Airport Check-in
Roger Yu, USA TODAY, 4/28/2008 and 5/5/2008 (excerpted)
AUSTIN: New terminal to cater to low-cost carriers
To accommodate more low-cost carriers, Austin-Bergstrom International [unveiled] a new terminal on May 1. The South Terminal, refurbished from an abandoned military building, is located across the airfield from the main terminal and will feature three gates.
It will initially serve discounter VivaAerobus, partly owned by Ryanair. The Mexican airline will start two daily flights each to Cancun and Monterrey, Mexico, on May 1. Funjet, which offers charter flights to Mexico, will also start flying from the terminal later this year.
In a lease agreement, GE Commercial Aviation Services will manage the terminal, with its own parking lot, customs and concessions. "It's a new business model for us. It's a good way to look at how transportation is hitting totally different targets," airport spokesman Jim Halbrook says.
BALTIMORE: Monitors display weather and flights in real time
Flights are represented on the map by plane icons with their flight number. Arriving flights are shown in red, and departures are in blue.
Baltimore/Washington has installed new flight-tracker and weather-display monitors throughout its main terminal. The monitors, located alongside other flight-information displays, provide a real-time, visual image of air traffic and weather conditions.
HOUSTON: Outbound fliers to help pay for expansion
Travelers flying from Houston's George Bush Intercontinental will have to pay a $3 "passenger facility charge" to help fund the airport's planned $1.2 billion expansion of Terminal B. The city council approved the charge unanimously last week. Federal regulators must approve the charge, and it could begin to show up on passengers' tickets as early as December. The airport hopes to raise about $400 million by 2015 through the charge, which applies only to outbound flights. The expanded Terminal B will have a new customs area and concourses with as many as 65 gates.
PITTSBURGH: Travelers get to decide level of security assistance
The Transportation Security Administration opened self-select lanes last week at Pittsburgh International. Passengers can select from one of two sets of lanes in Pittsburgh's Landside Terminal, depending on their travel needs and level of familiarity with the security process. The expert lanes are for the business traveler who flies frequently. The casual/family/special-assistance lanes are for passengers who are somewhat familiar with the procedures, elderly passengers, passengers with children or strollers and people in need of special assistance. The TSA program, aimed at unclogging checkpoint congestion, has been introduced at 11 other airports since beginning at Salt Lake City earlier this year.
Editor's Note: The TSA also has added self-select lanes to General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, according to a report dated May 2, 2008.
DENVER: Southwest adds Denver flights
Southwest will expand at Denver International by adding six flights, including two new destinations. Starting June 4, Southwest will begin two daily flights to both Portland, Ore., and Indianapolis. Also on June 4, Southwest will add an eighth daily flight to Las Vegas. It will add a second daily flight to San Antonio on Aug. 23.
After a hiatus of more than a decade, Southwest resumed service at Denver in 2006 with 13 daily departures to three destinations. It now operates 61 daily non-stop flights, making Denver "one of the fastest-growing cities in the company's history," it says.
NEW YORK: Fliers can charge up their gadgets
Passengers at New York LaGuardia can now charge their electronic gadgets at free charging stations.
The airport's 12 Power Poles are located beyond the security checkpoints throughout the Central Terminal building, which serves about half of the airport's passengers. The 8½-foot-tall poles are wired with four outlets and provide counters to place laptop computers.
The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey installed the poles at New York John F. Kennedy in 2006 and plans to introduce them at Newark Liberty, possibly later this year. The poles are also an advertising vehicle for Samsung Electronics, which paid for the program.
SAN FRANCISCO: Riders pile on to metro rail
The metro rail that connects San Francisco International to the city and the Bay Area suburbs is undergoing a surge in ridership after years of sluggish growth. BART, the San Francisco-area rail transit system, says more than 35,000 people on average every weekday rode its extension to the airport in the first two months of the year, a 16.4% increase from a year earlier. The overall BART system saw only a 4.5% increase.
BART opened its extension line to the airport in 2003, but ridership had fallen short of original estimates. Recent service upgrades have helped draw more customers, spokeswoman Luna Salaver says. On Jan. 1, BART added more airport-bound trains from suburbs and introduced longer hours of operation, as well as shortening times between trains during the weekends and weekday evenings.
Overnight parking at more rail stations at rates cheaper than airport lots also contributed to growth, she says.