First up, Edinburgh Airport in Scotland (IATA: EDI) made it into the headlines this week when Scotsman.com reported that 60,000 people were without power on Wednesday night and about 60 passengers were left stranded at the airport after the storms caused havoc to transport, schools and city centres across much of Scotland. In addition, hundreds of air passengers faced disruption after 100 flights were cancelled at Edinburgh and some 45 at Glasgow (IATA: GLA).

2 days earlier, a different kind of environmental impact hit another airport a few thousand miles to the East. The New York Times reported that Capital International Airport in Beijing (IATA: PEK) was forced to cancel hundreds of flights on Monday because of heavy smog and weather conditions. The article concluded that the cancellations were the latest sign that pollution in China’s largest cities, among the worst in the world, is leading to significant economic losses.

In Australia, the two airports of the ever competing cities of Melbourne and Sydney played cat and mouse this week. First the Sydney Morning Herald broke the story that Sydney Airport (IATA: SYD) is proposing a major overhaul under which terminals would be divided by what airline passengers are flying with, rather than where they are travelling to. The story continued by outlining that under the plan, the current domestic terminals would accommodate Qantas, its international partners and Jetstar, and the current international terminal would take Virgin Australia and other international airlines.

Two days later, the Melbourne based newspaper The Age answered Sydney’s challenge with the story that Melbourne Airport (IATA: MEL) is set to expand, with plans to build a $300 million passenger terminal and improve freeway access. And to score the match making goal against its arch rival, the news report said Melbourne is gearing up to have a new interconnected domestic terminal running by mid-2014, a mere 5 years prior to Sydney’s proposed terminal shuffle expected to be completed by 2019.

For the final two stories this week, we travel to the United States. First up was the story from Reno, Nevada where according to FOX News a woman fired about three weeks ago for refusing to load an emaciated hunting dog on a plane at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport (IATA: RNO) is taking her job back. The news said Lynn Jones, who had worked more than five years as a baggage handler for St. Louis-based Airport Terminal Services, accepted her employer’s offer to give her the job back, and said she hopes to put the flap behind her.

And finally to Mr. Alec Baldwin who made headlines this week for getting kicked off a plane at Los Angeles International Airport (IATA: LAX). According to The Scoop the incident happened on Tuesday when Mr. Baldwin boarded an American Airlines flight. In the same article Baldwin’s rep Matthew Hiltzik explained what went down: “Alec was asked to leave the flight for playing ‘Words with Friends’ on his iPad, while parked at the gate. Alec is so in love with ‘Words with Friends’ that he would risk getting thrown off a flight to play. He’s already been re-booked on another American Airlines flight.”
That’s all we have for this week – safe travels everyone!

[Picture from Wikipedia - some rights reserved]

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 ]

First, on Tuesday, customs staff walked off their jobs for a few hours over a pay dispute. The same happened again in Sydney (IATA: SYD: LD reviewed) on Thursday as reported in the Herald Sun. As if this wasn’t enough, baggage handlers walked off their jobs on Friday morning for an hour and bad weather in Melbourne (IATA: MEL; LD reviewed) led to additional long delays. In case of the latter, Qantas – for the first time – even used an Airbus A380 to clear the backlog of passenger flying from Melbourne to Sydney, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

Then, for the second time in two months, we received news of a power failure that darkened an international airport. Last time it was Delhi’s new Terminal 3 (IATA: DEL) – we wrote about it – this time it happened at Juarez International Airport in Mexico City (IATA: MEX). According to The Washington Post, the power outage lead to a diversion of an unspecified number of flights.

On Thursday TechCrunch let us know that Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, launched airport maps for 42 US cities. According to the article the service lets you see inside airports in order to locate terminals, check-in counters, restrooms, shops, restaurants, baggage claim areas, information desks and more. More airports are to follow with time.

And finally to our odd news of the week. We couldn’t decide on the winner this week, hence we’re going to present both to you: First up was the news from WSBT who wrote that Atlanta police shut down parts of the baggage claim area at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (IATA: ATL) on Monday afternoon after they received reports of a suspicious package. It turned out that it was a bag of fish!

Second up was the news about Marlborough Airport in Massachusetts (IATA: MXG) seeking compensation for $676,048 in damage that resulted from a visit by Barack Obama. The Boston Business Journal wrote Obama landed at the field on April 1, 2010, so he could visit an emergency bunker in the state.

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

[Photo from Flickr - Some rights reserved by Christopher Neugebauer]

First of all, the harsh winter weather continued in many parts around the US and therefore added further delays across a number of US airports. Texas received a hit on Wednesday when more than 400 flights at Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport (IATA: DFW) were cancelled as reported in the Wall Street Journal.

On Thursday Eurocontrol tweeted about a low intensity volcanic ash cloud near Mount Etna in Italy. I of course immediately remembered all the panic about Iceland’s volcano ‘Eyjafjallajökull’ and the massive cancellations that followed. Luckily, this one does not seem to have the same effects on European aviation (if any at all).

Left out from global news most of the time, the two busiest Australian airports received some rare bad press this week: Melbourne (IATA: MEL) got into the news with overly expensive airport parking and Sydney (IATA: SYD) apparently failed on customer satisfaction in general.

But even we at LateDeparture had a busy week with two blog posts: the first one focused on the ATW Airline Achievement Awards which were handed out to the winners in Washington on Monday. Overall winner was Emirates who won the prestigious ‘Airline of the Year Award’. On Thursday we then posted our newest review about Cairns International airport with the title “No Hinterland Airport: Cairns Domestic“.

That’s it for this week – enjoy the catch-up reading and see you in a week again!

[Picture from Flickr - Some rights reserved by CameliaTWU]

Well, the good news is that there are airports that do allow non-travellers into their inner core – the post security zone; domestic airports that is. The slightly bad news is that they are often not the most aspiring of places. Nevertheless, they do allow you to drop off or pick up your loved ones directly at the gate.

One such airport is Sydney’s Domestic Airport (IATA: SYD) on the North-East corner of the runways. There, once through the security check, you come down a set of escalators and can then either turn left towards the Virgin Blue gates or right in direction of the Qantas and JetStar boarding gates. Turning right will first lead you to a food court with some usual suspects such as McDonalds, Krispykreme, a Middle-Eastern Outlet, Subway, Sumo Salad and the Australian institutions of Red Rooster and Boost Juice among others.

There are, however, a few more exciting things to do beyond stuffingfilling yourself up prior to your cheap flight where you don’t plan to spend any money on their dry sandwiches. Here are my favourites:

• Check out some serious outback clothing from R.M. Williams at the “And Beyond” store
• Buy your kiddo (or some random kid you happen to know…) one of those cool dinosaur eggs that you have to submerge in water for 10 days before a little, wait for it, yes, you guessed it, Dinosaur pops out. You can find them at the well stocked “Kaboom” kids store.
• Stock up on your SPF 30+ sunscreen for your island trip to Vanuatu (oooops, okay, if you are in the domestic terminal heading for Vanuatu, then you’re seriously in trouble, as that flight most likely leaves from the International terminal, a $5.50 bus trip away). So let’s say your Magnetic Island trip then… You’ll find it in the Pharmacy next to the Kids store.
• Browse through the ubiquitous Peter Lik Australian landscape photography books and postcards
• Try on some new boardies in the “Beachculture” shop towards the 31-40 gates
• The ladies among you might also want to pop into the Mimco store close-by (while we lads wait in the Pub & Winestore called “Taphouse” across from it)
• Finally, browse through the rather good selection of iconic Australian films at the Virgin Media store

Airport Name	Sydney, Domestic Terminal
Website	http://www.sydneyairport.com.au
IATA Code	SYD
Design
Shopping
Toilets
Overall
	n/a
	n/a

[Picture from Flickr - all rights reserved]

Luckily today many airports realised people actually value quality food and offer descent alternatives to the ubiquitous fast food chains. Following are three options from three different airports around the globe that cater for the foodie in you:

London Heathrow – Terminal 5: Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food

The unsurprising favourite is “Plane Food“, a fine dining outlet by London’s only 3-Star-Michelin chef, Gordon Ramsay. Lulu from Planet Eye recently wrote

…this is probably the only airport restaurant with which I’ve actually made a reservation. Once you tuck into the foie gras and chicken liver parfait, followed by the Casterbridge rib eye steak, it’s really hard to be satisfied by the chicken or the beef options offered by your flight attendant.

I’ve always been a fan of Gordon’s food and this has to be a must-go for when you have some time on your side (and made a reservation…). In addition Plane Food now also offers a few take-away picnics (£14.95 for the lunch box). Enjoy!

Sydney International Terminal: Wagamama

It has sadly been a while since I have personally been at Sydney airport but one of the safe and tasteful choices is Hong Kong born Alan Yau‘s Australian subsidiary of Wagamama in the international terminal. You will be sitting on shared tables and have the choice of a variety of tasty Asian inspired dishes. Having tasted the Australian, the Dutch and the English Wagamama I must say I found the Aussie version the best – definitely worth a taste when you are in this magnificent city.

Miami International: Chili’s

Well, I’m going to follow a bit of a stereotype here by mentioning a chain restaurant as my choice for the USA’s most Latin airport. Sometimes you just want that uncomplicated, yet tasteful American comfort food. Go to Chili’s which you find in the G area and taste one of their wonderful Baby Back Ribs. They really are delicious!

[Picture from Flickr]

So, which airport is the worlds most efficient one? According to a Forbes Travlerer article, the winning airport is Haneda airport in Tokyo (HND) with 90% of its arrivals and departures on-time. Never heard of Haneda? Me neither, but according to the article, the airport is the fourth busiest airport in the world primarily handling domestic traffic. It’s bigger sister airport, the well known Narita International (NRT) makes it on to the 2nd place. Well done, Japan!

Interestingly, 6 out of the 10 most on-time airports are located in Asia, only two from the US (Orlando and Houston) and one from Europe (Munich) make it into this elite group - maybe some of these airport managers should have a summer exchange class organized in Asia…

1. Haneda (HND), Tokyo, Japan - 90%
2. Narita International (NRT), Tokyo, Japan - 84.2%
3. Taiwan Taoyuan International, Taipei (TPE), Taiwan - 80.3%
4. Kingsford Smith International (SYD), Sydney, Australia - 80.1%
5. Hong Kong International (HKG), Hong Kong, Hong Kong - 79.7%
6. Soekarno-Hatta International (CGK), Jakarta, Indonesia  - 79.3%
7. Suvarnabhumi International (BKK), Bangkok, Thailand - 79.3%
8. Orlando International (MCO), Orlando, USA - 79.8%
9. Franz Josef Strauss Airport (MUC), Munich, Germany - 77.8%
10. George Bush International (IAH), Houston, USA - 77%

Read the full Forbes Traveler article here.

(Picture by Flickr)