San Diego International Airport

Seasonal news from PIT, LAX, BWI, MKE, PHX & SAN airports

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Whether or not you’re flying during the holidays, it pays to keep up to date with what airports are doing to serve passengers during what is sure to be another unusual season.

Here are some tidbits we’ve already spotted this week.

PIT has its holiday tree up

Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) won’t be having its annual Holiday Open House this year. And local choirs and bands won’t be offering holiday performances.

But PIT is setting up a holiday-themed selfie station in the Airside Center Core and hosting distanced (instrument-only) performances by local musicians. And there will be terminal visits from the PIT PAWS airport therapy dog team.

The holiday tree is already there. Here’s a fun time-lapse video of it going up. PIT reports that 20 people worked to raise the 26-foot-tall tree over a span of eight hours and that this year’s tree has 538 ornaments, 42 yards of fabric, and 166 strands of lights.

Take a 360 Virtual Tour of LAX

Missing airports? Us too. So we’re excited as all get out a new virtual 360-degree of the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) airfield.

This is the same airfield tour that used to be offered to students, community groups, and others curious about LAX operations before COVID-19 arrived. Now anyone can access the immersive, high-resolution 360-degree video experience online using a smartphone, tablet, computer, or VR headset.

Coat check reopens at MKE

If you’re flying from Milwaukee to Hawaii, Florida, or some other warm spot, you probably won’t need your winter coat when you arrive.

So, for the second winter in a row, Wisconsin’s Milwaukee Mitchell Internation Airport (MKE) has opened it popular coat check service.

The Coat check program operates in partnership with retail partner Paradies Lagardère and is offered inside the Summerfest Marketplace store, which is located pre-security. Each coat is wrapped in protective plastic and the charge is a very reasonable $2 per day, or $10 per trip.

As far as we know, this is still the only U.S. airport offering this service.

Fresh art at PHX

Fun and games from BWI

New experiences from SAN’s artist-in-residence

And, thanks, LAX for reminding us that it is December. Already.

SAN: 5 Things We Love About San Diego International Airport

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SAN: Five Things WE Love about San Diego International Airport

Our “5 Things We Love About…” series celebrates features and amenities at airports around the country and the world.

Today we land at San Diego International Airport (SAN), North America’s second-ever carbon neutral airport.

We know that due to health concerns, some amenities we love may not currently be available. We’re confident they’ll be back.

5 Things We Love About San Diego International Airport (SAN)

1. The art at San Diego International Airport

San Diego International Airport has a robust art program with great permanent public art pieces and temporary exhibitions.

Above are some snaps of The Journey by Jim Campbell. The light ribbon is both the Airport Authority’s largest commission and largest scale artwork and is made up of 38,000 suspended LED pendants spanning six feet wide by 700 feet long. Located in Terminal 2, the artwork has images of people swimming, dancing and walking, and birds in flight, fluttering throughout the sculpture.

2. SAN is home to the California Least Tern

The San Diego International Airport is home to the California Least Tern (Sterna antillarum browni, “CLT”), a federally listed endangered seabird species. The airport provides the tern with a nesting habitat and easy access to foraging opportunities in nearby San Diego Bay.

3. SAN has its own beer

San Diego International Airport (SAN) partnered with local brewery Ballast Point and industrial water purification company, Water Works, Inc., to brew a beer – called SAN Test Pilot.

The water for SAN Test Pilot comes from condensate that drips from the bottom of air conditioning units attached to jet bridges. The Airport’s Environmental Affairs team began collecting the dripping condensate in 2014 and currently captures about 100,000 gallons per year from 18 of the most heavily used jet bridges at terminals 1 and 2.

In addition to making beer, the water is used to wash sidewalks, equipment, vehicles and building exteriors and in the cooling towers that control the temperature in the terminals.

4. SAN’s artist in residence program

In addition to a performing arts program, San Diego International Airport has a performing arts residency program that gives area groups space to develop new work and the opportunity to perform.

The program kicked off in 2016 with the Fern Street Circus and since then has hosted a wide variety of performance groups, including an aerial dance theater.

5. SAN’s Innovation Lab

SAN’s Airport Innovation Lab is a 16-week accelerator program that helps entrepreneurs, start-ups, and other businesses get a healthy foothold in the airport industry.

The program provides testing for the ideas and a one-year technology-intensive collaborative program. 

Past Innovation Lab start-ups you may recognize include Fuel Rod and At Your Gate.

 Did we miss your favorite amenity at San Diego International Airport (SAN)? If so, drop a note in the comments section below.

And please take a look at the other airports featured in the ‘5 Things We Love About..” series. Let us know which airports you’d like to see added.

Free recipes, a flower class & audio-visual art from DEN, DAL and SAN Airports

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We may not be flying much, or at all, right now but airports are still doing their thing with music, art, and tasty food and drink.

We appreciate that. And we’re paying attention.

Denver International Airport (DEN) has launched the Taste of DEN series offering recipes from the chefs at popular restaurants at the airport.

In the first episode, Tom’s Urban Kitchen & Brewery Chef Robert Garton cookes up a Prime Rib Dip Sandwich. A video from DEN’s Root Down Kitchen is promised next.

To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, Hortencia and Rachel from the art and programming team at Dallas Love Field (DAL) Airport were kind enough to put together a video showing us how to make traditional paper flowers.

And the San Diego International Airport (SAN) Arts Program has a new artist in residence for Fall 2020.

Throughout her Performing Arts Residency at SAN Margaret Noble is offering a series of downloadable audio-visual works as part of her [Sky][Muse] collection.

The first set is called ‘Compass’ and includes two ‘experiences:’

One has interactive visual music; the other a ‘silent graphical score.’

Signs of the times: cool social distance signs at airports

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Signs and floor stickers reminding travelers to keep their distance in airport terminals are necessary right now.

We get that.

But at least some airports are giving their signs some local character.

In the sign above, you’ll see that Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) is using Chinook salmon as a measuring tool. The airport has also enlisted the help of a moose and a Bald Eagle

These are animals locals will listen to.



Harrisburg International Airport (MDT), which is nearby Hershey Park in Pennsylvania, uses Kisses chocolates as their measuring tool.

We’re curious about how they figured out that 72 Kisses chocolates equals six feet and hope whomever was asked to lay the candies out to figure this out got to eat them.

Springfield-Branson National Airport (SGF) has a long-running thing for plastic pink flamingos. So it makes sense that a flamingo pops up in the airport’s social distancing signs.

In Chicago, they use these cute floor stickers at O’Hare and Midway Airports to remind people to keep their distance.

And at San Diego International Airport (SAN) it makes sense that the measuring stick is a surfboard. Passengers are urged to stay at least one surfboard apart.

We’ll keep adding to this collection of creative airport social distance signs and stickers as new ones arrive.

If you see a one in your travels that you think fits, please snap a photo and send it along.

Airport news from San Diego and Anchorage, Alaska

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Courtesy San Diego International Aiport

Monsters at San Diego International Airport

The newest group to land a five-month artist residency at San Diego International Airport (SAN) is Beck+Col.

The Los Angeles-based duo creates performances that explore alternate universes populated by colorful and playful monsters.

During their residency at SAN, lumpy, musical monsters will be visiting the airport and interacting and engaging with passengers with exaggerated gestures and operatic vocalizations.

It could be fun. Or scary.

San Diego International Airport has been hosting artists-in-residence since 2016. The first group to move in was a circus.

REAL ID at Anchorage International Airport

In what seems like a super-helpful, no brainer, Alaska’s Department of Motor Vehicles has created a way for citizens to get the new REAL ID driver’s license at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC).

This saves a time-consuming separate trip to the DMV offices.

Starting October 1, 2020, only REAL ID driver’s licenses will be accepted by the TSA at airport checkpoints. So here’s hoping airport DMV desks pop up at other airports too.

Giant puppets at San Diego Int’l Airport

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 Halloween may be over, but at San Diego International Airport there’s more to go.

Today, November 1, the airport is marking Dia de los Muertos (the “Day of the Dead”) by inviting the San Diego Guild of Puppetry and their larger-than-life, 10-foot-tall puppets back for a giant puppet parade.

The parade takes place today from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. in the pre-security baggage claim area of Terminal 2.

The San Diego Guild of Puppetry has been creating large-scale puppet parades in the community since 2004 and its Dia de los Muertos (“Day of the Dead”) figurines are the creations of Felix Diaz, his family, and his students.

Puppets in the Day of the Dead parade at SAN will include versions of skulls, skeletons and butterflies, which represent the spirits of the departed returning to join their families for the celebration.

TSA’s travel tips for getting souvenirs home from Comic-Con

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TSA’s blog has some helpful information for anyone heading home through San Diego International Airport after attending Comic-Con International this week – and for those traveling with collectibles and souvenirs from this or any other special event.

TSA suggests that if you’re traveling with a collectible item that has an original seal on it that you don’t want broken, that you ship it home instead of taking the chance that the seal will broken during a TSA search.

Getting dressed up in a costume to attend an event? TSA reminds travelers that neither replica weapons nor real weapons should be placed in carry-on bags and that while both replica weapons and real weapons can be packed in checked bags, actual firearms must meet packing guidelines and be declared.

And, TSA s suggests that if you’re traveling with a lot of brochures, comic books or other books that you put them in your carry-on bag and then place them in a bin prior before sending them through the x-ray machines.

Those items can show up as dense blocks and “Packing these items in checked bags may cause alarms leading to bag searches that can cause a significant slowdown in the screening process leading to delays and bags possibly missing their flights,” says TSA.

San Diego Int’l Airport celebrates opening of new Int’l Arrivals facility

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San Diego International Airport hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the completion of its new 130,000-square-foot International Arrivals facility in Terminal 2 that is five times the size of the previous facility and increases the number of international gates from three to six.

The new facility was needed: the airport has experienced significant growth in international arrivals in the past quarter-century, from about 50,000 passengers a year in the early 1990s to more than 400,000 a year in 2017.

“As airlines look to add to their international networks, it is vital we have adequate facilities readily available to compete and attract new air service,” said Kimberly Becker, Airport Authority President/CEO, “With twice the number of international gates, the latest technologies, and an expanded baggage claim and passenger wait area, this new facility ensures we are equipped to provide a world-class experience for international passengers arriving into San Diego.”

The new facility improves the processing experience for passengers by offering reduced wait times, a more welcoming environment and the newest technologies from U.S. Customs and Border Protection: SAN now becomes one of the first airports to implement 100 percent biometric or facial recognition technology for arriving international flights.

The facility also features two public artworks. Paths Woven, by artist Aaron T. Stephan, is a suspended artwork in the public waiting area that consists of 25 ladders representing the many individual journeys that converge at an airport.

In baggage claim visitors will see Carry On by artist Walter Hood, made up of 52 glass panels featuring more than 600 photos of unique, symbolic items contributed by members of the San Diego community and airport staff.

(Photos courtesy San Diego International Airport)

Mister Rogers at PIT Airport; Aerial dancers at San Diego Int’l

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This week it is impossible to choose just one Airport Amenity of the Week, so we’ll declare a tie.

Pittsburgh International Airport is having a fun event Friday, March 23, to honor Fred Rogers and the Mister Rogers Neighborhood children’s TV show that was produced in Pittsburgh and first aired 50 years ago.

Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in PIT’s Airside Center Core, airport employees wearing red cardigans will be offering travelers refreshments and handing out free buttons and red shoelaces. A big chalkboard will be set up, so passengers can share memories of watching the TV show during its 33-year run.

The cardigans, the shoelaces, and the “You’re Special, Too!” slogan printed on the buttons are homages to Rogers, who would always tell viewers how special they were and who started each program by putting on a zip-up cardigan and changing out of his loafers into sneakers.

PIT’s event is timed to coincide with Friday’s release of a Mister Rogers Forever stamp and the airport’s post office on Concourse D will have those new stamps to sell. More details here.

 

(Courtesy SAN Airport, photo by Alan Hess)

The next round of the performing arts residency program at San Diego International Airport kicks off Wednesday, March 28 with an aerial rope performance post security in Terminal 2. The event will feature acrobatics, trapeze work, music and dance.

The performers are from the Astraeus Aerial Dance Theatre and during a six-month airport residency, dancers and acrobats from the troupe will interact with passengers and create, rehearse and perform new content inspired by what happens at the airport.

So next time you’re at SAN – look up!

Fresh art at San Digeo Int’l Airport covers car rental center

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DAZZLE at SAN courtesy Pablo Mason

 

San Diego International Airport (SAN) has a new giant art installation – called DAZZLE – covering the nearly one-third-mile  face of the airport’s Rental Car Center facing Pacific Highway.

Created by the artist team Uebrall International, the giant high-tech public art installation is made up of  2,100 solar-powered and computer-controlled e-paper panels that transform the building into a changeable, animated mural.

Computer controls allow the e-paper panels to act as individual pixels that, working together, are programmed to display more than 15 unique, artist-designed  animations “that evoke everything from water ripples to moving traffic to dancing snowflakes,” according to Ueberall artist Nik Hafermaas, , who chairs the Graphic Design department at ArtCenter College of Design. 

Why call it DAZZLE ?

The work is named for dazzle camouflage, a type of ship camouflage developed by Norman Wilkinson and used in World War I. Using stripes and other patterns, dazzle helped camouflage the outlines of ships.

Take a look:

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