This World Traveler

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