Righty-o, as we say here in down-under, let’s get this show on the road. This week we have airport news from across the globe for you: There’s the closure of an Asian airport’s terminal building, a computer glitch in Europe, Sweden’s suspicious bag and a police chase down an active airport runway in the US.
Let’s start with the Asian airport. It’s from our favourite one, Singapore Changi Airport (IATA: SIN): Passenger Terminal Today informed us that Changi’s Budget Terminal is set to be closed later this year in order to make room for a new terminal. According to the article the new Terminal 4 will have a passenger capacity of 16 million annually, compared to the 4.6 million handled in the current budget terminal in 2011, and will be designed to enable efficient passenger processing and quick turnaround of aircraft. The Budget Terminal will close in September and the airlines currently operating from the terminal, including Berjaya Air, Cebu Pacific, Firefly, South East Asian Airlines and Tiger Airways, will more their operations to the existing Terminal 2.
At the end of last week a computer glitch at Scotland’s Edinburgh Airport (IATA: EDI) was the cause for some travel disruptions. The BBC reported that the “glitch” shut down all the computer systems at the airport and caused “massive disruption” and some flight delays.
On Monday then, Sweden made it into the headlines when The Washington Post reported that air traffic at Sweden’s second largest airport was suspended for several hours Sunday as bomb technicians investigated a suspicious bag that turned out to be harmless. Apparently all incoming and outgoing flights were halted at Landvetter airport in Goteborg (IATA: GOT) in the afternoon after police said a bag with suspected dangerous content was discovered in the security check area at the international terminal.
And finally this one: it could have been a scene from a movie (or from the computer game Grand Theft Auto) when an SUV crashed through a fence and sped onto a runway, causing an approaching plane to have to pull up quickly. The scene, reported by The Washington Post, happened on Thursday at Philadelphia International Airport (IATA: PHL) when a man drove his Jeep through a fence and sped up and down two runways at speeds of more than 100 mph before being surrounded and apprehended. Watch this YouTube video for some actual footage and air traffic voice over:
That’s all we have for this week – safe travels!
[Photo from Flickr – Some rights reserved by Marcin Wichary]