Airports, Americas, Asia, Europe, In the News, Oceania, Weekly

This week: Gossip week

Our news topics this week read a bit like those from a bold headlined tabloid newspaper. But no, we’re not apologising for that, afterall it’s simply a reflection of this week’s airport related news. Plus who doesn’t like a bit of gossip every now and then? So, here they are:

We’ll start on the more serious side when we quote Bloomberg’s article from Wednesday that read Incheon to Build New Airport at Yangon: Southeast Asia. Incheon is – of course – the award winning international airport in South Korea (ICN) and when it’s said to build another airport, we’re surely listening. According to the article the Korean company, owner of the Seoul airfield, will help quintuple the passenger capacity of Myanmar’s Yangon’s international airport (RGN) by 2018.

Now it’s getting a bit more gossipy: according to The Guardian (a newspaper, not known for publishing rumours or gossip news of any sorts) this week wrote that London’s Southend (SEN) rated best airport in Britain. Say what? The tiny airport located on the Essex coast was apparently given an average customer satisfaction score of 84%, as smaller airports far outperformed their larger rivals. The article further quoted that three of Heathrow‘s four operational terminals rated among the worst, with fewer than half the passengers satisfied. The newest Terminal 5 outscored all large airports in the south-east. And London Luton (LTN), which changed hands this month to new Spanish owners, had the most dismal scores of all, with its security queues and general environment rating particularly badly.

USA Today wrote this week that Chicago’s O’Hare airport turns to barnyard animals to mow its grass. We’ve previously seen other airports doing that, which certainly is an environmentally sustainable idea we like. The paper further wrote that in a remote corner of O’Hare International Airport (ORD), far from its high-profile modernization mega project, a decidedly more low-tech initiative is being carried out by a barnyard band of goats, sheep, llamas and wild burros. The mission of the roughly two dozen animals: to mow the grass. And lots of it.The article concluded that the project will lower the landscape maintenance costs for things such as fuel and labor, and offer an alternative to using toxic herbicides that can spill off into waterways. We love it!

Then there was this one we found through San Antonio Express-News: William Ware, 22, was pulled over at San Antonio International Airport (SAT) after police responded to a call about 3 a.m. Wednesday regarding a motorist seen driving a Hyundai through a taxiway and onto the runway. Ware was arrested shortly after the incident and charged with criminal mischief, possession of a prohibited knife, criminal trespassing and driving while intoxicated. To us this sounds a bit like an episode of the upcoming GTA V video game, don’t you think?

And finally we have a little story from the category of “odd airports” our friend Mat sent us to us from a not exactly child safe source (we’ve warned you! – albeit the link to this story’s article is safe): Gisborne Airport (GIS), a tiny regional airport on the outskirts on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand (got it?) is one of the few airport in the world that has – wait for it – a railway line crossing the main runway! According to the article the airport which covers a land of 160 hectares has three grass runways and one main runway that is intersected by the Palmerston North – Gisborne Railway Line. How funny!

That’s all for this week – safe travels!

[Photo from Flickr – Some rights reserved by qwincowper]