All photos by Harriet Baskas, except the plane in flight, which is courtesy EVA AIR)