Last week I wrote in Portfolio.com about the unusual ways some airports have found to earn income - such as growing and selling hay planted on airport acreage to signing contracts to allow outside companies to drill for oil and gas underneath airport ground.
That article also noted that, for some time now, Reno-Tahoe International Airport and McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas have been raking in the bucks from slot machines scattered about inside the airport terminals.
According to a report in the Arizona Republic, the mayor in Phoenix, Arizona thinks putting slot machines at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is a great idea. But Phoenix isn’t Nevada, where gambling is legal pretty much everywhere. So to make this idea work, the city would have to create a profit-sharing agreement with a Native American tribe.
It’s do-able, but not yet a done-deal. The paper reports that the slot-machine scheme is just one of the ideas a revenue-enhancement team is exploring to help solve budget shortfalls for the entire city of Phoenix.
Got some other ideas? Casey Newton at the Arizona Republic (casey.newton@arizonarepublic.com) has offered to gather them up and forward them on to the mayor who, he says, “will give you - at his own expense - a weekend at the downtown Sheraton, complete with tickets to a sporting event or other cultural experience” if the city uses your idea.
Earlier this month, Wendy Slaughter, her four young kids and her pregnant sister were scheduled to fly on Southwest Airlines from Detroit to Seattle via Phoenix.
They got as far as Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. That’s where airport police met the flight and informed Slaughter that Southwest had deemed her family’s onboard behavior too disruptive to fly. Citing concern for the children, other passengers and the flight crew, the airline refused to let the family board their connecting flight.
Find out why they got booted and get tips on how to avoid getting booted in my Well-Mannered Traveler column posted this week on MSNBC.com.
(Column illustration by the very talented Duane Hoffman, MSNBC.com)
750 tons of sand will soon be trucked into the Munich Airport Center forum for a volleyball tournament.
From August 1 through the 17th, the Munich Airport Center Forum will host “Rio on Tour,” which will feature professionals and amateurs “digging, volleying and smashing on three courts.”
(Photo courtesy Munich Airport)
For the first three days, volleyball professionals from the “smart beach tour” will be showing spectators how it’s done. Then there’s a week-long tournament for company-sponsored teams, followed by a Family Day (August 10th) when players from the “Rote Raben”, the reigning champions of the German women’s volleyball league will teach visitors the finer points of the art of volleyball.
To close out the Airport Beach Season, from August 15-17, the top volleyball teams in Bavaria will face-off for a three-day tournament for the state championship.
Sounds like a great use for airport facilities. And it’s free! For more information see:www.airport-beach.de.
Garrett Popcorn Shops, well-known and much loved around Chicago for more than 50 years now, has opened its first airport location at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
This first branch is in Terminal 3, near Gate H1. Another branch should pop up soon in Terminal 1, between Gates B9 and B10.
In addition to the cheese-flavored air-popped popcorn, friends tell me the popcorn shop makes macadamia -nut and caramel crisp popcorn.
Better yet – the airport shops will be selling the popcorn by the bag and by the one or two gallon tin!
Photo courtesy Garrett Popcorn Shops
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.
You may still be recovering from last weekend, but the folks at Germany’s Munich Airport are already planning next weekend’s activities.
On July 19th and 20th, the covered, open-air Munich Airport Center Forum is hosting openairport, “the first rock and pop festival ever to be staged at a major European airport.” Admission will be free and the music will include everything from hip-hop and funk to ska and reggae.
Here’s a link for more details and information about the bands.
Maybe this is what US airports can do with all those big open terminal spaces if the airlines keep cutting back on flights.
Photo courtesy Munich Airport
ART AT ORD
From now through mid-December, jetsetters passing through Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport Terminal 5 will be able to check out an exhibit of more than 40 posters from the 2008 Chicago International Poster Biennial Association (CIPBA).
Here’s a sample….
(Poster images courtesy O’Hare International Airport)
Terminal 5 has some other artwork worth checking out: The “Beacons” - two lit geometric sculptures - and a limestone and marble mosaic from Chicago’s sister city Amman, Jordan entitled “Treasury of Petra.”
A 50-foot long blown-glass painted mural entitled “Jet Trails” and a 40-foot long mural - “Songs of Chicago” - created by students in After School Matters, were also installed this year in Terminal 1.
Unless the International Olympic Committee acts fast and makes heaving overweight carry-on bags into overhead airplane bins an official Olympic sport, my chances of visiting Beijing this summer are nil.
But if committee members do finally come to their senses, I’m ready to go. I’ve been practicing my technique on plane trips with multiple connections. And I’ve been prepping for free time in Beijing by gathering advice on how to be a well-mannered traveler in China.
Find out what I learned about spitting, squat toilets, staying safe, and slurping soup in China in this week’s Well Mannered Traveler column on MSNBC.com.
(Column illustration by the very talented Duane Hoffmann / msnbc.com)
Heard that one before?
On July 4th, San Diego International Airport (SAN) introduced a new set of videos at the security checkpoints. Starring roles are played by the San Diego Zoo’s Bamboo Bear, Legoland’s Johnny Thunder, the San Diego Padres’ Friar, and Shamu from SeaWorld.
Want to see a whale going through the metal detector? I did - but I didn’t have a trip to SAN planned anytime soon.
So I’m pleased to see that the airport has posted the video on YouTube.
For starters, air travel is frustrating enough these days. So it just makes things worse if you insist on fully reclining your seat back when the person behind is already squished. Or if you walk down the airplane aisle letting your carry-on bag smack into the faces of folks already seated.
And then there’s this: if you get really out of hand, say by getting into a fistfight with another passenger over the armrest, you may have to answer to a Federal air marshal - perhaps the one who recently set a new world marksmanship record for shooting the “Roundabout” in 8.08 seconds during the “Speed-On-Steel Championships.”
(From TSA site)
