Best Airports to travel in, out, or through

[kphoger]

I haven't had that particular problem at ORD.  My own experience is that while punctuality is poor, my flights leave ORD on time about half the time.  My real problem with ORD is that in winter, even a moderate snowstorm will result in more than three-quarters of flights (including ones to Wichita) being cancelled, which means I have to rebook, find someplace to sleep, and try again in the morning.  This has happened to me twice in ten years.

In the early 2000s, I once flew out of O'Hare the morning after 10 inches of snow fell.  Not only were the roads mostly clear getting to the airport (Chicagoland does a great job at snow plowing), but my flight (to either KC or Wichita, I forget) left on time.  We took off on hard-packed snow, with views of them melting snow by fire through the windows, no problem at all.  I've never been delayed by more than 45 minutes at O'Hare, out of probably a dozen trips I can remember.  I actually don't remember being cancelled or delayed by more than 45 minutes anywhere, ever.  Amtrak is a different story, but that's for another thread.

I actually prefer Midway, although they seem to keep rearranging things over the years and I sometimes get disoriented.  I like the smaller feel of it, and it brings back childhood memories.  It's also quite a cultural experience to get there by bus rather than the L:  when I lived in the area, I usually came down Cicero from the green line, which required a transfer somewhere between Cermak and Ogden.  The Cicero Metra station is also a fun cultural experience.  Of course, so is the Bellwood station after dark (connecting from O'Hare by Pace bus).

[cpzilliacus]

Because the architect of the airport,  Eero Saarinen, did not want any aircraft near the main terminal building.

Reason #5,672 why I don't understand architects

Architects and engineering are mutually exclusive.

Ever see highway design plans drawn by an architect?  Back when I worked in road design, we got some good horse laughs when we were given some to review.

Though architects designed the overwater portion of the Øresund Fixed-Link crossing, and the Millau Viaduct. 

And while architects did not (as best as I can tell) design the Woodrow Wilson, Golden Gate, Brooklyn and George Washington Bridges, the engineers that did design them came up with handsome and long-lasting structures.  Engineers are capable of designing attractive bridges.

[J N Winkler]

In the early 2000s, I once flew out of O'Hare the morning after 10 inches of snow fell.  Not only were the roads mostly clear getting to the airport (Chicagoland does a great job at snow plowing), but my flight (to either KC or Wichita, I forget) left on time.  We took off on hard-packed snow, with views of them melting snow by fire through the windows, no problem at all.  I've never been delayed by more than 45 minutes at O'Hare, out of probably a dozen trips I can remember.  I actually don't remember being cancelled or delayed by more than 45 minutes anywhere, ever.

I have never had a problem leaving O'Hare in the morning.  The two occasions my onward flights to Wichita were cancelled were both in the evening.  If my theory is correct and O'Hare cancels outbound flights in heavy snowstorms in order to release runway capacity for inbound flights, then cancellations are more likely later in the day after incoming flights have had a chance to stack up.

And I have been delayed for much longer than 45 minutes at ORD.  Last January I had to fly back to London, and opted for a mixed AA/BA itinerary (AA Wichita-Chicago, BA Chicago-London) instead of straight AA all the way--cattle class is much nicer on the "world's favourite airline" than on AA.  The BA flight left three hours late, because the preceding flight in the opposite direction had arrived late, and since BA apparently does not have backup flight crews in Chicago, my flight needed to be held up so the crew could get their required rest.  (Note that I am not complaining about this particular instance of tardiness.  Nobody had told me that I needed to catch the BA flight from the international terminal at ORD rather than the AA terminal, and this information is neither posted on the departure displays at ORD nor readily known to gate desk agents.  As a result, I had to be specially escorted through security when I transferred between terminals and still arrived at the correct BA gate at the international terminal more than an hour after the originally scheduled departure time, so I would have missed the flight if it had been punctual.  Plus my checked luggage arrived in London a day after I did . . .)

I am not sure how many times I have connected through ORD, but I am pretty sure it has been more than a dozen (one or two return journeys every year for about ten years with ORD as the usual connecting airport).  I estimate that I have been personally responsible for about 40 PATMs at ORD over the past decade, though I don't think any of those have involved purely domestic itineraries.

[realjd]

I agree that flight delays are much more rare earlier in the day. This is primarily because the low number of night flights gives the system a chance to "reset". The first flight out of an airport in the morning isn't waiting for an arriving aircraft.

Airlines schedule flights into and out of hubs in banks. A bunch of planes land, passengers have an hour-ish to transfer, then a bunch of planes leave. All it takes is one bank of flights to have delays at one hub to cause ripple effects across the whole system. Note that the banking is more apparent at less busy hubs like SLC than at super-busy ones like ATL and the airport can go from extremely crowded to a ghost town very quickly when a bank of flights leaves.

[Beltway]

Because the architect of the airport,  Eero Saarinen, did not want any aircraft near the main terminal building.

Reason #5,672 why I don't understand architects

Architects and engineering are mutually exclusive.

Ever see highway design plans drawn by an architect?  Back when I worked in road design, we got some good horse laughs when we were given some to review.

Though architects designed the overwater portion of the Øresund Fixed-Link crossing, and the Millau Viaduct. 

Well, no, they can provide the architectural scheme, but the structural design would be done by civil engineers.

[Beltway]

Because the architect of the airport,  Eero Saarinen, did not want any aircraft near the main terminal building.

Reason #5,672 why I don't understand architects

I'll give the original Dulles scheme some credit, though.  The mobile lounges are basically a huge triple-wide transit bus, that can quickly board and de-board about 100 people and their luggage.  With sufficient frequency of service between landside and airside terminals, they can approximate what a people mover rail system can do.

[cpzilliacus]

Because the architect of the airport,  Eero Saarinen, did not want any aircraft near the main terminal building.

Reason #5,672 why I don't understand architects

I'll give the original Dulles scheme some credit, though.  The mobile lounges are basically a huge triple-wide transit bus, that can quickly board and de-board about 100 people and their luggage.  With sufficient frequency of service between landside and airside terminals, they can approximate what a people mover rail system can do.

Do you recall the mobile lounges at Dulles when they had their original GM/Detroit Diesel (very loud) two-stroke Diesel engines (which have since been replaced, I believe by lower-emission powerplants from Cummins).

Have you been on the (relatively new) rail line (called AeroTrain) between the TSA checkpoint in the main terminal and (some of) the Dulles midfield terminals?  According to the Wikipedia article hyperlinked in the previous sentence, the train system cost about $1.4 billion (but that cost apparently includes the new TSA screening area).

[kphoger]

I agree that flight delays are much more rare earlier in the day. This is primarily because the low number of night flights gives the system a chance to "reset". The first flight out of an airport in the morning isn't waiting for an arriving aircraft.

This may well explain the difference in our experiences.  I almost always plan morning flights–especially when I was living in the Chicago area.  I also never plan a connection that has less than a one-hour gap, preferably 1½ hours.

For the naughty list I should mention that, at least here in Wichita, Atlanta is notorious for losing your luggage.  You can go to Wichita's airport in the late afternoon, when flights are landing, and overhear conversations about lost luggage.  They almost all end the same way:  "Did you fly through Atlanta?  Well, there's your problem!"

[roadman65]

Because the architect of the airport,  Eero Saarinen, did not want any aircraft near the main terminal building.

Reason #5,672 why I don't understand architects

I can't understand why he made the main terminal  look so ugly?  I have to say, for real, it is a piece of art.  Building jetways and concourses will not change the facade of the front of the main terminal, though. I do not see the red tape in undergoing an above ground building between landside and airsides because of this.

[kkt]

Dulles annoyed me.  Maybe I wasn't giving it a fair shake because I had been diverted.  But there was a little snow on the ground, the bus to the main terminal took 25 minutes to arrive and when it finally got moving it crawled along slower than a walking pace.

My favorite was Kansas City, MCI.  Quick to disembark, the luggage already waiting at the claim, cheap and plentiful parking.  This is what an airport would be like in heaven.  Too bad I have little reason to visit Kansas City anymore.

[roadman65]

All right I just read the main reasoning behind mobile lounges.  This modern airport was built before or about the time Jetways became popular.  It was when ramps (stairs mounted on a pick up truck) were used for loading and unloading taking the passengers outside in all weather conditions.   This was to allow passengers to be inside, even if it was a moving bus, and transport to the plane the passengers through a covered dock facility.  Even on the terminal end it used covered dock ports, so no one had to experience rain, snow, sleet, cold, hot, etc when they flew.

However, the Aerotrain is still not that great as it has its stations at the end of the concourses with one station being 500 feet away from the actual building and connected via underground tunnel.  If a passenger has to depart of arrive from a gate at the far end of the facility, a long walk is evident.  Considering some concourses are almost 4,000 feet making them longer than a small runway, it will be a long walk just to get around.  Due to the age of the type of building even an in concourse people mover would be nearly impossible to build. 

Even at Terminal 1  at ORD the maximum length of the terminal is 1600 feet, so goes to show how long the midway concourses really are and that making it hard for connections just as DFW has with its long gate corridors running parallel with the main airport driveway.

The only way to fix Dulles really would to have different terminals with concourse attached to each one instead of one large terminal and midway ramp facility as is now.  That might require the demolition of the whole airport to be rebuilt destroying the current main terminal architect.

[ghYHZ]

I'll have to give a plug for YHZ — Halifax International. Small (3.5 million/year) but easy to navigate. Good service to the US with non-stops to JFK, EWR, LGA, PHL, ORD plus ATL, DCA & DTW in the summer. Halifax has pre-clearance so you go through US Customs and Border Protection in Halifax before you even leave then arrive at a domestic gate in the States. Just walk of the plane and you're on your way.....no further formalities.

Year "˜round non-stop service to London Heathrow and also Frankfurt and Reykjavik in the summer plus numerous Florida and Caribbean destinations in the winter. 


http://www.hiaa.com/

[oscar]

My favorite was Kansas City, MCI.  Quick to disembark, the luggage already waiting at the claim, cheap and plentiful parking.  This is what an airport would be like in heaven.  Too bad I have little reason to visit Kansas City anymore.

MCI is among my least favorite airports.  Its big problem (at least in April 2008, last I was there) is that there's no central location for TSA screening, and there have to be separate screening areas for each gate or two.  That means no post-security restaurants and other services.

Long Beach (LGB) in March 2011 was my most unpleasant airport experience, though.  TSA apparently had no hand-held magnetic wands available for secondary screening of people with small items that set off the main metal detectors (like in my case, the metal buckles on my suspenders that held up my pants once I took off my belt).  So secondary screening means a full pat-down search, and a lot of people were going through that, including (apparently) a lot of women wearing underwire bras.  That was the closest I've ever come to a screener "touching my junk".  The terminal design is generally rather primitive, and it would not break my heart if JetBlue were to switch to a more modern airport like Orange County/John Wayne (SNA). 

Some of Alaska's smaller airports with jet service (like Yakutat and Gustavus) have no post-security waiting areas.  You get screened as you board the plane, in a small room between the pre-security waiting area and the tarmac.  Of course, many really small airports in western Alaska, served only by small planes, have no TSA screening at all (OTOH, they sometimes have no terminal buildings or other facilities, just a gravel airstrip and a windsock).

[cpzilliacus]

For the naughty list I should mention that, at least here in Wichita, Atlanta is notorious for losing your luggage.  You can go to Wichita's airport in the late afternoon, when flights are landing, and overhear conversations about lost luggage.  They almost all end the same way:  "Did you fly through Atlanta?  Well, there's your problem!"

Wonder if it's as bad as New York's JFK, where young Mafia thugs like John Gotti got their start stealing luggage? I had bags go missing going through JFK more than once (and never returned), which is why I am never going to use that airport again.

[cpzilliacus]

I'll have to give a plug for YHZ — Halifax International. Small (3.5 million/year) but easy to navigate. Good service to the US with non-stops to JFK, EWR, LGA, PHL, ORD plus ATL, DCA & DTW in the summer. Halifax has pre-clearance so you go through US Customs and Border Protection in Halifax before you even leave then arrive at a domestic gate in the States. Just walk of the plane and you're on your way.....no further formalities.

I have done U.S. pre-clearance at Pearson in Toronto, which worked pretty well.

Probably works even better in Halifax.

Year "˜round non-stop service to London Heathrow and also Frankfurt and Reykjavik in the summer plus numerous Florida and Caribbean destinations in the winter. 


http://www.hiaa.com/

Aside from Gander, this is very close (in relative terms) to Iceland and England, isn't it?

[ghYHZ]

Of course, many really small airports in western Alaska, served only by small planes, have no TSA screening at all (OTOH, they sometimes have no terminal buildings or other facilities, just a gravel airstrip and a windsock).

At Goose Bay Labrador (a former USAF Base) if going south on the jet, it's the same security procedures you would find at any major airport. But if you're heading north.....no screening......just walk out to the aircraft with your pilot! Guess they figure there's not much you can do on a 19 passenger Twin Otter!

I had to go to a First Nation community for work a couple of years ago and this is the route we took......five stops along the coast in 2 1\2 hours. At the little airports the locals would drive right out to the plane in their ATVs to pick up a parcel or meet a passenger! It was one of my most interesting trips ever. Trip report here with photos: 


http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/180211/?threadid=180211&searchid=180211&s=natuashish#ID180211


     

[texaskdog]

Any airport that the TSA isn't in

[cpzilliacus]

Because the architect of the airport,  Eero Saarinen, did not want any aircraft near the main terminal building.

Reason #5,672 why I don't understand architects

I can't understand why he made the main terminal  look so ugly?  I have to say, for real, it is a piece of art.

A lot of folks seem to regard it as an attractive structure (I do, but I am biased, since I am 3/4 Finnish).

Building jetways and concourses will not change the facade of the front of the main terminal, though. I do not see the red tape in undergoing an above ground building between landside and airsides because of this.

Small aircraft (some commuter-type planes) have had gates off of the main terminal building, but for most flights, patrons have to take the train or a mobile lounge to get to their flight.

It was always intended that the large jets would be parked well away from the terminal, and that's still the way it is (and probably always will be, given that it would take a huge amount of money to change that now, and MWAA just built that expensive Aero-Train system (which may be expanded in the future) to get people out to the aircraft).

[cpzilliacus]

Of course, many really small airports in western Alaska, served only by small planes, have no TSA screening at all (OTOH, they sometimes have no terminal buildings or other facilities, just a gravel airstrip and a windsock).

At Goose Bay Labrador (a former USAF Base) if going south on the jet, it's the same security procedures you would find at any major airport. But if you're heading north.....no screening......just walk out to the aircraft with your pilot! Guess they figure there's not much you can do on a 19 passenger Twin Otter!

I would love to drive to Goose Bay via the Trans-Labrador Highway.  Sounds like a superb roadgeeking adventure, right up there with the Dalton Highway in Alaska.

[oscar]

I had to go to a First Nation community for work a couple of years ago and this is the route we took......five stops along the coast in 2 1\2 hours. At the little airports the locals would drive right out to the plane in their ATVs to pick up a parcel or meet a passenger! It was one of my most interesting trips ever.

Same in the largely Native villages of western Alaska.  Indeed, on the circuitous route for my 2009 trip from Chignik to King Salmon, at every stop there were people at the airport parked next to the runway, just to coo over a newborn child being flown for routine post-natal checkups to the only hospital in southwestern Alaska.  The mother had relatives scattered all over the Alaska Peninsula, and it sounds like they all got to see her baby boy.

Those who've watched the just-concluded "Flying Wild Alaska" TV series will appreciate how different air travel is in western Alaska, including the blessed absence (except for some flights to Anchorage) of TSA screening. 

[agentsteel53]

I have done U.S. pre-clearance at Pearson in Toronto, which worked pretty well.

Probably works even better in Halifax.

I did it in Edmonton and it was very smooth ... but I was made unhappy by the fact that I had to have a TSA-style shoes-off inspection, all because I was flying towards the US.

since when is Canada no longer a sovereign nation that can say "no, that's fucking dumb" to inane US requests?

[kphoger]

I have done U.S. pre-clearance at Pearson in Toronto, which worked pretty well.

Probably works even better in Halifax.

I did it in Edmonton and it was very smooth ... but I was made unhappy by the fact that I had to have a TSA-style shoes-off inspection, all because I was flying towards the US.

since when is Canada no longer a sovereign nation that can say "no, that's fucking dumb" to inane US requests?

Since 9/11, I've just started wearing sandals to the airport–flip-flops if the weather is halfway decent.  In colder months, this just means I have to wear socks with my sandals.  I haven't yet tried flinging them off and leaving them where they lie; something tells me that would be considered rude.

[Desert Man]

On my two family trips to France, Paris de Gaulle is the best one and Paris Orly comes in second. Denver International is the 3rd best I been into (only 5 of them in America) and the least liked is LAX when the airport was in need of remodeling and renovation in the 2000's. Ontario Airport is owned by LAX, a smaller nicer looking and less crowded facility and I don't have issues with Palm Springs' own airport.

[kkt]

My favorite was Kansas City, MCI.  Quick to disembark, the luggage already waiting at the claim, cheap and plentiful parking.  This is what an airport would be like in heaven.  Too bad I have little reason to visit Kansas City anymore.

MCI is among my least favorite airports.  Its big problem (at least in April 2008, last I was there) is that there's no central location for TSA screening, and there have to be separate screening areas for each gate or two.  That means no post-security restaurants and other services.

Come to think of it, my MCI experiences were pre-9/11, so the security screening was less of an annoyance.

[kphoger]

My favorite was Kansas City, MCI.  Quick to disembark, the luggage already waiting at the claim, cheap and plentiful parking.  This is what an airport would be like in heaven.  Too bad I have little reason to visit Kansas City anymore.

MCI is among my least favorite airports.  Its big problem (at least in April 2008, last I was there) is that there's no central location for TSA screening, and there have to be separate screening areas for each gate or two.  That means no post-security restaurants and other services.

Come to think of it, my MCI experiences were pre-9/11, so the security screening was less of an annoyance.

While it is a minor inconvenience, it's one I can easily live with.  I just get my bite to eat ahead of time.  If for some reason I need to leave again, there are typically no more than three or four people in front of me in line, since the screening is only for that waiting area.  It's quite the opposite here in Wichita, where there are only two (or three, I can't quite remember) lines.  First thing in the morning, when all the first flights of the day are leaving at once, the lobby turns into a giant sea of people waiting to go through screening.