San Francisco International Airport

DEN’s new Capital One Lounge +SFO’s newest exhibit

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Traveling to or through Denver International Airport (DEN) soon?

Certain Capital One cardholders and anyone willing to buy a $ 65 single visit pass can now spend their airport dwell time in the comfy Plaza Premium Lounge on Concourse A, on the mezzanine level near Gate A34.

Amenities include local artwork, plenty of comfy seating areas, private workspaces, phone booths, shower suites, a parents’ room, relaxation rooms, and plenty of tasty offerings for food and drink.

As with its other lounges, some of the dishes and drinks are very local. Here, for example, there’s a Colorado Ground Bison Sloppy Joe on the menu, draft beers curated by Cerveceria Colorado and some specialty cocktails created by Denver’s Yacht Club Bar.

(Images courtesy Denver International Airport)

SFO Museum presents Kay Sekimachi: Weaving Traditions

The SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is offering a new exhibit featuring the work of pioneering fiber artist Kay Sekimachi.

Her weavings feature a wide range of media and techniques, including on- and off-loom textiles, stitched-paper forms, and molded fiber bowls.

The exhibit, Kay Sekimachi: Weaving Traditions, presents a retrospective of Kay Sekimachi’s extraordinary woven art from the collection of Forrest L. Merrill and is at SFO’s Harvey Milk Terminal 1

(Photos courtesy SFO Museum)

Travel Tidbits from an airport near you

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New artwork to greet passengers at Salt Lake City Int’l Airport

Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) already has several large-scale artworks by artist Gordon Huether, including the 400-foot Canyon (above).

Coming soon: the completion of his 90-foot outdoor art piece echoing the mountain peaks for which Utah is famous.

SFO Airport is celebrating Dia de Los Muertos

San Fransisco International Airport (SFO) is celebrating Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) with an altar, a mural, and live cultural performances through November 7 in Harvey Milk Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.

In Harvey Milk Terminal 1, look for the “Tree of Life” altar created in partnership with the Mission Center for Cultural Arts, and feel free to add the names of your loved ones to the altar.

In Terminal 2, artist Adrian Arias will paint a mural titled “Ancestral Hummingbird with Moon,” influenced by his Peruvian background.

Pittsburgh International Airport’s new terminal progressing nicely

Travel Tidbits: Fresh Art at SFO

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(Dancing figure by Gabriel Bien-Aimé, Courtesy SFO Museum)

A new exhibition from the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) celebrates the Haitian art form of cut-metal sculpture.

The exhibit, titled The Enduring Spirit of Haitian Metal Sculpture, is located pre-security in the International Departures Hall at SFO.

Here’s some background on this art form, courtesy of the SFO Museum:

Discarded steel oil drums have historically served as the base material for Haitian metal artists. The drums are flattened into sheets and designs are chalked on; pieces are then cut and sculpted using only hand tools and further enhanced by hammering, embossing, cutting holes, and bending the metal. Sculptures reflect everyday life portraits, imaginative themes, and motifs of Haitian Vodou, an African Diasporic religion. Some of the many forms that appear include angels and winged creatures, mermaids and other aquatic figures, musical bands, animals, and earthly, paradisiacal scenes.

Entwined figures by Georges Liautaud. Courtesy SFO Museum

Some electric transportation news

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When you buy an Amtrak ticket, you sometimes end up riding a diesel-powered bus instead of a train pulled by an diesel-fueled, dual-powered (electric and diesel) or electric (in the Northeast) locomotive.

Now at least one of the diesel-powered buses in the Amtrak network is being replaced by an electric-powered bus.

Passengers traveling mid-day on the Amtrak Cascades route in the Pacific Northwest through Oregon and Washington to Vancouver, B.C. will now get to ride on an electric-powered bus between between Seattle and Bellingham, WA instead of on the diesel-powered bus that has been serving this trip segment.

The bus is the first electric vehicle (EV) in the Amtrak National Network and can make the nearly 200-mile roundtrip on one single charge

A ride in the right direction.

SFO Airport will help save energy in an emergency

It’s another very hot summer. And airports around the country are doing their part to reduce their draw on the elecricity grid during times when air conditioners and other appliances are in heavy use.

Denver International Airport, Chattanooga Airport , Indianapolis International Airport (IND) and many others have large solar farms that provide much, and in some cases, all of the electricity needed to power airport operations. And Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) is completely powered by natural gas and solar via its own microgrid.

San Francisco International Airport (SFO), which earned an award in 2019 for being the world’s first Zero Net Energy (ZNE) facility at an airport, has a large rooftop solar farm. But SFO still gets some of its electricty from the city’s hydroelectric grid.

So to do its part for added energy conservation during the city’s Flex Alerts, which the cities issues when extremely hot weather drives up electricity use, the airport is committing to a variety of measures which may have a slight impact on passengers. The airport expects it will get 24-hour notice on these Flex Alerts which usually run from 4 pm to 9pm. So if anything on the list below alarms you, be sure to check the SFO website before you travel.

  • The AirTrain people mover may reduce the frequency of service from every 4 minutes to every 8 minutes.
  • Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers in all SFO Parking Garages may be temporary deactivated.
  • Airport cooling may be adjusted to reduce electricity usage, allowing terminals to be just a bit warmer than usual.
  • Airport lighting may be reduced throughout terminals.

Museum Monday at LAX and SFO airports

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Say “Hi, Barbie!” at Flight Path Museum at LAX

A visit to the Flight Path Museum and Learning Center at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is an avgeek delight anytime.

Located on LAX property, a short drive or taxi ride from the terminals, the museum includes one of the largest airline uniform collections, as well as space exploration memorabilia, a great research library, and a wide range of commercial aviation artifacts.

Right now is an especially good time to visit because the museum has Barbiemania. In honor of the new Barbie movie, the museum is showing an exhibit of aviation-themed Barbies and Barbie accessories, including Barbie dolls inspired by famous aviators, including Bessie Coleman and Amelia Earhart.

Unconventional enamels at SFO Airport

The SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) oversees twenty-five sites throughout the airport terminals. So if you’ve got a long walk to your gate or a long layover at SFO, it’s a good bet something will catch your eye.

One of the newest exhibitions at SFO features the unconventional enameled art of June Schwarcz (1918–2015) on view in the Harvey Milk Terminal 1, Departures Level 2, Galley 1 E now through early May 2024.

Here’s an intro to Schwarcz’s work from the SFO Museum;

Inspired by nature and fashion, as well as abstract, African, and Asian art, Schwarcz developed unique metalworking techniques, always experimenting and embracing complex technical challenges. She initially worked with copper panels and spun-copper bowls, infusing them with her own interpretation of traditional enameling. During the 1960s, Schwarcz pioneered electroforming, an innovative method that involved electroplating pieces made from thin copper foil. Schwarcz focused on sculptural vessels and when asked about her abstract forms, she explained, “They simply don’t hold water.” 

(Images of June Schwarcz’s artwork courtesy of SFO Museum and the collection of Forrest L. Merrill)

Travel Tidbits for a busy holiday weekend

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The Memorial Day weekend is traditionally one of the busiest travel times. And this year is no exception.

AAA projects 42.3 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this Memorial Day weekend, a 7% increase over 2022.

Many people will be driving to their destinations this weekend, but AAA says nearly 3.4 million travelers are expected to fly.

That’s an increase of 11% over last year and 5.4% more than in 2019.

“This Memorial Day weekend could be the busiest at airports since 2005,” says AAA.

So if you’re flying somewhere, pack your patience – and some snacks.

Therapy Cat at SFO Airport

San Francisco International Airport’s team of certified stress-relief animals, the Wag Brigade, includes dogs, a Flemish giant rabbit named Alex, and a Juliana-breed pig named Lilou.

Now the team has a new member: Duke Ellington Morris, known around town as ‘Duke the Cat.’

Duke is certified as a therapy cat by the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and has been visiting area hospitals and other sites for many years.

Look for Duke and other SFO stress-relief animals wearing their “pet me” vests.

Air New Zealand’s amenity kits feature products inspired by Māori knowledge

Air New Zealand’s new onboard amenity kits now feature skincare products made by Aotea on Aotea/ Great Barrier Island that inspiration by traditional Māori herbal practices.

The products include native New Zealand ingredients, such as Kawakawa, Harakeke, and Mānuka, and are available to customers traveling in business premier and premium economy cabins.

“My grandmother was a Rongoā Māori (Māori medicine) practitioner,” says Aotea founder Tama Toki, “She would treat us kids with what we found in the bush and the Aotea range is an expression of that upbringing. It’s a privilege to be able to see this part of our culture onboard Air New Zealand flights.”

The latest from the SFO Museum

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If you miss your flight at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) blame it on the curators of the SFO Museum.

At any one time, there are perhaps 20 top-notch exhibitions on view throughout the terminals, spanning everything from vintage radios and Victorian wallpaper to all manner of aviation history.

And each exhibit will make you want to stop and stay a while.

One of the newest exhibitions, Recollections… From the Unkown Museum, on display through March 2024 in Terminal 2, offers selections and creations culled from a quirky collection of vintage pop culture artifacts.

A well-known ‘secret’ museum in Mill Valley, CA since the mid-1970s and now artist Mickey McGowan’s private collection, the Unknown Museum is filled with a mass amount of objects dating from the 1940s to the 1980s. The museum is an “exploration into America’s brain” and a “complete immersion in conceptual art and American consumerism.”

Among other things.

 Recollections… from the Unknown Museum at SFO Airport is a sampling of the many fantastic art and object installations on display at various locations of the museum from the mid-1970s through the present.

“My original intent was to rescue these items, to provide them with a rest home for the remainder of their days,” museum curator and archivist Mickey McGowan said back in 1988.

Thank goodness he did.

Here are some snaps from the exhibit, courtesy of SFO Museum, and Mickey McGowan.

From the SFO Museum: Matchbooks & Air Sickness Bags

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The SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) has more than 150,000 objects related to the history of commercial aviation and to the airline industry.

As part of its 52 Objects series this year, they’ve pulled out this matchbook showing the route map for Continental Airlines.

Squeezing as much as possible onto a promotional item is nothing new. A while back we found this air sickness bag in the SFO Museum database which could be used for scoring a gin rummy game and/or turning in your film for processing.

World’s Busiest Airport? Plus: Travel Tidbits

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Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Back on Top

Airports Council International (ACI) released global traffic numbers and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) once again comes out on top as the world’s busiest airport.

The top five world’s busiest airports include Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Denver International Airport (DEN), Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD), and Dubai International Airport (DXB), in that order. The Dubai airport also topped the list as the world’s busiest international airport.

SFO Airport’s Cherry Blossom Festival

The Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival is underway in San Francisco’s Japantown and San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is celebrating as well.

Through April 18, passengers traveling through SFO can snap selfies at the Cherry Blossom backdrop and enjoy performances on the stage in Terminal 3, by the food court.

The line-up is described here in detail, but includes OH-IN Taiko (drums) on Friday, April 7 from 10 am to 2 pm; a koto concert by Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto on Wednesday, April 12 from 10 am to 2 pm; and the Ito Yosakoi dance team on Friday, April 14 from noon to 3:30 pm.

Some of SFO Museum’s #52 Objects

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As far as we know, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is one of just two airports in the country that has an onsite museum program accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. (Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is the other one.)

Pretty much everything the SFO Museum displays in the terminals from its own collection or from a collection on loan is top-notch. But there are plenty of objects that never, or rarely, go on display. And lots of objects you might miss if you’re just passing through.

That’s why we’re delighted that for 2023, the SFO Museum is highlighting one “notable, unusual, interesting, or just plain fun” item from the collection each week.

Here’s what’s shown up so far.