Category Archives for Airports.
Airport data shows that local traffic at the airport still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, yet connecting traffic has grown tremendously. American Airlines in particular has more than doubled its number of connecting passengers compared to before the pandemic.
Washington National airport built an entire new concourse to replace one miserable gate. Gate 35X was a bus gate that served 14 remote stands for 50 seat regional jets. The new regional concourse supports 14 large regional jets. There’s a gorgeous Admirals Club in that concourse, too.
The new concourse was part of the 10-figure “Project Journey” which moved security screening so that all of the concourses and “National Hall” would be airside. It turns out we didn’t need to wait two decades to eliminate ‘the worst gate in the country’.
Both Delta and United own a stake in CLEAR, and all you’ve needed was an account number with either to get a lower price and those with status paid less still. Now the airline discount is shrinking. An email went out to Delta SkyMiles members showing the change in pricing.
CLEAR is a private, fee-based service that takes your biometrics and lets you identify yourself with your fingerprints or retina scan instead of showing an ID. At airports where they’re located you can then skip to the front of the security line – whether PreCheck or regular security.
But the TSA now says CLEAR’s systems have a security vulnerability and some key lawmakers want everyone using CLEAR to still have to have their IDs verified at the security checkpoint.
Tom Hanks introduced the world to the story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, the man who spent 18 years living in Paris Charles de Gaulle airport’s terminal 1, in the film The Terminal which also starred Catherine Zeta-Jones and Stanley Tucci.
People do get stuck in airports in immigration limbo. One issue that’s come up is the result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russians that have fled the country to avoid being drafted as cannon fodder in Putin’s war.
Air traffic control in Manila lost power on New Years’ and all flights were halted. Tens of thousands of passengers were stranded as flights were cancelled and diverted. Inbound aircraft couldn’t fly to Manila – for instance a Qantas flight from Sydney took a six hour flight to nowhere, turning around nearly halfway through its eight hour journey.
One City of Chicago employee had two runway incursions in a single day and thanks to union rules wasn’t even fired. Indeed, not a single one of 5 city workers who drove vehicles improperly on O’Hare runways were terminated.
Flights continue to be cancelled nationwide, with more flights cancelled in the U.S. than anywhere else (even China) and more Southwest flights cancelled than any other airline.
Extreme winter weather is the proximate cause. In some cases this has been exacerbated by an airline’s ability to respond to that weather (sufficient staff and systems for recovery). Here’s the email that Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan sent internally to employees on Christmas evening.
American Airlines and British Airways have done a nice job with their new premium check-in area at New York JFK terminal 8, which takes inspiration from the old Flagship check-in in the same space at the airport and from the British Airways First Wing at London Heathrow.
Pueblo, Colorado is losing jet service to Denver, and seeing it replaced with 9-seat turboprops. And the federal government is paying $3 million a year for the privilege.
The irony is that the existing subsidized airline, SkyWest, was offering to take out nearly half the seats from their jets, providing a better flying experience, and operate two flights a day instead of just one.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
