Category Archives for Airports.
Philadelphia is a generally poor airport. Some airline employees even call it Filthadelphia. And the airport can’t seem to even provide basic services to passengers without an upcharge – like outlets?
Cancun airport is reporting a record-breaking summer. And at the same time, work is proceeding to grow infrastructure around the airport. Colosio boulevard, which enters Cancun International Airport, is seeing two hour delays at peak times (6 a.m. – 10 a.m. into the airport and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. departing it).
Tourists can be seen abandoning taxis and walking into the facility.
Part of how the Austin airport has handled growth is opening a separate, privately-funded terminal for low cost carriers. They gave a 40 year lease to a company to build it, that company has invested tens of millions of dollars, and Allegiant and Frontier currently operate out of the terminal.
The South Terminal has only been open 5 years and the Austin airport has changed its mind. They want the land back .
As airlines work through the backlog of lost bags, not everyone on staff is well-incentivized to reunite people with their luggage. Instead they may just be expected to clear the backlog. And what is the quickest, easiest way for an employee to do that – an employee who doesn’t see the customer?
Elon Musk plans to build his own airport in the Austin area.
The Boring Company’s headquarters is a mere three miles from Austin Executive Airport – although last year top executives at the Boring Company acquired 73 acres for a warehouse and manufacturing facility in… Northwest Bastrop where the new airport is believed to be planned.
Out of the top busiest airports in the world last year, eight of the top 10 were in the United States. In fact, 10 of the top 12 were in the U.S. as well.
These top 20 airports handled 19% of world passenger traffic in 2021 (863 million total passengers).
According to the CEO of London Heathrow, “The summer getaway has started well at Heathrow, thanks to early planning and keeping demand in line with airline ground-handler capacity.”
Any issues, he says, are the fault of airlines failing to “recruit and train more ground handlers” and fault with the airport lies only in not having enough money for capital investment, but that’s the fault of the global pandemic not the airport itself
Outside of a limited set of legitimate interests, government functions in publicly-owned airports are generally open to filming. Passengers can’t pass through TSA checkpoints without a ticket or other authorization, but prior to the checkpoint it’s generally not a problem as long as the activities don’t interfere with the function of the airport or screening activities.
To be sure I wouldn’t want to be filmed in my workplace either. At the same time without documentary evidence of bad actors, a passenger likely has little recourse against TSA or airline employees who treat them poorly.
Amsterdam Schipol airport was already in meltdown. Now its baggage systems have broken down.
There are simple reasons why airport restaurants are bad, stemming from high rents, challenges hiring staff, airport security to the varying tastes of consumers who are only choosing the dining spot because it exists near their gate. But there are some new innovations at least making food choice more varied and access faster.
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 »
