What a busy week! We’ve found everything from awards to the world’s best airports, strikes in Europe to an incredible ground transport accident at a major U.S. airport in this week’s airport news from around the world. Here are what we’re going to cover in this episode:
Continue reading This week: Singapore wins again, Germany on strike & more
This week is the second last week of our airport news reviews in 2013 before we take a – what we think – well deserved break. Let’s look at what we found this week then:
Continue reading This week: Spanish ghost airport up for grabs, snowy owls at JFK & more
Wow, the year has literally flown away from us. This in fact is our last airport news update for 2012. This week we found some of the more usual airport stories (strikes, fog) as well as some not so common ones (mice, star stopped in Norway).
Continue reading This week: Strikes, fog, snow, mice and Sarah Jessica Parker
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.
Continue reading This week: worst airport named, new arrival service & all lights out
With Prince William and Kate Middleton’s royal wedding only days away, we thought it’s timely to look closer at Britain’s capital airports in order to find out whether these London airports are actually living up to the (new) royal standards. Plus, is there even such a thing as a royal airport? The answer to the latter question is yes and no. Actually more no than yes. A ‘yes’, because for shorter flights the Queen and the rest of the British Royal Family use RAF Northolt (IATA: NHT), a Royal Air Force station approximately 10 km north of London Heathrow Airport (IATA: LHR). From there they use BAe 146 or HS125 aircraft from ‘No. 32 (The Royal) Squadron’ when available according to the Monarchy’s official website. More no, because in order to save costs the British Royal Family is encouraged to use commercially scheduled flights. This they do mostly out of Heathrow as their royal travel grant-in-aid documents reveal (see for yourself here).
This week for me has certainly been one surrounded by planes. However, it didn’t involve any flying. Puzzled? Alright, let me fill you in: I visited the 2011 Avalon International Airshow on 3 days. Where is Avalon? Glad you ask – Avalon (IATA: AVV) is a small regional airport about 60km South of Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city. Every other year Avalon hosts Australia’s largest International Airshow attracting Hundreds of Thousands of public and hundreds of industry & trade visitors from around the country and abroad. While I was hoping for a lot more civil aircraft demonstrations, the airshow otherwise lived up to the motto of “feel the power”: From a jet-engine-equipped glider, the always impressive Mustangs to the newest Royal Australian Air Force plane, the F/A-18F Super Hornet, if it had an engine and made a lot of noise, it was on display. My favourite bit though was the transport aircraft C27-J Spartan (pictured) flown by the Italian Air Force performing jaw-dropping manoeuvres and even included a roll!
Continue reading This week’s airport events: air show & bed bugs
It’s the second week of our newly created section and I always knew this would happen at some point: there’s that odd week where not much happens. But don’t worry, this wouldn’t be LateDeparture if we hadn’t something to write about in style!
The first true late departure of the week was when a rat (yes, you read that right) delayed an Alaskan Airlines flight in Seattle (IATA: SEA). The Associated Press went on reporting that
[…]the flight from Seattle to Denver had just pulled away from the gate Thursday morning when the little stowaway was spotted. The 737 jetliner returned to the terminal and passengers and crew boarded another plane about 90 minutes later. Airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan says the plane won’t be returned to service until maintenance workers make sure the rat didn’t damage equipment or chew any wires – and an exterminator certifies the plane is rodent-free.”
Well, if that wasn’t juicy news for you, I really don’t know!
Continue reading This week’s airport events: from rats to new greetings
Last week I had the pleasure of taking a flight from London’s smallest commercial airport, London City airport (IATA: LCY). The airport is conveniently located in London’s docklands, east of the financial district and can be accessed easily by Docklands Light Railway (DLR). It is even in London Transport’s zone 3, so it won’t cost you much to get there either.
So what is the catch? There of course is one – as always. The airport is small, has only one runway which is not very long (1319 m) and therefore is restricts to STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) airliners. Its operating license says, aircrafts have to be capable of a 5.5 degree or steeper approach. Plus there is a strict noise regulation in place. Therefore only small planes are predominant, particularly the BAe 146 aircraft which means the number of destinations offered are limited.
So, how does the airport terminal rate? Even though the airport is small, a lot of people are passing through on a daily basis. In 2006 2.3 Million people travelled through the City airport according to Wikipedia. Particularly on week days, the airport is at its full capacity affecting the limited space in the terminal. But its not all bad, they have recently increased seating space and anyway, with low delay rates, you can expect to be in and out of the terminal faster than you can say “delay”. In the rare occasion where you do get delayed, here are my Top-X-Things to do:
| Airport Name | London City Airport |
| Website | http://www.londoncityairport.com/ |
| IATA Code | LCY |
| Design |  |
| Shopping | |
| Toilets | |
| Overall | (Because of its convenient location) |
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£58.40 |
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£49.99 (cellar box vintage 2002) |
[Picture from Flickr – some rights reserved]
