Airports of the World

Category Archives for Airports of the World.

Would you wear this?

October 3, 2012 by Martin J Cowling 8 Comments

It may not look great but kawamura-ganjavian, a European architecture and design studio, have claimed this device the “Ostrich Pillow” will help travellers counter the ill effects of jet lag on long-haul flights by enabling power naps “anytime, anywhere”. As you can see, the “pillow” has a hole for a user’s head, mouth hole designed to allow breathing and two side holes for your hands, if napping at a table for example, as illustrated below. Kawamura-Ganjavian, a Swiss-Spanish consortium behind the pillow say: “We have tried it in airports, trains, aeroplanes, libraries, at the office, on a sofa and even…

Some anomalies at Skytrax Best Airports

May 13, 2012 by Martin J Cowling 1 Comment

The World Airport award results came out last week. The top three are fairly predictable: Incheon International Airport– last year was third, Singapore Changi Airport -my favourite airport Hong Kong International Airport – last year was first Amsterdam Schiphol Airport comes in at fourth. Everyone raves about Schiphol but I am not a huge fan. Beijing’s vast Capital International Airport sits at fifth. The airport inclusions that I found odd are: 11 London Heathrow Airport. If I was to create hell on earth, it would be London Heathrow. The new terminals are nice but already too small and…

Invention for Slow walkers

March 21, 2012 by Martin J Cowling 12 Comments

One of my frustrations in Airports are people who meander. Some people wander slowly through airports because they are lost or confused or stressed and some because they are day dreaming. These individuals (and groups) walk slowly on travelators, stop for discussions at the top of escalators, hold the button on the lifts (elevators) and bunch at the doors of airports. Drives me crazy!! I am always trying to minimise my time in an airport, so I want to plow through. I am also familiar with airports and how to quickly get to gates. I have to remember, not everyone is as adept…

Lufthansa names an A380 “Zurich”.

September 24, 2011 by Martin J Cowling Leave A Comment

On Tuesday13th September, Lufthansa named A380 D-AIMF “Zurich“, after the Swiss city which is hub for the Lufthansa owned SWISS airline. This particular A380 was the sixth in the Lufthansa fleet and has been flying for them since April this year. While the plane is named Zurich, there is no suggestion of it moving from its Frankfurt base to the Swiss city. Passengers will have to fly from Zurich to Frankfurt to connect with Lufthansa to its A380 destinations (Beijing, Miami, New York, Only a couple of weeks for my Lufthansa A380 flight, which will be my fourth A380 carrier (already flown Emirates, Qantas and Singapore)

Fantastic: Delhi Airport Express connects city to airport

February 25, 2011 by Martin J Cowling Leave A Comment

Trains to the airport in Delhi??? Alleluia…for this is the city where I had two of my most terrifying taxi rides….traffic in that city is extraordinarily bad! Check out my blog post on bad Taxi rides and my wishlist for good service. The good news is that of yesterday Delhi has an Express train to the airport taking passengers from Connaught Place (centre of New Delhi) to the International Airport (23km) in 18 minutes. Cost 80 rupees ($1.80). Trains run 6am to 10pm but that will change with trains expected to run later in the night.…

Amazing Video of LAX landing

February 18, 2011 by Martin J Cowling 1 Comment

This awesome video shows a commercial plane landing at dusk into Los Angeles International Airport. The video has been edited and sped up fitting all the action into under 5 minutes with very appropriate background music (Los Angeles by Sugarcult) that I find really cool. Some hate the music (hint: watch the video with the sound on mute, if that is you) The plane comes in from the northwest into Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) at an altitude of 10,000 feet (3 000 metres) the downwind leg is entered over the Santa Monica VOR (VHF omnidirectional radio range) station the…