Alright, let us start with the news pairs: First up are France and Cyprus which this week had one thing in common: airport strikes. On Thursday The Washington Post reported that Cyprus’ airports and government offices have shut down in a daylong strike by a civil servants’ union and air traffic controllers to protest a wage freeze and other spending cuts affecting them. According to the report the rare work stoppage has forced the cancellation of 79 flights to and from the east Mediterranean island. Over in France, we heard from Reuters just yesterday that a strike by French airport security staff caused the cancellation of all flights at Lyon airport (IATA: LYS) and disruption at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport (IATA: CDG).

The next pair comes from Africa, an area often neglected from aviation news. Not this week, as we heard from Kilimanjaro Airport (IATA: JRO) – yes, we’ve even reviewed it! – that it will get a facelift. The Citizen reported that the renovation of the Kilimanjaro International Airport will start in January as part of efforts to improve services at the 40 year old airport to meet the demands of increased tourist flows in Northern Tanzania. Over at the west side of the continent Modern Ghana informed us that the Minister for Transport of the Republic of Ghana has announced that financial arrangements for the Tamale airport (IATA: TML) would soon be finalised to upgrade it to international status, to serve as an alternative to the Kotoka International Airport (IATA: ACC).

And the last but not least of our “news pairs” is between the two mega airports London Heathrow (IATA: LHR) and Los Angeles International (LAX). Both made news this week when Facebook released a list of the airports with the most online check-ins. The Los Angeles Times headlined the survey by shouting out the “winner”, Los Angeles International Airport while over in England, the Daily Mail was quite satisfied with Heathrow making it among the Top 20 of the “most social” airports. Airport International has the full list, in case you are interested.

That’s all we have this week – safe travels everyone!

[Photo from Flickr - Some rights reserved by kennysarmy]

But let’s first start with the basics: As you would think, the airport mainly serves travellers as their destination airport for the climb of Mount Kilimanjaro. It is located between the two cities Arusha and Moshi and is also in close proximity of what must be two of Africa’s best wildlife reserves: Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Crater. KLM is the only non-African airline with frequent flights from Amsterdam Schiphol.

Alright, now back to the airports relaxed efficiency: I thought we had plenty of time at our hands when we arrived at the airport 3 hours before our scheduled departure back to Amsterdam (read the related article). But with various security checks, a long check-in queue and, worst of all, a stupidly strangely complicated immigration system, we basically just got to the gate right on time for boarding. Another annoyance was that all the shops are located before the last security check. My suggestion therefore is to take it easy (Pole Pole), have a look at the shops, eat something and wait until the queue for the gate dies down. Just make sure you don’t miss your flight!

There are still a few things you can do, so here are my top 3 things to do at Kilimanjaro Airport:

1. Look at the people boarding your flight and guess who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro (hint: watch them walk!)
2. Make your fellow travel companions happy and buy some Coca-Cola, Snickers, Kitkat, Pringles and Cookies (17.500 Schilling)
3. Flick through your digital camera’s pictures and smile about the unforgettable moments during your trip

Unfortunately the airport’s duty free shop did not have either Veuve Clicquot or Chanel No. 5 for my usual price rating but then, in my opinion at least, buying expensive French champagne in Africa doesn’t sound right in the first place.

[Picture from Flickr]