It’s been another busy airport week with stories pouring in from all corners of the world. It’s equally been a busy week here at LateDeparture as we’ve done a little marketing blast for our recently launched airport-only-trip with OutTrippin. Check it out for yourself.
Continue reading This week: No Harvey Milk SFO, Abu Dhabi’s sleep pods & more
Every now and then you get a week with a lot of slightly out-of-the-ordinary airport news all coming in at the same time. This has been exactly such a week: We found news from a Swedish retailer moving into airport space, a baby smuggle attempt, a tower evacuation, sinkholes, a refurbished terminal and two emergency landings. Sounds interesting? Told you!
Continue reading This week: baby smuggle discovered in Xray, sinkholes in Bangkok and more
Righty-o, here we go! It’s still a very young 2012 yet airport related news have already been pouring in left, right and center. And as so often, there was some good news (JFK), some bad (New Delhi) and some weird (Buenos Aires). Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.
Continue reading This week: a fire, a birthday and 247 snakes
It’s been a massive week for Miami International Airport (IATA: MIA) after a fire broke out on Wednesday night and turning into an enormous blaze near six fuel tanks on the southeast side of the airport. It subsequently destroyed the airport’s hydrant fuel pump system forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights. The Miami Herald wrote that “some semblance of normalcy could return by early next week after temporary pumps are installed and the backlog of canceled flights clears out.”
Continue reading This week’s airport events: sleep in Washington, fire in Miami
I counted 34 camels and found millions of barrels of black gold at Abu Dhabi International Airport (Arabic: مطار أبو ظبي الدولي; IATA: AUH). Well, upon closer inspection the camels were stuffed and more aimed at children (and anyone shy of a bring-home gift for their young ones). And the oil barrels turned out to be a bit of a mirage.
But is everything a mirage in the airport of the capital of the United Arab Emirates? Not really. The shiny terminal 2 which was built to accommodate the fast growing number of passengers before the new Terminal 3 will be opened later this year is definitely real. It’s real but it lacks a bit of character. More of the latter can be found in Terminal 1 which reminds you of the days when this was a small desert airport serving mainly business people from the Emirates capital. These days the airport is the main hub for the UAE’s national carrier, Etihad Airways. Founded in 2004 the airline already serves 45 destinations and has even ordered the new Airbus A380. It’s no surprise then that the airport is a 24-hour operation with shops and restaurants constantly serving the arriving and departing of mostly transiting passengers.
Besides looking for black gold or animals, there a some other things you can actually do between your flights:
| Airport Name | Abu Dhabi International Airport |
| Website | http://www.abudhabiairport.ae/ |
| IATA Code | AUH |
| Design |  |
| Shopping | |
| Toilets | |
| Overall | |
 |
AED 465.00 (£84.40) |
 |
AED 270.00 (£49.00) |
[Picture from Flickr – some rights reserved]
