Easter is finally here and with that all the usual airport delays. All of them? Not so much! Travellers of the British Stansted Airport (IATA: STN) got off with a slap on the wrist as the announced baggage handler’s strike was called off. Nevertheless, we found a few (other) interesting stories in the lead-up to the long weekend.
First of all we have the probably most dominant story of the week – the tornadoes that hit the Dallas region this week. On Tuesday, CBS news reported that about 400 flights were cancelled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (IATA: DFW) and Thousands of travellers got stranded. On Good Friday Reuters then reported that flight cancellations continued as the storm damaged more than 100 American Airlines planes on the ground, mostly from hail, and 51 of those remained out of commission, prompting the cancellations.
It was a happier picture over at London’s Heathrow Airport (IATA: LHR) this week when the airport unveiled a new temporary terminal to cater for athletes and officials involved with London 2012 on Wednesday as reported by the BBC. According to the article the construction of the terminal – which is roughly the size of three Olympic swimming pools – began in February in an area currently used for staff car parking on the south side of the airport.
April’s Fool’s day is always fun, especially when companies think of some witty fools, such as the one from STA Travel who made us believe you can now fly cheaply on cargo aircraft. In Kathmandu, Nepal, on the other hand, an April’s Fool’s joke ended in tears as police are investigating whether a bomb threat that delayed a Dubai-bound flight at Nepal’s international airport (IATA: KTM) was a hoax. To The Washington Post Katmandu airport police chief Narayan Prasad Bastakoti said the Nepal Airlines flight was grounded for more than three hours Sunday night as police dogs searched the plane, passengers and their luggage after authorities were warned that there was a bomb on the plane. After no bomb was found, the plane took off and landed safely in Dubai.
As you know it’s not always about delays at LateDeparture, we also celebrate new openings making travelling more pleasant for our fellow readers. One of those openings this week was the new SWISS arrival lounge at Zurich airport (IATA: ZRH). The airline wrote in a press release that “the luxurious 700 sq. m. lounge offers arriving passengers a wide range of services including facilities for working, relaxation and freshening up.” Rest assured, we will test it thoroughly when we are there next time!
Happy Easter everyone!
[Picture from Wikipedia – some rights reserved]