Category Archives: Airports

What Obama’s budget means for US airports

On Monday US President Barack Obama unveiled a $3.7 trillion budget plan. Within the 10-year blueprint is also a juicy bit directly affecting US airports as according to some airport industry groups, Obama could cut $1 billion out of the government’s $3.5 billion fund for airport construction grants. So what does that mean for US airports?

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No hinterland airport: Cairns Domestic

I’ve been in two minds over reviewing this airport. On one hand, Cairns is only the 7th busiest airport in Australia and can I highly doubt anyone outside of Australia can actually name 7 cities on this continent, or am I wrong? But then for comparison, the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Dallas Houston [corrected; apologies for the mistake], Texas (IATA: IAH) is the US 7th busiest airport and I’d certainly wouldn’t hesitate writing about that one.

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It’s raining awards in Washington

First the Super Bowl in Dallas and now the ATW Online Awards, what a week! Alright, in all fairness, I care as much about the Super Bowl as a child cares about a retirement fund. Put me aside, and it’s undoubtedly a massive event in the US. So what about the ATW Online Awards? Right. ATW stands for Air Transport World. According to their website, they “for nearly 47 years, Air Transport World […] has been the leading monthly magazine serving the needs of the global airline and commercial air transport manufacturing communities.” In this capacity they award the annual ATW’s Airline Industry Achievement Awards. The 37th award ceremony for this years winners is taking place tonight from 6pm local time in Washington, DC.

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This week’s LateDeparture Tweets

  • Air France’s Poor Handling of the Egypt Crisis Earns a Cranky Jackass Award http://j.mp/gT5TjS @Crankyflier #
  • Airport reopens, Super Bowl week freeze lingers – Yahoo! News http://yhoo.it/hU6uoq #DFW #
  • Airport chaos eases while violence flares in Cairo – Yahoo! News http://yhoo.it/f3xUvR #CAI #
  • Massive winter storm: Chicago socked by blizzard; millions could be affected – http://t.co/aLZJIDL via @cnn #ORD #CHI #
  • Cairo airport a scene of chaos as foreigners flee http://bit.ly/fXoHVq #CAI @Forbes #
  • US rolls out less revealing airport scanners – Yahoo! News http://yhoo.it/gWh7cE #LAS #
  • Qantas prepares for push into Asia http://bit.ly/fVk8Ur @FT #
  • Flying From JetBlue’s Efficient #JFK Terminal 5 http://j.mp/f5UIyK @crankyflier #
  • Tourists besiege Cairo airport, but flights halt – Yahoo! News http://yhoo.it/fg5Uam #

Hong Kong Airport plans for new midfield concourse

Check this out, my second most favourite airport in Asia, Hong Kong Airport (you can see my most recent video review of the magnificent airport here) has unveiled plans for an extension: Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA) unveiled phase 1 of its midfield development project. The 73,000m² project includes the building of a new midfield concourse with 20 aircraft parking stands, a new cross-field taxiway and the extension of the existing automated people mover (APM) to the midfield concourse. Construction for the phase one development will start in the third quarter of 2011, with the completion expected by the end of 2015.

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This week’s LateDeparture Tweets

This week’s LateDeparture Tweets

  • Airport named after 'James Bond' author – http://t.co/XKYC8b3 @msnbc #Jamaica #
  • Beijing to build second major airport – Yahoo! News http://yhoo.it/g2NdWB #
  • Logan Airport expected to be a 'ghost town' Wednesday morning – http://b.globe.com/ihjZfy (via @BostonUpdate) #BOS #
  • Qantas to resume A380 services to LA – Yahoo!7 Finance http://yhoo.it/gUeaV7 #MEL #LAX #
  • Lufthansa joins Virgin campaign against Heathrow #LHR http://bit.ly/eP0mcG @FT #
  • Virgin to halt airport fees in snow protest #LHR @FT http://bit.ly/fuPGaC #
  • Airport seeing delays, cancellations #USA #ATL #CLT http://t.co/0fBH4QN #

Flood & snow: the impacts for you

I’m sure by now almost everyone has heard about the current severe flooding in Queensland, the North-Eastern Australian state with the capital Brisbane. Prolonged heavy rainfall over the past month or so has led to a catastrophic situation in much of the state and to the North of its bordering neighbour state, New South Wales.  This event is widely attributed to the effect of “La Niña“, a coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that is the counterpart of “El Niño” which brought drought to the same areas previously.

La Niña, however, isn’t the only ecological hazard and Australia is not the only affected country. Other unusual weather patterns, such as the severe winter weather across Europe in December or masses of snow from Boston to New York and Atlanta more recently are other indicators that these events seem to increase in frequency and severity.

So what do these events mean for you as traveller? There are 3 main impacts you should be aware of:
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This week’s LateDeparture Tweets