This is going to be fun, as we have another one of our rivalry reports between Heathrow and Gatwick. And this week it’s all about the luggage which went right for one and oh so wrong for the other; more about that in a few paragraphs.
Continue reading This week: More London rivalry and Hawaiian welcome gone wrong
Righty-o, as we say here in down-under, let’s get this show on the road. This week we have airport news from across the globe for you: There’s the closure of an Asian airport’s terminal building, a computer glitch in Europe, Sweden’s suspicious bag and a police chase down an active airport runway in the US.
Continue reading This week: an airport runway car chase & more
It’s been one of those odd weeks where one particular news story just didn’t go away; more about that later. In other news we found bits and pieces from the US (this time San Francisco and Denver made the cut) as well as our almost surely reoccurring news from England.
Continue reading This week: Strong winds, strikes and a wheelchair bomb scare
We love innovation and particularly – surprise, surprise – airport innovation. This one here was sent to us from a very attentive reader who discovered a story about a new way of overlaying digital flight information onto a binocular display at an airport observation deck. The story gets even better as the case study is based on an art installation at Zurich Airport (IATA: ZRH), one of our “like” airports in Europe.
Continue reading Airport Innovation: Augmented Reality Binoculars
What a busy airport week this one was again! We’ve got more strikes albeit this week from a different European country, a culinary feast about to be unveiled in the UK, Chinese turtles and a couple of “interesting” stories from the US of A. So let’s get started right away!
Continue reading This week: Jamie’s Gatwick, 79 turtles, and German strikes
This is a guestblog by Dana Rasmussen who writes about private jets for JetCharters.com, a worldwide air charter marketplace. Jet Charters makes booking your next air charter easier by allowing you to research trip options and connect directly with the charter operator.
It’s ski season and just about everyone with a need to take to the slopes is heading out to Vail.
Some of these people are going the more traditional route by getting onboard a commercial airliner, while others opt for a classier way.
These people are the ones that charter a private jet.
Continue reading Guestblog: Private jet vs commercial airliner- a journey of comparison
This week we focused on two main geographical areas: Brazil and France. One had good news, the other not so much. Now the question becomes, which had which?
Continue reading This week: Strikes, Privatization and Victoria Beckham
Our lovely friends over at Forbes have recently come up with their selection of the best international airport for layovers. It’s a great idea and something we have been discussing for a while here at LateDeparture. So, in true LD-style, let’s get that red pen out and add some notes to their recommendations:
London Heathrow Airport (IATA: LHR)
Yes, London is exciting, however, the airport overall isn’t. Don’t get us wrong, we really like what they’ve done with Terminal 5 and the Virgin Clubhouse in Terminal 3 is simply fantastic, however, the average traveller would probably be quite underwhelmed by the airport overall. It still feels too crowded, outdated and confusing. Plus there’s always the chance of getting in or out late because of the airport is already at 99% capacity with its 2 runways. But then it is London, well known for being eccentric and a bit chaotic. So if that’s what you like, you’ll have a great time there!
Hong Kong International (IATA: HKG)
Yes, Hong Kong should definitely be on that list; we wrote about it numerous times, for example in one of our most famous headlines reading “When little airports grow up, they become Hong Kong International“. The airport has also won numerous awards and certainly has our seal of approval!
Munich International Airport (IATA: MUC)
Munich airport has two faces: a happy one and a rather confused if not angry one. Let us explain this further: Munich is one of the Lufthansa hubs and therefore receives special treatment by the German airline. The carrier occupies one terminal exclusively (together with its Star Alliance partners). This terminal, Terminal 2, is really nice and offers plenty of options for shopping or consuming one of those famous Oktoberfest beers. On the other side, Terminal 1 is dull and boring and doesn’t seem to fit next to its upmarket cousin. However, there’s a solution if you are not flying through Terminal 2: head outside and get into that middle section between the two terminals. There you find a few restaurants and other interesting stuff to spend your time with (read our more detailed review titled “Oktoberfest atmosphere at Munich Airport” to gain further insights).
Singapore Changi Airport (IATA: SIN)
Yes, yes, and yes! This airport ticks all the boxes and definitely belongs in this list. And no, we don’t get any money for writing this. But it is an open secret that this airport has been our long lasting favourite and we’ve covered it extensively (e.g. read our detailled review of Changi’s crown jewel, Terminal 3 here).
Amsterdam Schiphol (IATA: AMS)
Amsterdam, Amsterdam, what can we say? Maybe that we love you? There’s certainly no doubt that this is an exciting airport with plenty to see and do. In our opinion it’s probably the best European airport as it’s got the perfect size, it’s big but not too big. Plus similar to Changi airport, Amsterdam keeps introducing new and exciting things. The latest one was the banner vending machine – we wrote about it. If you want to read more about the airport, a good start is our review here.
That’s where the Forbes list ends. Overall we believe it’s a good selection but might miss out on mentioning South Korea’s Incheon International Airport (IATA: ICN), an airport that has also regularly won awards, Zurich Airport (IATA: ZRH) which we also featured a number of times (e.g. here) or good old Los Angeles International (IATA: LAX) albeit not for the airport itself, but for it’s great location only minutes away from the beach and other superb layover options (read our extensive LAX reviews here, here and here).
[Photo from Flickr – Some rights reserved by Gerrit Wenz]
Wow, what a big week for LateDeparture this one was! On Monday we announced the winner story from our Airport News of the Year award voting process. As you probably heard by now, the story about Jack the Cat who was lost at the JFK airport won the title. Subsequently many of you commented on the sad fate of Jack and reinforced on your views about who was to blame. If the award did one thing, then it showed that some airlines still have a long way to go in regards to handling incidents like this one.
Continue reading This week: Ice Age in Europe, Super Bowl congestion and Bieber’s apology
That’s it; the results are in as my loyal readers have decided …drum roll….wait for it… it’s the “Lost Cat” story that wins the first ever LateDeparture Airport Story of the Year Award. The voting took place over three weeks and was open to all LateDeparture readers. And what a finish it was as counting in the vote went down to the wire, with Jack’s tale winning by just one vote over the story about a plane landing at the wrong airport. They both easily beat the final entry – a story about the rivalry between London’s two major airports – Gatwick and Heathrow.
The winning story of Jack the cat who got lost at JFK Airport in New York (IATA: JFK) was mentioned in three different weekly news articles. It had everything from an emotional plea to find the cat, an apologetic airline when it was found and a very sad ending when the cat had to be put down due to its condition.
You can read the full stories here:
It’s certainly been an amazing race to the finish and I would like to thank all loyal readers for their contribution and of course all the award sponsors for their amazing prizes. Speaking of prizes, the winner of the 1st prize, the two JetBlue return tickets is Abhishek Duggal from Honolulu – congratulations! All other winners have also been notified, so check your inbox to see if you are one of them!
2012 will surely be another interesting airport news year, so make sure you follow us right through it!
