This World Traveler

With a short layover in Ireland, I experienced what I could in the airport. An authentic Irish breakfast. Sausage, bacon, black pudding, white pudding, beans, egg, tomato, potato and a piece of bread.

It's a nice Irish touch to an airport otherwise devoid of personality.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers. We'll be back Friday, or Monday if we haven't shaken off the Turkey coma by then.

Labels: airports, dublin, ireland, travel

Lots of people travel to see weird things... but this situation might take the cake. A Japanese traveler flew to Mexico City a couple months ago, apparently he decided that the terminal food court was the ideal place to spend an open ended vacation. He flew there on September 2, and still hasn't left the terminal. Apparently, by literally living in the terminal, he isn't breaking any laws as long as he leaves when his tourist visa expires, which isn't for another three months.

Mexico has apparently fallen in love with Airport guy as well, with him doing daily features on Mexican TV believe it or not. And apparently he's become a tourist attraction in his own right. It's a funny story, but kind of sad for Mexico when you think about it. How bad is it for Mexico City when one of your hottest attractions is a homeless Japanese guy in the airport?

Labels: airports, mexico, travel

Today, Cranky Flier was talking about British Airways' recent announcement that they'll be flying narrow body jets across the Atlantic, from the New York area to downtown London, out of the not often used London City airport. The more I read about that, the more I thought about the smaller airports that I've used over the last few years.

Smaller airports generally mean shorter wait times to check in, go through security and a pleasant environment. Unfortunately, it also means there is a lot less to do in the case of a long wait time. I've gone through my share of them. Some still offer regular jet service, some don't.

1. Lubeck, Germany - currently serviced by Ryanair
Lubeck is a northern German focus city for the low cost Irish airline, Ryanair, offering service to five different destinations. The old small terminal building has a restaurant and bar, and little else. But at least there's beer! The actual behind security area resembles a steel pole barn. Because that is basically what it is with four "gate areas" which are really just barn doors with desks in front of them. This was my first experience with the Ryanair cattle call, and the cement floor and undecorated barn experience of the airport definitely helped make the livestock feeling come alive.

2. Reims, France - currently not serviced by any airline
Reims is a tiny tiny building with virtually no services. Just a glorified waiting room. The odd thing about this airport is the baggage carousel. It's an indoor outdoor carousel. So when your bag is taken off the plane, it sits on the conveyor belt outside, their baggage system is literally, pull the bag on the plane and set it on the carousel.... If you miss your bag as it rotates through, it ends up back outside for another round with the elements. If it takes you a bit to get to the front of the baggage line, you can end up with a very wet bag, as what happened to me flying to France on Ryanair back in 2003.

3. South Bend, IN - currently served by Delta, Northwest, United, CapeAir and Allegiant

This small regional airport, about 90 miles from Chicago, is a pleasant place and has quite a bit of traffic going through it. Most of it are on small regional jets and turboprops. Cape Air flies 10 seat planes out of South Bend down to Indianapolis, for example. The operations definitely don't feel like a larger airport. In my recent experience, the deicing of the plane was done on what looked like the back of someone's modified pick up truck with a cherry picker attached. There are a couple places for coffee and a bar. But no services whatsoever on the other side of security, just vending machines and two cramped gate areas that serve as entire concourses.

4. Flint, MI - served by AirTran, Delta, Northwest, American, Continental, Midwest

This small airport 35 miles north of Detroit feels like a larger airport. In fact, it's grown quite a bit and is now the third largest airport in the state, just behind Grand Rapids and ahead of Lansing - whose airport does feel larger, even though it isn't.

The terminal was rebuilt within the last few years and it is, from the outside, meant to be reminiscent of a wing. From the inside, its reminiscent of Fisher Price. I was sitting in the snack bar/restaurant area of the Airport and looking around, I noticed its got all the "amenities" of a big time airport and laid out like a playset would be. The snackbar, the giftshop and shoe shine stand, just above the gates... And no sharp corners to hurt the kids! Aside from the playful nature of the terminal, it is very easy to get from point A to B. 10 minutes from check in to gate... and thats with Security check.

Labels: airlines, airports, flint, france, germany, london, lubeck, reims, south bend

Last month the highly anticipated news came down from Columbus. The new ultra low cost carrier, Skybus, will be expanding its roster of destinations to include Chicago. Well, sort of. It will be flying to Gary-Chicago Airport, about 15 miles east of the city in Gary, Indiana.

To me this seems like such a smart move. Chicago is currently served by two overcrowded and extremely busy airports, Midway and O'Hare. Gary has no other airlines to compete for gate space with currently, and the airport is literally a couple hundred feet from Interstate 90. Attempts have been made to make Gary a regional airport alternative to the big Chicago mess, but with little success - as Casino Air, Hooters Air and most recently SkyValue have tried and failed to breathe life into the little airport that can't quite could.

This opportunity could be different however. With $10 seats, and a better funded operation behind it, Skybus could make Gary a successful destination for them. Plus, it's suddenly convenient for the million or so people that are considered Chicago area people who live minutes from Gary but an hour plus from the other airports.

The only problem? Skybus is only scheduling one destination for Gary and that's Greensboro, NC. Personally, I'd love to see a Gary to New Jersey route, but that's most likely because I want the chance to fly without the hassle of Midway or O'Hare.

Labels: airlines, airports, gary, skybus, travel

Airport Frustration

I'd like to take a moment to complain. I know that I promised that I wouldn't whine about travel, and this isn't about traveling or amenities in a plane and not getting the perceived value I should get for my dollar somewhere. This is about the opportunity to spend my money.

Airports seem to have limitless places for you to waste your money. And before the days of super-tight security, anyone could shop at these places. Sure, you had to go through the checkpoint, but it was worth it if you had enough time to kill. Those days are gone, sadly, and it now a ticket is required to access most of the terminal. Including basically every restaurant and bar in the place at a lot of airports.

Chicago's two airports are very guilty about this. With the exception of International Terminal 5 at O'Hare, there are no places to eat or drink once you leave the sterile zone. It's frustrating when you have friends take you to the airport, because there is no opportunity for the goodbye drink. Or if your ride is stuck in traffic like mine was last November in Midway airport. I spent three hours with a dead iPod outside of security, and with nothing more to eat or drink than a diet Coke and a 1.50 bag of 25 cent chips. And on a day like that, there's nothing I want more than a beer. Or six.

Labels: airports, chicago, security, travel

Sunday Blogs of Note

Things I'm loving this week online this week are as follows:

Skybus airlines launched this week out of Columbus. Jaunted was there with an entertaining liveblog of the first few flights.

MSNBC reports that Las Vegas tourists are skipping the walking they might get on their vacation for motorized scooters usually reserved for the handicapped.

Has anyone seen the airplane air purifiers that are being sold some places? Hook it up to your little personal air jet thing and it supposedly makes the clean air cleaner or something? They're mostly forbidden, and might start the occasional on board fire - maybe. Fly Away Cafe was on that this week.

I'm fascinated with Knife Tricks. It's my favorite blog of late - all about his recent trip to North Korea. This week, Dog Soup!

Finally, Salon's Ask the Pilot describes the worst airport on earth. It's in Senegal.

Labels: airplanes, airports, blogs, las vegas, north korea, skybus, travel

Thursday is a getaway day!

Sorry about lack of updates for the last couple days. Been getting ready for a weekend trip to Columbus, Ohio. We're flying Jet Blue and this will be my second experience on the airline within a month. I have to say that my first experience was really quite positive. Good TV, pleasant seatmates, nice assortment of snacks. The only downside is a 6 hour flight with just potato chips and cookies to eat can be a bit long. Especially when House Hunters is a rerun. But still, I was very impressed with the service and me and a friend got a great deal to fly to Ohio for a weekend.

I went to college there and am looking forward to it. As for the flight, not so sure. Flying a smaller jet than their Airbus, and Turbulence Forecast has alerted me to possibility of up to moderate turbulence. Moderate turbulence never feels moderate to me. But with a five dollar beer, I'm sure I'll be just fine. Catch you on the flipside!

Labels: airports, fear of flying, jet blue, turbulence