Final Call for Berlin Tempelhof

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Every now and then I write about airports that are currently in the news for one or another reason. For your convenience, I have now also created a new category exactly for these kind of posts.

Today, Berlin’s city airport, Berlin Tempelhof (IATA: THF) sadly made it into the news. I write sadly, because the airport will close down for good today after having been in the service for 85 years. The last scheduled plane will take off for Mannheim (IATA: MHG) today at 21.50h local time .

Berlin Tempelhof was probably one of Europe’s most famous airports, mainly because of it’s importance in history. Originally opened in 1923, the later built airport halls and neighbouring buildings, intended to become the gateway to Europe and a symbol of Hitler’s “world capital” Germania. They are still known as the largest built entities worldwide, and have been described by British architect Sir Norman Foster as “the mother of all airports”. After the end of World War II, the airport became the main hub for the airlift operations into Berlin.

After Berlin decided to focus on the extension of Berlin Schoenefeld (IATA: SXF) as the main hub into Germany’s capital, it soon became evident that the days of Berlin’s “City Airport” will be numbered. Finally, on 27th April 2008 the failed referendum for keeping the airport open sealed its fate.

Unfortunately, I only landed at Berlin Tempelhof once and that was years ago, so therefore I cannot provide you with the usual ratings (not that it would matter much now anyway). Wikipedia, however, mentions that it had the “world’s smallest duty-free shop”.

[Picture from Flickr]

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Lower Rhineland airport Weeze: worth a visit?

I’m sure you have all seen various types of airports in your lifetime. There are tiny grass or dirt based landing strips that function as airports on remote locations, small huts with paved runways in rural areas, airports that serve as regional hubs and then there are the big and bigger international airports like London Heathrow, JFK and the likes. But there is a new set of airports out there: converted military airfields transformed to regional hubs for low(est) cost airlines. The Lower Rhineland airport Weeze (IATA: NRN) fits into that description.

50 kilometres northwest of Dusseldorf and 30 km southeast of the Dutch town of Nijmegen, Weeze airport used to be the military airbase RAF Laarbruch. According to Wikipedia, the airport serves 6 airlines but its main customer clearly is the Irish run Ryanair with a fairly good selection of flights to various destinations in Europe.

My flight back to London Stansted (IATA: STN) that day was slightly delayed, but other than that operations at the airport were efficient and I passed through the security checks fairly quickly only to discover there was absolutely nothing on the other side. Well, okay, nothing is a strong word. There was a bar and a small kiosk but that was about it (it did find my price checking items though, see below). So, what can you do in such a situation? Here are 3 suggestions:

1. Find your next destination through the selection of available Lonely Planet guidebooks at the small kiosk (the selection actually was pretty decent!)
2. Look through the magazine offerings and find the one magazine with the weirdest freebie (in my case it was an inflatable sword added to a children’s magazine called “Benjamin Blümchen”)
3. Flick through your iPod and find the song of the day (I went for “Hellsongs - Symphony of Destruction” although not because of the lyrics or the title, simply because I like the tunes and it’s funny)

Airport Name	Airport Weeze
Website	http://www.airport-weeze.de
IATA Code	NRN
Design
Shopping
Toilets
Overall
	€87.00 (£68.80)
	€34.90 (£27.60)

[Picture from Flickr]

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Make good at London Stansted

On Friday I returned to the airport where I had the initial idea for this blog: London Stansted Airport (IATA: STN). Last time I wasn’t very lucky when my Friday evening flight to Copenhagen was delayed by over an hour and on the way back I went through an even bigger pain (see my very first post).

This time my fate changed for the better. On the way out to Düsseldorf Weeze (IATA: NRN) we were only slightly delayed because of some minor baggage and cargo loading problems. Luckily Ryanair was able to make up the delay and we arrived with the usual punctuality fanfare at the Lower Rhine (Niederrhein) airport.

So I guess, I have to admit that Stansted usually is quite a nice airport. It’s certainly not that close from London (it takes 45 minutes from Liverpool Street station) and it costs a staggering £26 return, but once you are there it’s quite pleasant. The terminal is big and roomy, there are lots of good shops (e.g. Reiss) and plenty of eateries and coffee shops. No wonder is Ryanair eying to purchase this airport once it will be split off from the current owner BAA.

But let’s get to the fun part. This time I decided to play a little game: I wanted to find the best and worst looking, women’s perfume flacon at the large duty free store. Here’s my decision:

The Winner: Valentino - Rock ‘n Rose

The Loser: Anna Sui - Dolly Girl

 

Airport Name	London Stansted
Website	http://www.stanstedairport.com/
IATA Code	STN
Design
Shopping
Toilets
Overall
	£57.70
	£28.25 (incl. ice jacket)

[Pictures from Flickr: Stansted (some rights reserved), Valentino, Anna Sui]

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London City Airport: Small but efficient

Last week I had the pleasure of taking a flight from London’s smallest commercial airport, London City airport (IATA: LCY). The airport is conveniently located in London’s docklands, east of the financial district and can be accessed easily by Docklands Light Railway (DLR). It is even in London Transport’s zone 3, so it won’t cost you much to get there either.

So what is the catch? There of course is one - as always. The airport is small, has only one runway which is not very long (1319 m) and therefore is restricts to STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) airliners. Its operating license says, aircrafts have to be capable of a 5.5 degree or steeper approach. Plus there is a strict noise regulation in place. Therefore only small planes are predominant, particularly the BAe 146 aircraft which means the number of destinations offered are limited.

So, how does the airport terminal rate? Even though the airport is small, a lot of people are passing through on a daily basis. In 2006 2.3 Million people travelled through the City airport according to Wikipedia. Particularly on week days, the airport is at its full capacity affecting the limited space in the terminal. But its not all bad, they have recently increased seating space and anyway, with low delay rates, you can expect to be in and out of the terminal faster than you can say “delay”. In the rare occasion where you do get delayed, here are my Top-X-Things to do:

1. Check out the 2 big bars and mingle with the business men who enjoy their evening beer
2. Sit at the north side of the terminal and count the number of BAe 146 aircrafts taking off
3. Guess the nationalities of the business men and women rushing to the gates
4. Find the biggest TV screen to watch the Olympics coverage
5. Count the number of destinations you can fly to from the departure screens

Airport Name	London City Airport
Website	http://www.londoncityairport.com/
IATA Code	LCY
Design
Shopping
Toilets
Overall	(Because of its convenient location)
	£58.40
	£49.99 (cellar box vintage 2002)

[Picture from Flickr - some rights reserved]

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The Quest to Find Starbucks at Berlin Tegel

A couple weeks ago we were all challenged to find the Starbucks shop at Berlin Tegel (IATA: TXL). I then even commented that I was totally unaware of a Starbucks at Tegel. In fact, I was very surprised to hear there was one since I’ve been to this airport dozens of times in the past and have never spotted the coffee shop. So, is it really that well hidden? Well, watch the video and see for yourself as I went on “The Quest to Find Starbucks at Berlin Tegel”.

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Ryanair to take-over London Stansted airport?

Ryanair seems to be interested in taking over London Stansted airport (IATA: STN) according to a news article published in the Daily Telegraph today:

Michael O’Leary is interested in launching a £2bn bid for Stansted airport and proving to BAA and the regulators that he can run it much better than they can.

The current owner, BAA, has recently become under increasing pressure to break up its monopolistic ownership over the three busiest airports in London, Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted after continuously failing to improve their performance. However, having Ryanair running an airport would raise other concerns: Would they make travellers pay for every little additional thing as they do with their flights? At least this discussion adds to some movement in the BAA question and that’s always welcomed.

[Picture from Flickr]

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British Airways to give away airmiles for delays

British Airways today introduced a new program where they “generously” give away 5,000 airmiles when your flight from Heathrow Terminal 5 is more than 15 minutes delayed:

As part of our commitment to giving you outstanding service, we do everything we can to get you to your destination on time. So if in spite of all our efforts we can’t depart from Terminal 5 within 15 minutes* of scheduled departure time over the coming weeks, we’d like to give you more than just an apology:

When you fly Club Europe, Euro Traveller or Domestic Flights on a flexible ticket (booking classes JCDYBH) departing from Terminal 5 between now and 02 September 2008 you’ll receive
5,000 BA Miles if your flight leaves later than 15 minutes* of its scheduled departure time from Terminal 5.

BA actually has been doing this for quite some time, but you only received the miles when you actively complained about a particular flight. This offer now sounds fairly generous since manymost Heathrow flights these days suffer a delay. In fairness this delay is often not the result of a problem caused by the airlines, but more because of the airport’s severe capacity constraints. And, surprise, surprise, the small print of BA’s offer then exactly excludes those kind of delays:

British Airways reserves the right to exclude at its discretion any flights where disruption occurs beyond the reasonable control of British Airways. Non–exhaustive examples include severe weather conditions and their ongoing or consequent effects, air traffic control delays and industrial action.

With that, this offer all of a sudden sounds more like a common PR exercise than an innovative and generous customer centric solution.

[Picture from Flickr - some rights reserved]

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Crowded house at London Heathrow Terminal 3

Even in full anticipation of a delayed flight, I left my home well in time for check-in at London Heathrow’s Terminal 3 - home to Virgin Atlantic. It’s funny how this blog can change your whole expectation (but then this was part of the idea anyway). So, was my flight delayed? Technically yes, but I have to admit, it was a close call. The Boeing 747 left the gates about 20 minutes after the scheduled departure time and took off 11 minutes later. In fact, that’s a very acceptable delay, especially for a 10 hour flight.

So, what was there to do in Terminal 3? Quite a bit: Until the recent opening of Terminal 5, this terminal was probably the best Heathrow had to offer, especially in terms of shopping and amenities. It’s still pretty good, however, the one thing that is striking every single time I get there, is the sheer amount of people in one space. The main area is ridiculously undersized for the amount of people and as a result you will have a tough time finding a seat even during quiet times like this morning.

However, there’s good news as well. Having been in this Terminal a couple times before I already know you can find the usual newspaper, electronics and book shops, a large duty free shop, a Harrod’s outlet, the only Yo! Sushi restaurant in Heathrow, TGI Friday’s, Brasserie Chez Gérard, a handful of Designer shops and four coffee shops. Four coffee shops? Yep. And with that insight, I told myself there must be quite some competition among them, so I took a closer look and compared the prices for a regular sized latte (or in new coffee lingo it would be a “tall” sized drink):

• Bagel Street, £1.80
• Eat, £1.90
• Starbucks, £2.05
• Caffe Italia, £2.10

If you are looking for a soy milk latte, this changes the game slightly as both Eat and Starbucks charge extra for this luxury health choice (Eat £0.30, Starbucks £0.35) where as the two others don’t.

But if price was equal, which one should you choose? Which coffee is the best? Well, personally I favour Eat for regular coffee and Starbucks for Soya as they have the better soy milk. But in line with my previous post about eating healthy while travelling, I only tasted these two this time. I will update this post when I’m back to taste the other two.

Oh, one more thing: From now on we will add a little price index to our airport short facts where possible. I’ve chosen the two most useful likely products you would find in every duty free around the globe: Chanel No 5 Eau de Parfum and Veuve Clicquot Champagne. Prices will be shown in local currency and US Dollars.

Facts

Airport name: London Heathrow, Terminal 3
Website: http://www.heathrowairport.com/
IATA Code: LHR
Design factor: 2/5
Shopping factor: 3/5
Toilets factor: 3/5
Overall factor: 2/5
Chanel No 5 Eau de Parfum: £57.70 (click to see other currencies)
Bottle of Veuve Clicquot: £28.25

[Picture from Flickr]

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What the hell can you do at Berlin’s Tegel Airport?

Despite its capital status Berlin has no representative airport so far – which leads to the hassle of few direct flights to international destinations and the question of how to spend your time at Tegel or Schönefeld when your flight is delayed since both airports are very small.

When you have several hours, go back home or to the city center as both airports are close to the city. If you have less time try this:

1. Find out that “Tegel” is only one label – which man is honored by giving his name to the airport as well? (No internet research allowed!) One tip: He died in a plane crash.
2. Find the Starbucks in the airport (This is a tricky one! I once thought I was at the wrong airport when somebody told me to meet at the Starbucks.)
3. Walk around the circle of Tegel and count your steps. Add some entertainment for the other passengers by a) counting loudly b) running c) running trailing your luggage behind you! I assume that should take less than 3 minutes when you shout out loud enough so people jump out of your way (“Bahn frei, Osterei!”).

Please write down your records and I will try to beat them next time I fly from Tegel!

Christiane

Facts
Airport name: Berlin Tegel Airport.
IATA code: TXL
Website: http://www.berlin-airport.de/EN/
Design factor: 1/5
Shopping factor: 1/5
Toilets factor: 2/5
Overall factor: 3/5 (because it’s just 10 minutes from my home and easy to reach!)

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Surprise: Heathrow worst performing airport in Europe

What a surprise! According to a study published by the Association of European Airlines (AEA), London’s Heathrow airport is the worst performing airport in Europe:

AEA’s survey of its members’ punctuality at 27 major airports identifies London Heathrow as the most affected, with 44.1% of European departures subject to delays of 15 minutes or more – substantially higher than second-place Dublin with 33.0%, followed by Helsinki, Geneva and Frankfurt – all three of which are customarily to be found in the lower half of the delay table.

This surely comes as a huge surprise to all of us. Not really. Heathrow has long been troubled by lengthy delays many caused by its limited number of runways and overall capacity problems. According to the report 15.3 per cent of outgoing flights delays were caused by problems with airport and air traffic control, while a further 11.1 per cent was blamed on loading and handling issues.

This news couldn’t have come at a worse time for BAA, the owner of Heathrow airport as the Daily Mail writes

The latest figures will add further pressure on the Government to end BAA’s much-criticised monopoly on London’s major airports.

The least affected airport, according to the report, was Munich airport which we already featured in the top 10 most punctual airports worldwide.

(Picture by Flickr - some rights reserved)

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