Philadelphia International Airport

Tidbits for travelers at MIA and PHL

Airlines, Airplanes, Airport shops, aviation, Aviation history, Food, Fun Stuff, ,

This would be fun to watch:  American Airlines is donating a 140-passenger MD-80 aircraft to the George T. Baker Aviation School in Miami. To get the plane to the school they going to lift the 39-ton plane from a ramp at Miami International Airport up over a road using a 500-ton crane equipped with a 400-foot telescoping boom.   The “big lift” is going to take place today – Monday, May 17th – and involves closing roadways and runways, removing light poles, trees and fencing and building a temporary gravel road.

Airport officials have promised to send photos; so stay tuned.

And, over the weekend, a branch of Legal Sea Foods opened at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) in the B/C Connector.

On the menu at this full-service, sit-down restaurant: lobster, crab cakes, New England clam chowder, shrimp, salmon and a variety of sandwiches, salads and desserts.

Mother’s Day offers at three airports

Airport shops, Free Stuff, Shopping, ,

Indiana’s South Bend Regional Airport will be celebrating Mother’s Day all weekend by offering all traveling mothers free coffee or tea and a choice of a free coffee mug or a travel sewing kit. There may even be free carnations as well.

The details: Throughout the weekend, traveling moms can stop at the airport’s Visitor Center and/or the Airport Authority information booth to pick out their free gifts.

And for if you’re shopping for your mom (or yourself) at The Food & Shops at LaGuardia Airport or at Philadelphia International Airport be sure to save your receipts. If you spend $50 at one airport store, or at a combination of stores, you can get a free $10 gift card for the Body Shop.

The details: Get your $10 gift card at Philadelphia Airport by taking your receipts to The Body Shop in the B/C Connector, or to any of the retailers in the D/E Connector.   At LaGuardia Airport, take your receipts to The Body Shop, on the Departures Level between Gates B & C.

I’m tracking down a few more airport-based Mother’s Day events and offers to tell you about tomorrow. If you know of any, please send them along.

Dance at ORD & MDW, drop your pants at PHL

Airport shops, Entertainment, Events, Fun Stuff, Shopping, , , , , ,

Ready for St. Patrick’s Day festivities?

The Chicago airports are. Today, Friday, March 12, Irish dancers from the Trinity Academy will perform at both O’Hare International Airport (ORD) and at Midway International Airport (MDW). Performances will be 3 to 5 p.m. at O’Hare (in Terminals 1, 2, 3, and 5) and at Midway in Concourse A near the “Battle of Midway” exhibit.

And if you are traveling through Philadelphia International Airport (PHL ) between now and Sunday, March 14th, the Gap store there would like you drop your pants.

Old blue jeans collected by Gap stores nationwide will be turned into cotton fiber insulation.  And anyone who leaves a pair of pants will get a coupon good for 30% off their next denim purchase.

The project is a partnership with the Cotton. From Blue to Green campaign, which has so far turned 200 tons of recycled jeans into insulation for more than 540 houses built in areas destroyed by natural disasters .

Tidbits for travelers: news from JAX, PHL, and ATL

Air Travel, Airport shops, Airports, Architecture, Art, Exhibits, Openings, , , , ,

On Valentine’s Day, volunteers at Jacksonville International Airport (JAX) handed out 1700 red and white carnations to arriving and departing passengers.

(Photo courtesy Jacksonsville International Airport )

On Tuesday (February 16, 2010) Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) had a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Terminal E expansion, which includes seven gates for Southwest Airlines and several new food and retail outlets, including a news/gift shop, a McDonalds, and a sit-down restaurant called Cantina Laredo.  The new expansion also brings new artwork to the airport, courtesy of Philadelphia’s Percent for Art Program. Look for Cloudsphere, by Philadelphia artist Mei-ling Hom in the rotunda.

(Photo courtesy Philadelphia International Airport )

And congratulations to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL): it’s Paper Runway exhibit of wearable paper clothing and accessories made with everything from banana leaf fibers to recycled cotton rags and coffee filters, won an award from the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries.

Look for “Paper Runway” in the cases in the walkway connecting the main security area and Concourse T.  But hurry: the exhibit will only be there through March.

New art exhibit at Philadelphia Int’l Airport uses nails and thread

Air Travel, Art, ,

The newest exhibition at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) is Kim Kamens’ Photobooth.

Instead of using paint, pen or pencils, Kamens uses carpenter nails and sewing thread to make her art.

PHL KAMENS DETAIL

PHL Director of Exhibitions, Leah Douglas, says:

Kamens’ carefully orchestrated methodology is analogous to drawing as the linear quality of the thread wound from point to point creates the illusion of a highly rendered line drawing. She is able to control the density of the thread by the number of times she connects specific points. The more she repeatedly winds the thread back and forth from one nail to another, the denser these areas become; creating darker shadows and greater depth.

Amazingly, out of the hundreds of nail heads and miles of thread a recognizable image emerges.

PHL KAMENS

Photobooth will be on display through April 2010 in Terminal B (post security) at Philadelphia International Airport

Philadelphia Int’l Airport: Private Collections/Personal Obsessions exhibit

Art, Exhibits,

Do you collect anything? Baseball cards, stuffed monkeys, or small soaps from hotels?

If you’ve got three or more of something – or 3000 of anything – then you’ll be especially interested in the fun new exhibit at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL).

PHL - Patti Dougherty - enamel pins
(Enamel Pins – collected by Patti Dougherty)

Private Collections: Personal Obsessions includes selections from eighteen private collections borrowed from residents of the Philadelphia area.

Some collections, such as antique doorknobs, walking canes, and vintage postcards, are nostalgic.  Others are all about popular culture – Smurfs, Beanie Babies, and Bobbleheads – or everyday objects such as key chains, brushes, and olive oil cans.

Still other collections represent souvenirs from the collector’s travels. Things like snow globes, matchbooks, and floaty pens.

PHL Hands, Collection of Susan Moore
(From Susan Moore’s hand collection)

Private Collections: Personal Obsessions can be seen in the corridor between Terminal A-East and Terminal B through February of 2010.

PHL Snowglobes, Collection of Gabriel Martinez and Lee Shirley
(Snowglobes, Collection of Gabriel Martinez and Lee Shirley)

Next time you’re stuck at the airport, don’t get bored: get vaccinated.

Health, USA Today, , , , , , , ,

FLU POSTER SPITTING

The vaccine for the H1N1 vaccine isn’t available quite yet, but there are plenty of regular, seasonal flu shots around. And this year there are also plenty of airports where you can get a flu shot on the fly.  I tracked down the details for my At the Airport column on USAToday.com: Airports ready for passengers seeking flu shots.

FLU CARTOON

Last year travelers could get flu shots at about two dozen airports, including San Francisco International Airport, Des Moines International Airport, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Denver International Airport, and others. This year, with so many people concerned about getting sick, more airports are making room for flu shot kiosks.

And because of the heightened awareness, several airport clinics, including the UIC Medical Center at O’Hare, Orlando International Airport’s Solantic clinic, and the AeroClinic at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, began offering flu shots to the public back around Labor Day, even though the official flu season doesn’t usually begin until October. And airports such as Tampa International, which in the past offered flu shot clinics for employees only, arranged to have flu shot kiosks available for the traveling public.

FLU SHOT POSTER 1960s

Over the next few weeks, flu shot programs will be rolling out at Louisville International Airport, Sacramento International Airport, Philadelphia International Airport and others. Harmony Pharmacy will offer flu shots at its year-round clinics and from temporary kiosks at New York JFK and Newark-Liberty airports.

A spokesperson from Airport MD said that company hopes to offer flu shots by October 1st in Miami, Las Vegas and Minneapolis-St. Paul airports. Several other airports, including San Diego International Airport and Oakland International Airport, are still working out their flu shot program details. And Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, which for the past three years has been able to offer flu shots for free during a few days towards the end of the season, expects that this year it will be able to do the same.

flu shot

To find out if flu shots are being offered at an airport near you, please see the flu shot chart included with my USATODAY.com column: Airports are ready for passengers seeking flu shots.

Phone book art at Philadelphia Airport

Art

PHONEYet another batch of phone books showed up on my porch today.  I dutifully threw the old set into the recycle bin and stuffed the new set under the telephone table.

Even though I haven’t opened a phone book for years.

But maybe I should have sent those phone books to Alex Queral, the Philadelphia artist who makes portraits out of the bound pages of telephone books.

PHL Alex Queral, Ringo Starr

(Ringo Starr, by Alex Queral)

“Each face is often painted with a monochromatic wash to distinguish the portrait from the pages. The background remains untouched to reveal the original source with its readable list of names and numbers.”

In addition to the above portrait of Ringo, Queral has made phone book portraits of actors Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood, musicians Keith Richards and Sting, and politicians such as President Jimmy Carter, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and President Barack Obama.

PHL Alex Queral, President Barack Obama

Alex Queral’s phone book art is on display at Philadelphia International Airport, in Terminal F, Concourse 2.  To find out more about Alex Queral and see lots more of these phone book portraits, see his profile page at Project Gallery.

Baseball exhibit at Philadelphia Airport

Art, Exhibits, Sports, ,

Philadelphia International Airport’s newest exhibit is all about baseball.

“Philadelphia’s Baseball Legends: The Championship Teams,” includes b&w and color photographs that tell the stories of Philadelphia’s champion baseball teams and the individual players, including many who are in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The exhibit is located post-security in Terminal A and officially opens today,  Friday, July 3rd, with a special event that includes current and past baseball stars as well as the Philly Phanatic.

Philly Phanatic

Packing Tape Art at Philadelphia International Airport

Art

Here’s a great reason to hope you get stuck at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) sometime soon:

A new exhibit at the airport features work by Mark Khaisman who uses packing tape – yes, packing tape – as his artistic medium.

packing-tapeFor this airport show, Tape Noir, he’s recreated scene stills from film noir movies, including Samuel Fuller’s Pickup on South Street (1953), Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (1935) and Spellbound (1945), and John Huston’s Key Largo (1948).

Here’s Frame 18 from Pickup on South Street.

phl-mark-khaisman-tape-noir-frame_18-from-movie-pickup-on-south-street-phl-courtesy-of-the-mark-khaismanPhoto courtesy Mark Khaisman

The exhibit is located between Terminals C and D, past the security checkpoint, and runs through November 2009.

See you at the movies!