In an effort to replace the revenue they used to get from airlines, some airports have found they can earn cash from slot machines, t-shirts, oil rigs and acres of hay.

In my article about this for Portfolio.com, I also found two airports where the naming rights are up for sale.

I’ve got a long list of services and amenities I’d like to see offered at airports. Speed-dating and remedial classes in packing are on the list.

And so is tattooing.

Which is why I was tickled to see that, along with a jazz trio and an Uncle Sam on stilts, the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) hired an air brush artist to paint tattoos on some of the 1.1 million passengers expected to pass through the airport this holiday weekend.

Photo taken by Sarah McDaniel-Langhorst of DFW International Airport staff.

The folks at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) have been busy beautifying their Web site with spiffy new tools for travelers.

Highly useful: The interactive maps (check out the panoramic tour of -an empty -Terminal D) and the updated at-a-glance list of services (note that there’s free power and free wired Internet at Gates A20 and B35).

Most enjoyable: The lovely close-ups views of the medallions and other artwork in the airport’s multi-million dollar public art program.

(Christopher Janney’s “Circling” courtesy DFW Airport)

At Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, you just might. Chef Tim Love, the guy who wears a cowboy hat instead of a toque and who is known as “the foremost pioneer of urban Western cuisine,” has brought his tasty fare to DFW airport - in grab ‘n go form.

HMS Host is featuring Chef Love’s creations at the recently opened Z Market in Terminal B.  The shop blends convenience store with upscale western-deli. In addition to sandwiches, salads and gourmet entrees, the offerings include a wide assortment of natural snacks such as gluten-free fudge brownies, gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, and organic healthy hemp bagels.

Photo courtesy DFW airport

One way to stay healthy when flying from one side of the country to another is to make sure you eat good food along the way. It’s getting easier to find healthy options at many airport restaurants and food-courts, but I still make sure to carry cut-up veggies, protein bars, and nuts and raisins in my purse.

But sometimes you need a little something sweet and sinful. So I’m pleased to learn that two new branches of the award-winning Natalie’s Candy Bar have opened at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). In addition to the hard-to-miss original location in Terminal D (Gate 16), there are now branches of these colorful candy stores in Terminals A and B.

Photo courtesy: Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport

Bad news for travelers booked on American Airlines flights today. Yesterday the airline canceled 500 flights to check on the wiring in its fleet of MD-80 aircraft. Today, the airline is canceling another 850 flights.

At Dallas-Fort Worth International airport, that means another 251 flights have been scrapped.

To make matters worse: severe weather is being forecast for the North Texas region later today.

So a lot of folks will probably be spending another night stuck at the airport.

It should be quite a scene this Sunday (March 30^th) at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport when they celebrate new service to London Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol Airports.

For folks arriving from Amsterdam, they’ll be authentic Dutch klompendansers, Dutch coffee, chocolates and a giant windmill cake. For those arriving from Heathrow, it will be English teas and snacks.
The planned entertainment sounds yummy too: a Beatles cover band and impersonators of Queen Elizabeth II, Royal Guardsmen, and Dutch maids.

I’m tickled to be doing a guest stint this week and next writing the Airport Check-In column over at USA TODAY.

This week’s topics include the re-freshed exhibits at the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum near Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and, for those celebrating “Won’t You Be My Neighbor Days” a reminder that there’s a Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood exhibit at Pittsburgh International Airport.

Photo: Family Communications