2020 has been so rough that it feels as if we should get a pass on making – and trying to keep – New Year’s resolutions in 2021.
But if you’re going to keep that tradition and are passing through Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO) soon, take a moment to add your resolution to the RNO New Year’s Resolution Wall.
These sticky note walls have become a popular activity at RNO. In November there were 1300 notes about the things people were thankful for posted to the airport’s Gratitude Wall.
A few weeks back we celebrated Mask Monday with some fun “Wear your mask” reminders from airports.
Since then, many airports have gotten in touch to show off their branded masks and the creative ways they are reminding travelers to mask up.
Here’s a sampling. Let us know if you have one to add.
Here’s how Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) encourages passengers to mask up.
Here’s a snazzy mask from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
This one, from McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, glows in the dark! (You can buy one at Mr. Boxer in the C Concourse)
These are from Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO)
This snazzy mask is for sale in the gift shops at Wichita Eisenhower National Airport (ICT)
And the masks below, along with everything else you see pictured, are from Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) and are for sale in the GSP online store.
Have an airport-branded mask to show off? Send it along.
We continue celebrating features and amenities at airports around the country and the world with our series “5 Things We Love About …”
Today we’re visiting Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO).
Keep in mind that some of the amenities we love may be temporarily unavailable due to health concerns. We are confident they will be back.
If we miss an amenity you love at RNO, please let us know in the comments section below.
And feel free to nominate another airport to be featured in the 5 Things We Love About… series.
Passengers traveling through RNO often encounter members of the airport’s Kindness Takes Flight team marking a holiday or just doing something fun and, yes, kind.
On National Compliments Day they handed out free compliments.
On National Chocolate Cake Day, it was complimentary chocolate cupcakes and on National Popcorn Day (which we celebrate every day), the team distributed popcorn. And on National Dog Day, traveling pups received milk bones.
Sometimes, the teams gets a little far out. Like when they went to a galaxy far, far away for inspiration for their May the 4th Be With You celebration.
Like an increasing number of airports around the country, RNO has a pet therapy program to help passengers destress while in the airport.
Before the program was put on pause (you thought I was going to say ‘paws,’ didn’t you) due to health concerns, RNO’s Paws 4 Passengers pups were “sanitized for your protection.”
Each year – except this year – about 20,000 of the 70,000 attendees at the extravaganza in the Black Rock desert known as Burning Man arrive and depart Nevada through Reno-Tahoe International Airport.
RNO goes all out to welcome and send-off the Burners from around the world. The airport rolls out everything from art and entertainment in the Connector Collections Gallery and elsewhere in the airport to staffed information booths for those who need to figure out how to get to the Burning Man site.
For tired and dusty revelers on their way home, the airport makes sure to have giant containers for the trash that must be taken off the festival site and plastic bags to wrap the luggage covered in Black Rock sand.
There is even a place where bikes purchased for transportation on the Burning Man site can be donated to local community groups instead of being thrown away.
Here at StuckatTheAirport.com, we are big fans of shopping for offbeat and locally-themed items in airport shops.
RNO does not disappoint.
In addition to free local calls, bicycle parking and the common-use Escape Lounge, Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO) has real gaming machines on both concourses, in the Taphouse bartops and in the lobby of the terminal.
Did we miss any of the features and amenities you love at Reno-Tahoe International Airport?
If so, please leave a note in the comments section below. And let us know which airport you would like to see featured in our “5 Things We Love About…” series next.
It will be a while until you can visit a United Polaris lounge and order the specialty cocktail that comes with a little cut-out of a paper airplane.
But you can use your at-home time to make your own paper airplanes.
Reno-Tahoe International Airport’s (RNO) Kindness Takes Flight Home Edition has this handy downloadable paper airplane design that includes numbered instructions.
The Fold ‘n Fly site offers a database of paper airplane designs, with instructions and videos, that can be searched by difficulty and type, i.e. acrobatic, time aloft, etc.
My favorite is the one that is designed to fly like a bee.
And, once you’ve made your paper airplane, you might want to download instructions for making a paper airplane launcher, courtesy of Scientific American.
And let’s take a moment to celebrate the fact that since 2017 the paper airplane has been a soaring member of the National Toy Hall of Fame housed at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.
Here’s part of the Strong’s ode to the paper airplane:
“… The success of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk in 1903 fostered renewed hope of powered flight and no doubt contributed to the purported invention, in 1909, of the paper airplane. The principles that make an airplane fly are the same that govern paper versions. Paper’s high strength and density make it similar, scale-wise, to the materials used to construct airplanes...
…Play with paper airplanes is far from formulaic and constrained. Where some toys require financial investment, paper airplanes start with a simple sheet of paper, coupled with dexterity, to produce a toy with infinite aeronautical possibilities. “
Worried about catching germs at airports?
We are too. But airports around the world are going all out to keep travelers and germs apart during this scary coronavirus time.
But for those worried about germs that may be spread by petting those stress-busting therapy pups, Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO) has some good news.
In addition to all the COVID-19 precautions they are taking, Reno-Tahoe Airport is also sanitizing the pups on the Paws 4 Passengers team after each ‘use.’
So go ahead. If you’re traveling you can safely pet those pups. RNO is operating with safe pup-cleaning-protocol.
And we suspect other airports are doing this too.
Know about other creative ways airports are keeping you germ free? Let us know!
Burning Man 2019
takes place August 25 – September 2 in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.
About 20,000 of the more than 70,000 event attendees make their way to the region via Reno- Tahoe International Airport (RNO).
And the airport is ready.
On Monday, a Burning Man art exhibition and therapy dogs dressed in costumes will welcome arriving burners.
Local volunteers and airport docents (perhaps in costumes as well) will be on site to help with information about and directions to the Playa.
And airport shops will be stocked with Burning Man essentials such as water, snacks, camping equipment and apparel.
The airport is also prepping for when the Burners leave.
Everything that comes back from the festival site will be covered with dust from the Playa that can ruin the baggage systems. So airlines are ready with rolls of large plastic bags to cover suitcases and anything else Burners will need to check in and take home.
Reno-Taho International Airport is helping ‘burners’ with their Burning Man experience.
The Burning Man festival is underway and Reno-Tahoe International Airport is part of the experience for the more than 18,000 “burners” who fly in and out of the area for the event.
Last week, the airport helped move things along on some of the busy arrival days by offering free group yoga, Burning Man artwork displays and therapy dogs dressed up for the occasion.
On Monday, when the burners start to go home, the airport will also offer entertainment and assistance, including big plastic bags for wrapping suitcases encrusted with dust from the Playa, bins for disposing of all the garbage burners need to remove from the festival site and a drop-off spot for the bicycles many bring to get around the festival grounds. Those bikes get fixed up and donated to local groups.
All photos courtesy Reno-Tahoe International Airport.
Have you been to Burning Man? Share photos of your airport experience getting to and from the festival.
This year’s Burning Man festival is over and more than 18,000-20,000 Burners will be heading home via Reno-Tahoe International Airport over the course of about five days.
This is one of the busiest times of the year for this airport, which usually handles about 7,000 departing passengers a day, and it’s one of the dirtiest and dustiest as Burners leave the playa covered in a fine dust and packing out all their garbage.
To make sure all that playa dust doesn’t muck up the airport’s bagagge handling and security systems, the airport and the airlines require everyone to put everything in a plastic bags.
These photos come courtesy Reno-Tahoe International Airport. I asked for photos of the piles of garbage burners may be leaving behind, but so far they say those trash bins are “too yucky.”
Courtesy UW Digital Collections
July 4th picnic? Sure.
But how about skiing or snowboarding this summer?
Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows in North Lake Tahoe will be open on July 4 and into August (conditions permitting) marking only the fourth time in the last 50 years that the resort has reopened for Independence Day.
If skiing over the July 4th holiday sounds like fun, Visit California is reminding travelers that through August 31, Skis and Snowboards Fly Free on JetBlue routes from JFK International Airport and Long Beach Airiport (LGB) into Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO).
Even better, anyone flying into Reno-Tahoe International Airport on any commercial flight can take their boarding pass to the “Mountain Concierge” shop in the airport and pick up a free same day ski pass for Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows as part of the Fly & Ski Free Deal.
Burning Man kicks off this weekend and the far-out festival has a major impact on the Reno-Tahoe International Airport, which each year hosts approximately 35,000 additional arriving and departing Burners from 34 different countries.
Over the years, the airport figured out how to best welcome and help the Burners get where they need to go – and it seems like quite the set-up.
The airport has travel information on the Burner web site, a welcome table (with travel info, and complimentary water and fig bars), a 15-foot wooden replica called “Mini Man” in Bag Claim and a Burning Man art exhibit in the depARTures Gallery.
artist: Jeff Schomberg
When Burning Man is over, the airport really goes into high gear.
No motorized transportation (beyond Art Cars) is allowed on the Playa, so lots of Burners bring bikes, which are frequently left behind. The airport partners with the local Kiwanis Club on a bike drop-off area so those bikes can get refurbished and given to kids in the community.
Travelers – and their belongings – heading home from Burning Man are often dusty and dirty, and everyone must pack out their trash from the Playa. So the airport has its custodial staff working around the clock cleaning restrooms and emptying trash bins. The airport also keeps a supply of crates on the curb to collect trash.
Because everyone’s suitcase or backpack is likely to be covered in dust, and because all that dust and grime can muck up the airport’s delicate and expensive baggage machinery, all airlines are required to put a plastic bag around each item of checked luggage and/or place it in a plastic tub. So there are plenty of bags and tubs on hand.
Before and after Burning Man, travelers can enjoy the Burning Many art exhibit at the airport. Through the Artists Lens includes over 60 photos of Burning Man artwork and activities by three well-known Burning Man photogrpaher. Look for the depARTures Gallery on the second floor of the airport’s terminal, post-security.
