Then in other news this week, Canada’s airports caught our attention twice: First up was Canada’s 8th busiest (and probably the one with the longest name), Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (IATA: YWG). This week the airport unveiled its new 51,000 square-meter terminal replacing the 46 year old former structure. In a Winnipeg Sun article Barry Rempel, president and CEO of Winnipeg Airports Authority, called the day “momentous.”

The second Canadian news was a bit less serious but surely equally if not more interesting: Over in Vancouver, 29 year old Jaeger Mah finished his 80 day stay at Vancouver International airport (IATA: YVR). The Canadian won the gig in an airport contest to mark its 80th year. Read the full story in our feature report from Friday: 80 days at the airport without flying anywhere.

The other side of North America also had its news moment this week when during the last days of October an unprecedented winter storm hit the east coast. According to the L.A. Times, power outages were affecting more than 2.3 million residents and businesses from Maryland to Massachusetts, including more than half a million in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. As you can imagine, airports across the region were also severely affected. MSNBC.com quoted the tracking site Flightaware.com which reported nearly 600 flights to Northeastern airports canceled, including destinations such as Philadelphia (IATA: PHL), New York (IATA: JFK), Newark (IATA: EWR), Boston (IATA: BOS) and others.

And finally we received note from a remote area where over 2,000 tourists got stranded due to bad weather: the Himalayan or more precisely Tenzing-Hillary Airport (IATA: LUA) in Lukla, Nepal. According to the Indian Express, the foreign tourists, most of them from the US, UK and Germany have been stranded near a Mount Everest base camp for the last six days facing a shortage of food and medicines. Authorities had to close the only airstrip serving Lukla due to bad weather.

Have a great new, delay-free week, everyone!

[Picture from Wikipedia - some rights reserved]

He moved in on 17 August and has been spending his nights at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport hotel. His “job description” had him exploring the airport and video blogging his stories through his journey. There’s the official website featuring all the content, a Facebook page and his Twitter account.

As the final day of his gig has come today, we wonder what sort of key insights he gained. Well, Mah told the Associated Press that in his 80 days he’s figured out which VIP lounges will feed him and which have the best snacks.

Airport spokeswoman Rebecca Catley told the AP that the goal of the project was to show people how an airport works. “A lot of people don’t realize what goes on at an airport. We get a lot of requests for behind-the-scenes tours. We can’t do that from a security perspective,” she says.

With Mah leaving the airport today, he will leave behind a wealth of insider video bites about how Vancouver airport operates. The question will now be what is the next big marketing stunt an international airport comes up with? We can’t wait to find out!

[Picture from Live@YVR]

First up was Cairo Airport (IATA: CAI) where Reuters reported that go-slow protests by air traffic controllers grounded four fifths of flights from the major regional hub and left as many as 3,000 travellers stranded. At Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada (IATA: YYZ) Scott Armstrong, a spokesman for the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, told The Vancouver Sun that [a job action by security workers tasked with screening passengers] resulted in about 200 delayed flights so far this week. Yesterday then, Business Week was able to report that those long delays eased to a more tolerable 30 minutes on average. And finally, over in Australia disruptions continued for Qantas on Friday at many of the country’s airports even though the previously announced industrial actions were called of. Sadly there are no sign of relief for the national airline as according to The Wall Street Journal the next strike is already on the horizon: 11,000 passengers will have their travel plans thrown into disarray tomorrow, Monday because of strike action planned by engineers at Sydney (IATA: SYD; LD reviewed), Melbourne (IATA: MEL; LD reviewed) and Brisbane (IATA: BNE; LD reviewed) airports.

Moving over to the United Kingdom where not strike actions were the talk of the week, but more so the Kingdom’s airports future. First up we heard from Reuters that Britain’s Competition Commission CC.L on Friday told UK airport operator BAA that it must sell one of its Scottish airports before it disposes of London Stansted airport (IATA: STN; LD reviewed). On Friday The Financial Times then broke the story that a radical plan for a new “Heath-Wick” airport hub featuring a £5bn high-speed rail link between Heathrow (IATA: LHR; LD hub page) and Gatwick (IATA: LGW; LD reviewed) is being considered seriously by ministers. The article continued by arguing that building a 15-minute link between Heathrow and Gatwick could increase the price of landing slots at the latter, and eventually force low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and EasyJet to move to Stansted [which in results] free up more slots at the new “Heath-Wick” hub for an expansion of regional capacity.

Moving on to the United States which – surprise, surprise – wasn’t left out of the news this week. CNN informed us on Tuesday that the Transportation Security Administration unveiled a “trusted traveler” program meant to expedite screening at U.S. airport checkpoints. The article unveiled that the program is currently in its evaluation phase, where only certain frequent fliers on American and Delta airlines flying out of certain airports. Delta passengers must be flying out of Atlanta (IATA: ATL) and Detroit (IATA: DTW) airports, and American Airlines passengers must be flying out of Miami (IATA: MIA; LD reviewed) and Dallas (IATA: DFW) airports.

And finally we close with the news from Forbes who informed us that Sacramento International Airport (IATA: SMF) was scheduled to open a $1 billion terminal on Thursday, replacing a structure that is four decades old with a building that is designed to be a striking entrance to California’s capital region.

With this, have a great new week and safe travels!

[Photo is a LateDeparture composition based on the logos of Heathrow and Gatwick Airport as well as the Flickr picture from by Ti.mo - some rights reserved ]

Furthermore, financial markets have already “penalized” Mexican airports whose shares traded substiantially lower today: The airport owners are among the “most vulnerable” stocks amid the flu outbreak, UBS AG analysts wrote in a note today in which they cut Mexican equities to “underweight” writes Bloomberg.

It’s pretty clear that this latest threat of an influenza pandemic is going to have further implications on the economy. But how does it affect travellers? Various countries have already tightened their airport checks. Australia, for example, has trained airport staff to spot people with flu like symptoms. According to an article any passengers with flu-like symptoms would be met by quarantine officers. In addition, all incoming international flights would have to make an onboard announcement telling passengers to seek immediate medical advice if they felt unwell with flu symptoms.

Hong Kong, the epicenter of a SARS outbreak six years ago, announced some of the toughest measures anywhere on Sunday in response to a swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the United States, reports The New York Times.

So, what should you do if you are travelling to or from North America in the near future? Here is some advice:

1. Travelling to Mexico: in general it’s probably safe to say that if you can postpone your trip, then do so, otherwise check your countries latest travel advice (the UK foreign office’s one can be found here, Germany’s here, Ireland’s here, the USA’s here and Canada’s here). If you decide to go, then do make sure you check with your airline if the flight is still leaving as today several charter airlines (e.g. TUI in Germany) have cancelled their flights to Mexico.
2. Travelling from Mexico: be aware of extra precautions at Mexican and foreign airports. Prepare for additional screenings and questioning. Check your destinations country latest immigration advice. Your airline or travel agency should be able to help you.
3. Travelling to/from other North American destinations: expect delays at the airports due to tightened security and passenger screenings. Check with your local airline for the latest uptodate travel information.

[Picture from Flickr - some rights reserved]

“The paddles rotate around the body. The radio frequency penetrates the clothing … bounces off the skin and gives … a 3-D holographic image of the body,” said Ian McNaugton, the National Sales Manager for L3 Communications, which makes the machines.

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