And one more before we leave the US: A partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has halted more than 250 aviation development projects and caused thousands of construction workers to lose their jobs, wrote USA Today earlier in the week. The FAA’s partial shutdown is a result of an FAA funding standoff between the House and Senate, and their inability to reach an agreement to re-authorize the agency’s operations said the article.

Now let’s move over that big pond called the Atlantic and go to the United Kingdom: There the smallest commercial airport in the Greater London Area, London City Airport (IATA: LCY; LD reviewed) revealed the arrival of a new service by British Airways, exclusive to the airport. According to the page, Passengers travelling on the all business class British Airways, New York to  London City route can now take advantage of BA’s complimentary service  for arriving passengers at the Radisson Edwardian New Providence Hotel, including use of spa, gym and breakfast facilities. In our view this is a great service making up for some missing infrastructure at the small airport.

To conclude we travel even further to the East, to India. There we read today that New Delhi’s swish Terminal 3 (IATA: DEL) caused some headaches when it plunged into darkness and chaos for more than four hours early on Sunday when the airport’s power supply and back-up systems failed simultaneously, reported the Times of India. Almost 80 flights, most of them international, were affected and thousands of passengers groped in the dark as virtually all operations at the airport came to standstill wrote the paper.

That’s it for this week – have a safe and interruption free week and don’t forget that torch next time you fly through New Delhi!

[Photo from Wikipedia - some rights reserved]

So, is London Heathrow (IATA: LHR) worthy of their royal guests? The answer (as so often) is, it depends. With the royals most likely not having to go through the general public areas at Heathrow, they would enjoy a very different airport to what you can expect. But even without a VIP status the experience must not be terrible. Heathrow’s terminal 5 is the newest one and well designed. The Queen even officially opened the terminal back in 2008. With an airy departure hall, nearby gates, all the fancy shops you can think of and the wide range of different restaurants (even Gordon Ramsay has got one there), your experience at terminal 5 can be a very pleasant one. We reviewed the terminal here and here and very recently wrote about how you transfer to terminal 3 in 30 minutes (read how it’s done here). Speaking of terminal 3, unfortunately you won’t have quite the same experience there as T3 feels a lot more crowded and much older – our review can be found here.

Every now and then the royals also fly out of London Gatwick (IATA: LGW) like for example when the Prince of Wales and the Dutchess of Cornwall flew to Tobago in March 2008 (see travel grant document). London Gatwick, recently sold by BAA to Global Infrastructure Partners, the owner of London’s City Airport, is the UK’s 2nd busiest airport by passenger numbers. As with so many London airports, it can feel a bit crowded and slightly outdated. However, when we reviewed the North Terminal of the airport a while back, it was a fairly pleasant experience (find out why here).

Other airports around London include City Airport (IATA: LCY; reviewed here), a popular option for business travellers, London Stansted (IATA: STN; reviewed here) and London Luton (IATA: LTN; reviewed here). None of those airports were used by the British royals according to our information. Who knows – William and Kate might kick off a whole new royal travel era. One thing is for sure though, wherever they go from now on, they will attract a lot of attention regardless of where they fly out of.

[Photo from Flickr - Some rights reserved by Nick in exsilio]

This week for me has certainly been one surrounded by planes. However, it didn’t involve any flying. Puzzled? Alright, let me fill you in: I visited the 2011 Avalon International Airshow on 3 days. Where is Avalon? Glad you ask – Avalon (IATA: AVV) is a small regional airport about 60km South of Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city. Every other year Avalon hosts Australia’s largest International Airshow attracting Hundreds of Thousands of public and hundreds of industry & trade visitors from around the country and abroad. While I was hoping for a lot more civil aircraft demonstrations, the airshow otherwise lived up to the motto of “feel the power”: From a jet-engine-equipped glider, the always impressive Mustangs to the newest Royal Australian Air Force plane, the F/A-18F Super Hornet, if it had an engine and made a lot of noise, it was on display. My favourite bit though was the transport aircraft C27-J Spartan (pictured) flown by the Italian Air Force performing jaw-dropping manoeuvres and even included a roll!

Outside of my airshow runs, the week was dominated by the BA bed bugs story and the interview with Zane Selkirk I published on Monday. LateDeparture subsequently received additional web hits, quite a few comments and even a handful tips on how to avoid those nasty creatures altogether. One of those tips suggested to use a product that according to the manufacturer’s website is “the clean, green, non-toxic way to eliminate bedbugs, deer ticks, and other arthropods”. For other tips, I urge you to (re-)read Zane’s website and the follow-up comments from her readers.

Other aviation news this week were rather boring if you ask me: there was Tulsa International Airport (IATA: TUL) that launched its own rewards program,  USA Today writing about the Top 10 airport restaurants in the US (actually, this one is not that boring! I might even try their recommendation for LAX, “Encounter at LAX” next week when I’m there and compare notes…) or the reminder from London City Airport (IATA: LCY) that it won’t be affected by a potential industrial action (read: strike).

That’s it for this week. Next week you’ll see the part 2 of the LAX research I started before I actually fly there for real. Stay tuned and have a good week!

[Photo by LateDeparture - all rights reserved]

It’s the second week of our newly created section and I always knew this would happen at some point: there’s that odd week where not much happens. But don’t worry, this wouldn’t be LateDeparture if we hadn’t something to write about in style!

The first true late departure of the week was when a rat (yes, you read that right) delayed an Alaskan Airlines flight in Seattle (IATA: SEA). The Associated Press went on reporting that

[...]the flight from Seattle to Denver had just pulled away from the gate Thursday morning when the little stowaway was spotted. The 737 jetliner returned to the terminal and passengers and crew boarded another plane about 90 minutes later. Airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan says the plane won’t be returned to service until maintenance workers make sure the rat didn’t damage equipment or chew any wires – and an exterminator certifies the plane is rodent-free.”

Well, if that wasn’t juicy news for you, I really don’t know!

In a more serious news byte, the New York Times reported last week that because of new federal rules that limit how long planes can stay on the tarmac once passengers are on board, airlines pre-emptively cancel flights in order to avoid possible, hefty fines. The article then goes on and argues that

[...}on the bright side, airlines have been much more lenient in allowing passengers to change or cancel their tickets. They typically waive the rebooking or cancellation fees, in part to discourage passengers from coming to the airport.

I wonder what most people prefer, lengthy delays or cancellations? I guess it depends on the nature of your travel but I'd probably prefer the delays over the cancellations especially (and very selflessly) knowing LateDeparture has great coverings of what you can do at many airports around the world in such a case!

Later in the week, the UK Airports Information Blog reported an imminent strike threat at London City airport (IATA: LCY). The airport's ground staff are to ballot next week on whether to take formal strike action over pay and conditions. Watch out for more news if you're travelling through London's Docklands airport.

And to finish off, another lighter bit of news, this time from Hawaii where we learned that a new recorded greeting is welcoming visitors at the Honolulu International Airport (IATA: HNL). A Hawaiian language message now greets visitors as they arrive in the aloha state. The 40-second welcome message, recorded in Hawaiian and English, will be broadcast throughout the Honolulu International Airport every 30 minutes, wrote Hawaii News Now. Cute!

That's it for this weeks summary, save travels and read you again in a week!

[Photo from Flickr - Some rights reserved by t-dawg]

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]