More and more flights now leave late. But at least killing time in airports has become more tolerable - even enjoyable - thanks to chic shops, good restaurants and splashy casinos.
By Lois Madison Reamy
April 2001
Institutional Investor Magazine
More and more flights now leave late. But at least killing time in airports has become more tolerable - even enjoyable - thanks to chic shops, good restaurants and splashy casinos.
Jacques Bouhet’s “flight from hell” was spent mostly on the ground. The SG Americas CEO was scheduled to leave from New York for Montreal on a 9:00 a.m. Air Canada flight. But because of a snowstorm, passengers weren’t able to board until 3:00 p.m. or take off until 5:30 p.m. Then, midway to Canada, the pilot announced that they were turning around because of bad weather. Bouhet arrived back at LaGuardia Airport at 7:00 p.m., almost 12 hours after he’d departed for the airport, having spent the day reading his office mail.
To travel is to suffer. Every business traveler nowadays seems to have an airport horror story to match or top Bouhet’s. Flight delays are “dreadful and getting worse in Europe and the United States,” affirms Jonathan Howe, director general of Geneva-based Airports Council International, an airport trade association. Top of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s list of domestic airports with the most delays last year are, in descending order, New York’s LaGuardia, Chicago’s O’Hare International, Newark International, Hartsfield Atlanta International and San Francisco International. The Air Transport Association in Washington, D.C., reports that the number of delays on U.S. domestic flights rose 20 percent last year; in all, some 450,000 takeoffs and landings combined ran behind schedule (out of roughly 9 million flights). The average delay: 47 minutes. Though no comparable figures for Europe last year were available at press time, ACI’s Howe says, “It appears that the [first-quarter 2001] delays [in Europe] aren’t as bad as they were for the same quarter last year,” although he cautions that the continent’s worst tie-ups occur in summer. Because Switzerland is small and central, and “an exceptional amount of traffic criss-crosses” its limited airspace, it produces the worst bottlenecks in Europe.
With a record 1.7 billion people flying last year, the snafus and snarls at airports aren’t likely to get much better any time soon (see boxes). So what should frequent fliers (or is that sighers?) do? “If passengers are obliged to spend more time at airports, they may as well enjoy themselves,” recommends Howe. An airport was once considered a cross between a vast wasteland and a dentist’s waiting room. But leading airports have recently sought to become much more hospitable places by transforming their drab environs and adding first-class restaurants, brand-name boutiques, luxury spas and hotels. Since they now rely on aviation for only about half of their revenues, Howe points out, airports have every incentive to lure retail outlets eager to serve a largely captive audience.
Here are some of the things airport detainees can do.
, Revive with a massage (choose between the four-hands and the warm-stones treatments) at Hong Kong International’s Cathay Pacific Airways spa. Soak in a hydrotherapy bath in Virgin Atlantic Airways’ Virgin Clubhouse at London Heathrow; or, fully dressed, enjoy a seated massage at a Massage Bar concession at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
, Watch motorcycle or auto racing at Kuala Lumpur International’s Sepang Formula 1 racetrack, surrounded by jungle, just two miles from the terminal.
, Hit the casinos at Frankfurt International, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and, of course, Las Vegas’s McCarran International.
, Relish the Globe restaurant’s delectable salmon, sushi and curry at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport or get takeout to eat on the plane (call 604-207-5200).
, Bed down in Emirates Airline’s consummate first-class and business-class lounges - with five full bedrooms apiece - at Dubai International.
, Buy a dragon kite from the specialty kite shop at Seoul’s Inchon International (and at least fly something).
, Take a sauna and a swim at Copenhagen Airport’s Scandinavian-modern Hilton (users don’t have to be hotel guests).
, Stroll the lush orchid garden at Singapore Changi Airport.
, Dip into San Francisco International Airport’s 6,000-volume aviation library, housed in a replica of the airport’s 1937-vintage Spanish mission-style waiting room.
, Shower, nap, dine and e-mail in style at British Airways’ Terrace Lounges around an ornamental pool at New York’s John F. Kennedy International, Chicago O’Hare and Miami International.
, Browse at such chi-chi shops as DKNY, I Santi and H. Stern in the new Terminal 4 at JFK. The prices may be eye-popping, but at least many airports now try to avoid markups on street prices.
Along with creating diversions for passengers, airports have been pumping billions into improving existing facilities and building new terminals, as well as expanding rail services and roads. Seoul’s $5 billion Inchon International, which opened this March, is built on an offshore landfill site and boasts a vast, 6-million-square-foot terminal graced by stands of Korean pines beneath an overarching skylight. Links to downtown Seoul by expressway, ferry, helicopter and high-speed rail are meant to take the hassle out of the 25-mile trip. Scheduled to open this spring, Athens International at Spata is to be joined to the capital by a six-lane highway and a rail link.
Perhaps the most striking contrast between airports old and new can be found at New York’s JFK, where Terminal 4 is set to open next month. An upsweeping glass edifice of 1.5 million square feet that provides a window on arriving and departing planes, the new terminal sits beside the old International Arrivals Building, which it replaces. Terminal 4’s plaza of shops and restaurants will feature an offshoot of fabled soul food restaurant Sylvia’s of Harlem.
As impressive as JFK’s T4 and the other new facilities may be, airport projects have a way of bogging down, contributing, ultimately, to passenger delays. Environmental constraints, political feuds and red tape can all be impediments. T4 was part of a $10 billion JFK upgrade that had been 15 years in the planning. Assuming Seattle-Tacoma International’s third runway opens on schedule in 2006, it will have taken 13 years to build and will have cost more than $770 million. Munich International Airport, which opened in 1992, took three decades to build.
Plainly, building more airports in the U.S. and Europe won’t ease congestion in the near future. But the airline industry does have several initiatives afoot to help with delays. The U.S. has embarked on a multibillion-dollar modernization of its air traffic control system, installing new computer equipment and redesigning air routes that were established as long ago as the 1960s. Technology is being tested to optimize the use of air space by allowing planes to fly closer together safely. And aviation and information technology industry associations and agencies have embarked on a “simplifying passenger travel” program to smooth travelers’ journeys by using such techniques as iris-identification to nod passengers past ticket and immigration checkpoints and match them with their baggage.
In the meantime, enjoy your wait.
Beating the airport waiting game
Airports may be more pleasant places to bide your time than they used to be (story), but there’s no reason to succumb to flight delays if you don’t have to. Seasoned business travelers divulge these tips for getting off the ground.
, Avoid hub airports, like London Heathrow or Chicago’s O’Hare International. “The weather goes through” Chicago, reports Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, CEO of Latin America Enterprise Fund.
, Choose the less crowded airport wherever possible. Fly from Oakland International, say, rather than San Francisco International; Chicago Midway in place of O’Hare; Providence’s T.F. Green rather than Boston Logan International; and Stansted International or London City airports instead of Heathrow or Gatwick.
, Plan an alternative connection. Route yourself through an airport with several onward flights.
, Confirm your flight before leaving for the airport, then keep a mobile phone or laptop handy to rebook immediately once it becomes clear your flight will be delayed after all. Consult real-time weather and air travel Web sites, such as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s www.fly.faa.gov.
, Avoid exotic airlines. They’re less likely to have a plane in reserve in case of mechanical problems.
, Fly a global airline partnership, such as the 13-member Star Alliance, to make your connections as seamless, and painless, as possible.
Blame it on the weather
Flight delays have become such an occupational hazard for business travelers (story) that, in their frustration, travelers fault airports for virtually holding them hostage. In reality, bad or iffy weather accounts for 70 percent of flight delays, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. The remainder are largely attributable to the sheer volume of aircraft (14 percent of delays), air traffic control equipment outages, runway construction, mechanical and labor problems, bad flight scheduling and a shortage of air traffic control capacity, or runway and airspace.
That isn’t to say airports deserve none of the blame. For a variety of reasons - including lack of space - many have been unable to expand to accommodate burgeoning air traffic. The tendency of airlines to overschedule flights in peak hours complicates matters. Says FAA spokesman William Shumann, “At some times, the airlines will schedule more flights than the airport can handle [even] under ideal conditions.”
Perhaps the most glaring example of an overscheduled and overextended airport is New York’s LaGuardia. It has just two runways - which, inconveniently, intersect - yet had 392,000 takeoffs and landings last year, or 33,000 more than John F. Kennedy International, which has four parallel runways (but is also seven miles farther from Manhattan, through traffic). Little LaGuardia was therefore the scene of more flight delays than any airport in the U.S. last year. The FAA recently stepped in to reduce the number of flights at LaGuardia in the short term (until September). At least there’s a good new restaurant, Figs, for pasta and flat-bread pizza.
©Copyright 2001 Institutional Investor, Inc.
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TRAVEL
Have a nice delay!
More and more flights now leave late. But at least killing time in airports has become more tolerable - even enjoyable - thanks to chic shops, good restaurants and splashy casinos.
By Lois Madison Reamy
April 2001
Institutional Investor Magazine
More and more flights now leave late. But at least killing time in airports has become more tolerable - even enjoyable - thanks to chic shops, good restaurants and splashy casinos.
Jacques Bouhet’s “flight from hell” was spent mostly on the ground. The SG Americas CEO was scheduled to leave from New York for Montreal on a 9:00 a.m. Air Canada flight. But because of a snowstorm, passengers weren’t able to board until 3:00 p.m. or take off until 5:30 p.m. Then, midway to Canada, the pilot announced that they were turning around because of bad weather. Bouhet arrived back at LaGuardia Airport at 7:00 p.m., almost 12 hours after he’d departed for the airport, having spent the day reading his office mail.
To travel is to suffer. Every business traveler nowadays seems to have an airport horror story to match or top Bouhet’s. Flight delays are “dreadful and getting worse in Europe and the United States,” affirms Jonathan Howe, director general of Geneva-based Airports Council International, an airport trade association. Top of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s list of domestic airports with the most delays last year are, in descending order, New York’s LaGuardia, Chicago’s O’Hare International, Newark International, Hartsfield Atlanta International and San Francisco International. The Air Transport Association in Washington, D.C., reports that the number of delays on U.S. domestic flights rose 20 percent last year; in all, some 450,000 takeoffs and landings combined ran behind schedule (out of roughly 9 million flights). The average delay: 47 minutes. Though no comparable figures for Europe last year were available at press time, ACI’s Howe says, “It appears that the [first-quarter 2001] delays [in Europe] aren’t as bad as they were for the same quarter last year,” although he cautions that the continent’s worst tie-ups occur in summer. Because Switzerland is small and central, and “an exceptional amount of traffic criss-crosses” its limited airspace, it produces the worst bottlenecks in Europe.
With a record 1.7 billion people flying last year, the snafus and snarls at airports aren’t likely to get much better any time soon (see boxes). So what should frequent fliers (or is that sighers?) do? “If passengers are obliged to spend more time at airports, they may as well enjoy themselves,” recommends Howe. An airport was once considered a cross between a vast wasteland and a dentist’s waiting room. But leading airports have recently sought to become much more hospitable places by transforming their drab environs and adding first-class restaurants, brand-name boutiques, luxury spas and hotels. Since they now rely on aviation for only about half of their revenues, Howe points out, airports have every incentive to lure retail outlets eager to serve a largely captive audience.
Here are some of the things airport detainees can do.
, Revive with a massage (choose between the four-hands and the warm-stones treatments) at Hong Kong International’s Cathay Pacific Airways spa. Soak in a hydrotherapy bath in Virgin Atlantic Airways’ Virgin Clubhouse at London Heathrow; or, fully dressed, enjoy a seated massage at a Massage Bar concession at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
, Watch motorcycle or auto racing at Kuala Lumpur International’s Sepang Formula 1 racetrack, surrounded by jungle, just two miles from the terminal.
, Hit the casinos at Frankfurt International, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and, of course, Las Vegas’s McCarran International.
, Relish the Globe restaurant’s delectable salmon, sushi and curry at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport or get takeout to eat on the plane (call 604-207-5200).
, Bed down in Emirates Airline’s consummate first-class and business-class lounges - with five full bedrooms apiece - at Dubai International.
, Buy a dragon kite from the specialty kite shop at Seoul’s Inchon International (and at least fly something).
, Take a sauna and a swim at Copenhagen Airport’s Scandinavian-modern Hilton (users don’t have to be hotel guests).
, Stroll the lush orchid garden at Singapore Changi Airport.
, Dip into San Francisco International Airport’s 6,000-volume aviation library, housed in a replica of the airport’s 1937-vintage Spanish mission-style waiting room.
, Shower, nap, dine and e-mail in style at British Airways’ Terrace Lounges around an ornamental pool at New York’s John F. Kennedy International, Chicago O’Hare and Miami International.
, Browse at such chi-chi shops as DKNY, I Santi and H. Stern in the new Terminal 4 at JFK. The prices may be eye-popping, but at least many airports now try to avoid markups on street prices.
Along with creating diversions for passengers, airports have been pumping billions into improving existing facilities and building new terminals, as well as expanding rail services and roads. Seoul’s $5 billion Inchon International, which opened this March, is built on an offshore landfill site and boasts a vast, 6-million-square-foot terminal graced by stands of Korean pines beneath an overarching skylight. Links to downtown Seoul by expressway, ferry, helicopter and high-speed rail are meant to take the hassle out of the 25-mile trip. Scheduled to open this spring, Athens International at Spata is to be joined to the capital by a six-lane highway and a rail link.
Perhaps the most striking contrast between airports old and new can be found at New York’s JFK, where Terminal 4 is set to open next month. An upsweeping glass edifice of 1.5 million square feet that provides a window on arriving and departing planes, the new terminal sits beside the old International Arrivals Building, which it replaces. Terminal 4’s plaza of shops and restaurants will feature an offshoot of fabled soul food restaurant Sylvia’s of Harlem.
As impressive as JFK’s T4 and the other new facilities may be, airport projects have a way of bogging down, contributing, ultimately, to passenger delays. Environmental constraints, political feuds and red tape can all be impediments. T4 was part of a $10 billion JFK upgrade that had been 15 years in the planning. Assuming Seattle-Tacoma International’s third runway opens on schedule in 2006, it will have taken 13 years to build and will have cost more than $770 million. Munich International Airport, which opened in 1992, took three decades to build.
Plainly, building more airports in the U.S. and Europe won’t ease congestion in the near future. But the airline industry does have several initiatives afoot to help with delays. The U.S. has embarked on a multibillion-dollar modernization of its air traffic control system, installing new computer equipment and redesigning air routes that were established as long ago as the 1960s. Technology is being tested to optimize the use of air space by allowing planes to fly closer together safely. And aviation and information technology industry associations and agencies have embarked on a “simplifying passenger travel” program to smooth travelers’ journeys by using such techniques as iris-identification to nod passengers past ticket and immigration checkpoints and match them with their baggage.
In the meantime, enjoy your wait.
Beating the airport waiting game
Airports may be more pleasant places to bide your time than they used to be (story), but there’s no reason to succumb to flight delays if you don’t have to. Seasoned business travelers divulge these tips for getting off the ground.
, Avoid hub airports, like London Heathrow or Chicago’s O’Hare International. “The weather goes through” Chicago, reports Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, CEO of Latin America Enterprise Fund.
, Choose the less crowded airport wherever possible. Fly from Oakland International, say, rather than San Francisco International; Chicago Midway in place of O’Hare; Providence’s T.F. Green rather than Boston Logan International; and Stansted International or London City airports instead of Heathrow or Gatwick.
, Plan an alternative connection. Route yourself through an airport with several onward flights.
, Confirm your flight before leaving for the airport, then keep a mobile phone or laptop handy to rebook immediately once it becomes clear your flight will be delayed after all. Consult real-time weather and air travel Web sites, such as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s www.fly.faa.gov.
, Avoid exotic airlines. They’re less likely to have a plane in reserve in case of mechanical problems.
, Fly a global airline partnership, such as the 13-member Star Alliance, to make your connections as seamless, and painless, as possible.
Blame it on the weather
Flight delays have become such an occupational hazard for business travelers (story) that, in their frustration, travelers fault airports for virtually holding them hostage. In reality, bad or iffy weather accounts for 70 percent of flight delays, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. The remainder are largely attributable to the sheer volume of aircraft (14 percent of delays), air traffic control equipment outages, runway construction, mechanical and labor problems, bad flight scheduling and a shortage of air traffic control capacity, or runway and airspace.
That isn’t to say airports deserve none of the blame. For a variety of reasons - including lack of space - many have been unable to expand to accommodate burgeoning air traffic. The tendency of airlines to overschedule flights in peak hours complicates matters. Says FAA spokesman William Shumann, “At some times, the airlines will schedule more flights than the airport can handle [even] under ideal conditions.”
Perhaps the most glaring example of an overscheduled and overextended airport is New York’s LaGuardia. It has just two runways - which, inconveniently, intersect - yet had 392,000 takeoffs and landings last year, or 33,000 more than John F. Kennedy International, which has four parallel runways (but is also seven miles farther from Manhattan, through traffic). Little LaGuardia was therefore the scene of more flight delays than any airport in the U.S. last year. The FAA recently stepped in to reduce the number of flights at LaGuardia in the short term (until September). At least there’s a good new restaurant, Figs, for pasta and flat-bread pizza.
