Louisville International Airport

What’s up at Kentucky’s Louisville Int’l Airport?

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To celebrate Minth Julep Month – and the Kentucky Derby, where the Mint Julep is the official cocktail – the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport has created a living wall with more than 700 fresh mint plants.

Here’s a video of the installation.

This week the airport also hosted a party, with this great cake. The occasion: a celebration of the inaugural American Airlines flight from SDF to Los Angeles International Airport.

Here’s are some of the other reasons we’re celebrating SDF airport this week:

They have a mascot named Skye. They just opened a new room for nursing mothers. And the post-security Distillery District Marketplace enables travelers to buy Kentucky-distilled spirits to take home.

Louisville Int’l Airport to be renamed for Muhammad Ali

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Boxing legend and Louisville native Muhammad Ali now has an airport named in his honor.

On Wednesday, January 16, 2019, the Board of the Louisville Regional Airport Authority in Kentucky voted to change the name of the Louisville International Airport to Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.

The airport’s three letter international identifier – SDF – will remain the same, in part because another airport, Alice International Airport, in Texas, already has the identifier “ALI.”

Muhammad Ali at Heathrow Airport (date unknown)

Citing research showing that Muhammad Ali has much greater name recognition than Louisville, Ky., Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said the airport renaming is just one piece of a much broader effort to share and celebrate Ali’s Louisville ties.

As the city of Ali’s birth and the place that throughout his life he proclaimed as “the greatest city in the world,” the Mayor said, “It is our obligation and opportunity to showcase the many stories and complexities that made up the man known as ‘The Greatest of All Time.’”

Muhammad Ali was born on January 17, 1942 and died on June 3, 2016. The Muhammad Ali Center, on Louisville’s Museum Row, explores his life.

*Hat tip to Isaac Alexander, for alerting me to this airport news.

Louisville International Airport on Kentucky Urban Bourbon Trail

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Louisville International Airport now has a spot on the Kentucky Urban Bourbon Trail.

 

Book & Bourbon Southern Kitchen, located in the pre-security of Lousiville International Airport, is now an official stop on Kentucky’s Urban Bourbon Trail.

The trail consists of more than 40 bars and restaurants that embrace the state’s Bourbon culture.

To get a spot on the trail a venue has to offer at least 50 different bourbons. A trail ‘member’ also has to  celebrate and honor the role bourbon plays in the the city’s history and modern-day culture.

Louisville airport’s Book & Bourbon Southern Kitchen fits the bill because it offers more than 85 world-class bourbons (including several rare labels) and has a staff eager to teach guests about everything bourbon, including tasting notes and distilling history.

Traveling along the Urban Bourbon Trail isn’t just about drinking bourbon. It’s also about winning t-shirts. Participating restaurants and bars on the Urban Bourbon Trail hand out passports that guests can get stamped when they make a purchase at venues along the trail.

Anyone who collects six stamps can redeem their passport for a t-shirt. And you can get a stamp for any purchase – it doesn’t have to be a something made with bourbon.

And now that Book & Bourbon Southern Kitchen at Louisville International is officially on the Kentucky Urban Bourbon Trail, passengers can pick up their trail passsport as soon as they land at the airport and get started on collecting those stamps right away.

Before you head out on the road in search of Kentucky bourbons, keep in mind that in addition to the Urban Bourbon Trail of bourbon-centric bars and restaurants, Kentucky also has a ‘Urban Bourbon Experience‘ that includes bars, restaurants and borboun experiences and events.

There’s also the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, which highlights distilleries statewide that are part of the Kentucky Distiller’s Association.

That seems like a like of bourbon, but there are many places where those trails cross and intersect.

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo at O’Hare; Kentucky Derby at CVG and Louisville

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https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-3418-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Courtesy New York Public Library, via Flickr Commons

Travelers passing through Chicago’s O’Hare Airport get to celebrate Cinco de Mayo a day early.

Today, Thursday, starting at 3:30 between the H and K concourses near Tortas Frontera, there will be a live mariachi band, a flair bartender giving margarita demos and tastings, giveaways and a musical dance performance. All courtesy HMSHost.

And from 2 to 4 p.m. on Friday at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), the folks from Seven Oaks Farm will be bringing by their miniature-therapy horses decked out in Derby attire, because this weekend is the 143rd Kentucky Derby.  Can’t wait to see what they’ll be wearing!

 

 

And to celebrate the Kentucky Derby, on Thursday and Friday at Louisville International Airport arriving passengers will be welcomed by live music and greeters offering complimentary Woodford Reserve Bourbon Balls in the terminal’s airside rotunda.

A bugler’s “Call to the Post,” which usually signals the arrival of horses on the racetrack for their race, announces the arrival of bags at baggage claim carousel.

And, for those who may be leaving Louisville with souvenir bottles of bourbon and Derby glasses in their checked luggage, the airport ambassadors will have complimentary bubble-wrap packing stations set up near  the airline ticket counters on Sunday, May 7, beginning at 4 a.m.

 

Souvenir Sunday at Louisville International Airport

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On Souvenir Sunday we like to take a look at some of the fun, inexpensive and locally-themed items you can pick up when you’re stuck at the airport.

This week’s treats come from Louisville International Airport(SDF), where we found Kentucky Bluegrass and all manner of candies made with a touch of bourbon.

LouisvilleKentuckyBluegrass

louisville bourbon candy

Louisville is also the home of the factory that makes the Louisville slugger bats, and we found these cute little pink Louisville Slugger mitts for sale at the airport as well.

louisville slugger mitt

Do you poke around the shops when you’re stuck at the airport? If you find a souvenir that’s fun, offbeat and “of” the city or region you’re in, please snap a photo and send it to StuckatTheAirport.com.

If your souvenir is featured on Souvenir Sunday, we’ll send you a fun travel souvenir.

Souvenir Sunday at Louisville International Airport

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If you’re a horse racing fan you know by now that I’ll Have Another, at 15-1 odds, won the 138th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

Whether you bet right or not, if you’re heading home through Louisville International Airport you can pick up some fun Derby-related souvenirs.

Airport officials tell me that, at the Churchill Downs specialty shop, a favorite souvenir is an authentic horseshoe from Churchill Downs, especially those that still have some dirt from the racetrack.

Other souvenirs include official mint julep glasses, Derby-themed aprons decorated with brightly colored jockey silks and treats made from Kentucky’s signature bourbons, including Woodford Reserve bourbon balls, Mint Julep taffy and bourbon bark.

For those heading out from the airport on Sunday, May 6, Robert Joyner, artist of this year’s Kentucky Derby print, will be at the Churchill Downs shop from 10 to 11 a.m. to sign prints. And, for kids of any age, there will be a chance to meet Churchill Charlie (the mascot of Churchill Downs) between 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Louisville International Airport ready for Kentucky Derby

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The Kentucky Derby is coming up on Saturday, May 5th and this whole week is the busiest time of the year for Louisville International Airport, SDF.

To make all those horse racing fans feel welcome, the airport decorates the terminal with approximately 2,000 roses and hires musicians to play in the rotunda.

Better yet: volunteers greet arriving passengers with Woodford Reserve bourbon balls.

From the photos airport officials sent me, it looks like everyone – even the airline staff – gets into the race-day spirit.

Be sure to swing back here on Sunday when our Souvenir Sunday feature will share some of the Derby-related souvenirs race fans can pick up at Louisville International Airport.

All photos courtesy of the airport.

Louisville International Airport ready for Derby Week

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The Kentucky Derby takes place in Louisville, Kentucky on May 7 and the Louisville International Airport is ready.

Horses, Kentucky Derby

 

According to the airport’s Trish Burke, from Wednesday May 4th through Friday May 6th (9 a.m. to midnight) arriving passengers will be greeted with live music and by volunteers wearing springtime dresses and Derby hats and offering the traditional Kentucky treat: bourbon balls.

Louisville Airport welcomes Kentucky Derby fans

The airport terminal will be decorated with roses and jockey silks and many food and beverage outlets will be offering special Derby dishes and drinks.

When Derby fans head home on Sunday, May 8, the Louisville International Airport will send folks off with music, complimentary bottles of water and special exhibits of Kentucky-made crafts.

And, here’s a nice touch.

During Derby Week, many people will be buying souvenir bottles of Kentucky bourbon and some of those people will forget that you can’t take those bottles through the security checkpoint.

To help make sure that a lot of those bottles don’t have to be left behind, the Louisville International Airport will have a “Liquor is Liquid” campaign in place, with volunteer Airport Ambassadors at the ready to wrap glass liquor bottles in packing material so that the bottles can be put into checked baggage.

Free valet parking & lounge access at Louisville Int’l Airport

Free Stuff, Lounges, Parking

Are you planning to park  at Louisville International Airport before June 30, 2009?

Then be sure to go the airport’s Web site and download a coupon for a free day of valet parking.

valet-parkingThat’s a good deal.  But wait  – there’s more:  each time you use the coupon you and everyone in your party gets a pass to the airport’s Altitude Club, a lounge that has computer work stations, and complimentary snacks, soft drinks, local and long distance phone calls,  and wireless Internet access.

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