INTERVIEWER: And it's come out just the way you thought it would?

WALT: No. I never thought about it in this way...It was one of those things...you just went ahead and one thing led to another.

>>Listen

Interesting Fact: JFK Airport was originally known as Idlewild Airport.

Labels: airports, disney

(1) The World's 18 Strangest Airports

(2) I Want It Now! The Fierce Urgency of Videogaming’s Future

(3) What It Looks Like on Saturday Morning

(4) Symphony No. 4 (Beethoven)

(5) Animator_vs__Animation_by_alanbecker

Labels: airports, weekend

(1) Airport Check-in: The Palm among new JFK eateries

(2) Another quote from How Rome Fell...

"There were no hordes of barbarians hurling themselves time and again against the walls of civilisation."

(3)


(4) A quote from Admiral of the Ocean Sea by Samuel Eliot Morison...

"The northeastern shore of this gulf is noted for the subterranean streams that flow down through the limestone and break out under the sea not far from the shore, welling forth such a volume of sweet water that that swarms of manatee are attracted to quest their thirst, and seamen may fill water casks without the trouble of going ashore."

I'll be quoting from this Pulitzer Prize winning book again in September.

Labels: airports, books, quotes, signage, weekend

The world's worst airports to sleep in

Related
The Guide to Sleeping in Airports
Hotels Around the World

Labels: airports

10 Great Things To Do in Airports

Labels: airports

My BLOG is being expropriated by Burgoyne.



(1) The FIFA Confederations Cup begins tomorrow in South Africa. The US MNT is one of eight teams competing in this WC warm-up.

(2) Jones turns back on Germany to play for USA


(3) Will you marry me at the airport?

"Yes, airports. For many travelers, an airport may be the least romantic spot on earth. But airports have played an important role in plenty of love stories. Many couples first meet while working at an airport. Others meet while flying on an airplane or while hanging around at an airport."

(4) Notable Quotes: "Oh I'm sorry, that's off limits. Now if you'll excuse me for a second, I have to go to the bathroom for about 30 minutes as I eat a lot of meat."

Labels: airports, soccer, weekend

...projects of influential politicians.

>> Inside South Korea's 'ghost' airport

It's eerily similar to Murtha's!
Murtha's Earmarks Keep Airport Aloft (The Washington Post)

Labels: airports

This post (YouTube link) by Glenn Reynolds about John Murtha's Vanity Airport is like the 'ghost airport' in South Korea. The cause - 'incompetent planning and administration' by previous liberal governments - is even identical. I think the water level in Nancy's swamp is rising.

Labels: airports, democrats, pelosi

The world's most alienating airport (Economist.com)

Labels: airports

Airliner to be a hostel, but will plan take off?

What I'm reading
Conquering Gotham: A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels

World War II posters

Labels: airports, books, weekend

(1) Nextel asks what if roadies ran the world...
(2) American Airlines ad from the 2008 Super Bowl.
(3) Payton Manning as the attitudinally resilient traveler.

Labels: airlines, airports, weekend

(1) A cool graphic for a great cause.

(2) JetBlue's new Terminal 5.

(3) American Airlines launches airborne broadband service.

(4) Airport Technology - The website for the airport industry.

(5) United to end free meals on many trans-Atlantic flights.

Labels: airlines, airports

These are all related...

(1) Yeah. And there's one at Heathrow now.

Sleep, refresh, work or relax...

Everything you would expect from a luxury hotel in a small space. Located uniquely inside the airport terminal buildings at London Heathrow’s Terminal 4 and London Gatwick’s South Terminal. Just moments walk from check in, arrivals and minutes from the other terminals. YOTEL opens at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam in Summer 2008.

Related
(2) I just purchased 3,000 shares of BnL Macro on E*TRADE. I'm very bullish on Buy n Large.



(3) I gave General Burgoyne some Automoblox Mini's for his birthday. Every car has a VIN number printed on the chassis and you can us it to register the car online. What a clever marketing idea.

Labels: airports

I caught this program on CNBC on Sunday night and highly recommend it to anyone interested in the airline industry and/or the economics of managing an airline. It's narrated by Paul Greenberg and he does a decent job examining the industry via American Airlines in areas like logistics (baggage, travelers, fleet, and cargo), fuel costs, passenger safety (post 9/11), and maintenance.

The segment on rewards (frequent flier miles) will make you angry, especially now since AA is charging $10 to cover the variable cost of your seat. What I found most fascinating is how little profit the airline makes on each flight. As a result, the airline is incentivized to keep those planes full and off the tarmac. At one point in the program, Greenberg shows a slide that shows how many flights between LAX, JFK and BDA one airliner must make in one week/month to reach maximum profitability.

One other comment...I thought the CEO seemed a bit smarmy.

***BONUS***
You know that joke you like about the monkey and the sailor? JACK IT to Celine Dion with our NEW headphones

Labels: airlines, airports, business, economics

I finally used AirTrain at JFK. The stations aren't as clean and airy as Skylink but the service between long-term parking and the terminals is just as efficient as the sleek system in Dallas.

JFK is still a mess but the restoration of the landmark TWA terminal by JetBlue will be worth the inconvenience.


Designed by Eero Saarinen, the bird terminal opened on May 28, 1962 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

The interior was a continuously flowing surface of cast concrete. There were no sharp corners, no right angles, no dull flat ceilings. The building was topsy-turvy–on some places the walls swooped down to become floor, while other parts curved above our heads like ocean waves that were about to break yet were somehow frozen in place. Between the vaults were gaping ellipses of glass through which you might see a tail fin or a passing cloud. I was only twelve and knew nothing about architecture, but the pavilions at the world's fair seemed stodgy in comparison. This wasn't pretending to be the future; this was the future.

- Alastair Gordon, Naked Airport

Labels: airports

I'm just re-directing traffic to FORBES (don't worry because ATC gave me clearance). I like the gratuitous use of DATELINE-like fear tactics.

In Pictures: America’s Most Dangerous Airports

Topping the list of the nation's most dangerous airports are smaller fields relieving bigger congested hubs.

Two of the worst are in Nevada and California. North Las Vegas, known as Northtown, had 63 runway incursions since 2001 resulting in six deaths. It is followed in the rankings by Long Beach/Dougherty Field, the scene of 78 incidents and no fatalities. In these cases, it was congestion and high flight volumes that led to the large numbers.

Related Airline News
JetBlue has issued a Customer Bill of Rights and (more importantly) apologized after last weeks tarmac debacle. There is NO need for government intervention when companies police themselves.

Dear JetBlue Customers,

We are sorry and embarrassed. But most of all, we are deeply sorry.

Last week was the worst operational week in JetBlue's seven year history. Following the severe winter ice storm in the Northeast, we subjected our customers to unacceptable delays, flight cancellations, lost baggage, and other major inconveniences.

You deserved better—a lot better—from us last week. Nothing is more important than regaining your trust and all of us here hope you will give us the opportunity to welcome you onboard again soon and provide you the positive JetBlue Experience you have come to expect from us.

Labels: airports

It's the theme today. This story (see below) occurred the same week as the 9-hour JetBlue tarmac debacle.

"Listen, it's not easy to travel by air. Take off your shoes, pull out your laptop, put your gels in a baggie, blah, blah, blah. And I'm sure the airline industry has plenty of problems being as efficient as it could be.

But to scream at a flight attendant because there are high winds in New York and that has delayed all incoming flights there? I think it's time for some people to take some anger management courses...or doses of medicine.

Incidentally, we've just been told we're about to take off so I need to turn off my laptop. The lady has stopped screaming about the delay. Now she's upset that there won't be a meal on the flight."

Read more

Limestone Commentary
I've been on one or two of those tarmac grounded flights (the longest was 5+ hours). Reports like these (JetBlue and AA) make the need for an Air Traveler's Bill of Rights tempting. I don't believe in government interference (regulation), but the airline(s) seem incapable of policing themselves.

Labels: airports

If it's 1/2 as good as advertised Virgin America could present a real challenge to the current crop of US carriers. The legacy airlines like American, United and Delta are hobbled by union contracts, while the low-cost carriers are short on frills.

You Can Change The Way America Flies

Who here is happy with airline service? Do you love your airline? Most Americans say no.

Virgin America would like to change the way America flies. Our mission is to provide you with a better option in domestic air travel. How about an airline filled with people who have a passion for progress and a fascination with technology? How about massage chairs? How about a self-service minibar and snack fridge? Take a look around our cabin...we think you'll be surprised.

But we need your help.

You may have heard the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) tentatively rejected our application in late December, pending resolution of some issues regarding our ownership. We believe, since then, we've addressed their concerns and we're now waiting for the Department to issue its final decision in the next couple of months.

We're asking your support to convince the DOT and your elected officials that our application should be approved.

Why? Because if we never fly, the losers won't just be us at Virgin America but U.S. travelers in general.

Please sign our petition and demand that you, your friends, your colleagues, and your family be given a choice in air travel.

Read more

Labels: airports

I'm back from the Philippines and will post pictures and a detailed summary in the not-so-distant future.

Sometimes you have to make BIG sacrifices for a hobby or passion. My obsession for airlines/airports was the impetus behind my decision to read Fly Me to the Moon by Alyson Noël.

When you're stuck @ 30,000 feet on a 747 for 14 hours you'll do some funny things, and this is the only way I can justify reading chick-lit. I will admit that shortly after landing in Manila I blamed cheap wine, oxygen depravation and general delirium on my decision to read this book. I did scrub myself vehemently that first evening in our hotel.

It's nice to see how the other side lives, and the characters in this book were narcissistic pucks of epic proportions (the entire lot of them) grabbed from any suburb or Sex in the City viewing party (not sure they have those, but it sounds plausible).

I stuggled to find anything redeeming about this book. There was a funny description of the dreaded La Guardia to Fort Lauderdale route that flight attendants despise. There was also a passage recalling the glory days of airline travel:

Kat had flown in the days when air travel was considered a privilege, when people actually dressed up to get on a plane and being a stewardess was a much-sought-after, highly glamorous career choice.

My copy will probably end up in the swap rack in the beach pavillion, and if it weren't for this entry there would be no proof I read it.

Although a work of fiction, the one thing I noticed is a similarity between the temperament of characters and the real author of The Perfect $100,000 House. I suppose there's something here that a therapist may need to interpret, but for now, I'm comfortable saying, "I quite look forward to taking to the hills when the barbarians arrive."

Labels: airports

AirTrain has record passenger traffic in 2006 at JFK, Newark

NEW YORK (AP) About 4 million people took the AirTrain light-rail service from Queens to John F. Kennedy International Airport last year, a record in its third year of operation, officials said Wednesday.

The service connecting mass transit to airport monorails also broke records at Newark (N.J.) Liberty International Airport, where AirTrain is five years old.

The $1.9 billion AirTrain JFK, which connects travelers to the airport monorail from city subways and a Long Island Rail Road stop in Jamaica, Queens, took 15 percent more passengers last year than in 2005, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said. AirTrain Newark's 1.6 million passengers, which connect to the service from New Jersey Transit and Amtrak trains, represented an 8 percent jump.

Labels: airports

AA to apologize to stranded fliers

American is offering an apology to fliers stranded on one if its planes around the New Year's holiday. Aviation site AvWeb.com writes that AA "says it will apologize to 138 passengers who spent nine hours stuck on the ground in Austin and ended up with overflowing toilets, no water to drink and only pretzels to eat. And the ordeal could have lasted even longer if the captain of the crammed MD-80 hadn't defied company orders and taxied to an open gate without permission." NBC 5 of Dallas writes that "American officials admit something went wrong in Austin, and said it is reviewing what happened and will apologize to affected passengers." Describing the scene onboard the Dec. 30 flight, passenger Kati Hanni tells the station that the flight's attendants had to "desperately" try "to keep the tempers and the temperament of the passengers down."

Source

Labels: airports

Lambert-St. Louis International Airport - There's nothing very inspiring about it. The airports in the Midwest (Detroit, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Minneapolis) are all very stark and characterles and this one was no different. They are very utilitarian and concrete. The exception is O'Hare International Airport.

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport - This is a GIGANTIC airport. Terminals are linked by Skylink. I didn't have enough time between connecting flights to explore this very cool transportation system. The shopping and food were mediocre (although I was able to find a Starbucks). I compare all airports to Orlando International and the shopping in Dallas paled in comparison.




Austin-Bergstrom International Airport - In the third volume of Perpetual Motion in the November issue of DWELL Robert Sullivan describes Thomas Evans' Hill of the Medicine Man. This 100-foot-long mural adorns the east ticket lobby. I brielfy saw his work as well as Fidencio Duran's, The Visit. I tried to take a picture of both murals but the battery in my Philips Keychain Digital Camera ($19.99 USD) failed!

Sullivan writes about Austin-Bergstrom International Airport:

Austin is treating the airport as public space- and as a kind of town center, as opposed to a back door, and recognizing that our public spaces are less about standing still and more about movement or transportation.

His description is accurate. This airport, while short on the sizzle, has a rhythm more reminiscent of great stations like Grand Central or Union.

Labels: airports