This week has been a mixed one. While it certainly wasn’t a quiet one for the US East Coast airports, elsewhere, things were more on the normal side with one notable exception: China. But enough of the vagueness, let’s get straight into it:
Have you ever dreamt of an airport with an attractive, yet functional design? An airport with beautiful and innovative food outlets, great shopping? Or what about an occasional live concert? And on top of it all speedy and efficient operations? Dream no longer, this airport actually does exist: It’s called Terminal 5, the dedicated JetBlue terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York (IATA: JFK, LD hub page).
It’s been a turbulent week with plenty of airport related news. Earlier in the week we reported about the future of airport security, a topic that keeps being on top of travellers and airport managers minds alike, especially now with the approaching anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Then towards the end of the week the news headlines were dominated by hurricane Irene with severe implications for air travel.
With the 10 year anniversary of America’s 9/11 attacks fast approaching, many articles are popping up about how this event changed the aviation industry. Everyone agrees that air travel hasn’t been the same ever since. Many new and sometimes questionable security measures have been introduced making travelling through an airport a rather lengthy and sometimes purely uncomfortable process. But what does the future of airport security hold? Msnbc.com’s Bill Briggs wrote an interesting article about exactly that.
This week has been a fairly quiet week in airport news terms. Nevertheless we still found few very interesting stories all the way from Amsterdam, Arkansas and Belgrade for you. They even all have one common theme – can you figure it out?
This week’s news has it all: two celebrities – one in a controversial fight with a European lobby, the other on a literature adventure (can you say it 10 times?) – and then two rival airports that finally start competing properly. Now if that’s not proper headline stuff, we rest our pencils.
Tomorrow in one year will be London Heathrow’s busiest day in its history. That day, the 13th August 2012 is the day after the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 Olympic games. Unsurprisingly today now Heathrow (IATA: LHR; LD hub page) was announced as “host airport” of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
It’s not often that we get detailled insights into the shopping behaviour of travellers at airports. Singapore Changi Airport (IATA: SIN; LD hub page) has now analysed sales information from its four terminals, and found that travellers’ most preferred gift is chocolate.
This week we received airport news from around the world. Well, surely you would expect that but it isn’t always the case as the US is by far the most dominant source of (juicy) airport news. Actually, let’s start with the US and then make our way eastwards: The Wall Street Journal this week published a report compiled by the Transportation Department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics about the timeliness of US airports. Of the 100 most-delayed flights over the past year, 40 come and go from Newark Liberty International Airport (IATA: EWR) making it the worst airport for punctuality.
At LateDeparture we always strive to bring you fresh airport reviews as this clearly is the essence of the site. But no reviews without travels. We also embrace strict guidelines not to write desk based reviews. So definitely no reviews without travels. Don’t worry though as we’re now embarking on a little trip around the globe and cover many new airports and revisit others. Here’s what’s to come: