Friday, February 01, 2008
Four Small Airports
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
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Flashback: Late Night In London
The following was written in July 2003, after a frustrating first evening in London, England.
The passport line at Stansted Airport was long. Very long. Several hundred people long and I'm watching the time tick away until the last train leaves that I have a ticket for, watching 10 pounds waste away in that train ticket. The line moves extremely slowly as there are only two or three passport counters open for the Non EU passengers. In most airports, when the line is exceedingly long, they waive non EU passport holders to the EU line to shorten waits. Not here. It was 12.30 before I got to baggage claim.
Half an hour after the last train to London left the airport. After wandering the airport for several minutes, I found a bus that was to take me to downtown London for just 10 pounds. I was really tired, starting to get cranky, and wished that I could have gotten a better timed flight to get to London. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20. Oh did I tell you I couldn't find a cash machine at the airport either? I'd need to catch a night bus to my friend's house in Brixton once I got to Victoria station. So before I could board the bus, I'd need to get to a cash machine. I got off at Victoria coach station, the bus driver directing me to a cash machine. It was out of order. I wander around towards Victoria rail station... realizing that the night buses leave from the railroad station which is closed, and not from the bus station whose terminal is closed but remains open all night.
After wandering around the area for half an hour, I finally find the rail station and look in vain for a cash machine. It is now 3 AM and I'm hopelessly lost and unable to raise the one pound I need to get on the bus. So, I hire a cab. The first one tells me I can get to Brixton for 8 pounds. I take him up on it but he says that if I want to go with credit card, I have to get a radio cab. Those cost more by the way, and the one I hailed had a broken credit card machine so I still had to stop at a cash machine to pay him. But I did save the 20% credit card surcharge. Total cost of the cab ride? 13.20. This brings my Stansted to Brixton trip cost to nearly 35 pounds, or about 30% more than the cost of the flight from Germany to London. I get dropped off at the Brixton tube station, hiking the quarter mile to Barbara's house where she's waiting for me in her pajamas, sitting under her sunflowers.
At last, I'm home. Able to sleep and able to forget the nightmare of a city commute. My flight landed at Stansted at 11.20pm London time. I reached Barbara's flat 4 hours later. Total distance traveled? About 75 kilometers. Looking back on the situation, I can laugh about it... it wasn't that awful. I did get to see things I've never seen before. I did get to wander around a little bit... even if I was carrying all that weight on my back as I did it. And it did let me have a wonderful night's sleep.
