As the dawn broke last Sunday morning, 17th March 2024, I joined around 5000 runners for a charity run on Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport’s new Runway 3. In July, 2024 the airport will open this 4 kilometre (2.4 mile) new runway for active use on the western part of the airport, the same side as the main warehouse and the current western runway. The two existing runways presently handle 60 plane movements an hour. When Runway Three opens, the capacity will jump to 94 planes an hour. After some obligatory speeches, the 10km runners began their…
Airports of the World
Category Archives for Airports of the World.
Who Went Where? 2023 Busiest Cities, Routes, Airports
For all of us who travelled, we have seen the crowds of people in airports, train stations and in cities. Reportedly, air travel reached 99% of 2019 figures in November 2023. It sure feels like it! Most Visited Cities, 2023 The Top 100 City Destinations Index 2023, published by market research company Euromonitor International looks at the world’s key cities and evaluates them based on a range of characteristics. In terms of international arrivals in 2023, Istanbul had the most arrivals, followed by London and Dubai. The cities with the highest year-on-year rise were Bangkok…
American ditches Fleet, Network and Frequency
Sunday evening March 15, I fly to Dublin, Ireland with American Airlines. Little did I know when I booked my trip that this would be the very last day for that flight until at least May. Flights from Charlotte, Philadelphia and Phoenix to London Heathrow, Dublin and Manchester will be suspended on March 15 and the return trips back to the USA will be flown March 16. These are part of a 75% cut in American’s international capacity which will be accompanied by a 20% cut in its domestic capacity in April and…
Busiest International Air Routes in the world
Being the air nerd that I am, I have been absorbed with the 2019 OAG listing of the busiest international air routes in the world. I cannot help myself, I am afraid. On the top 20 routes, airlines offer a combined 332,000 flights annually. This is about one percent of all the flights in the world! Fifteen of the top 20 air routes in the world are in Asia with four connecting Singapore and five connecting Hong Kong (including the route between them!). This shows the major shift in air traffic over the last 20…
Which airlines have names for their planes- and why?
For centuries, sailing ships carried names, had captains, were Christened, experienced water salutes and had their left side referred to as port and right side as starboard. These traditions continued into the air but not all airlines name their planes . No one knows why some airlines in the world adopted the tradition of naming their “ships” and others did not. When a plane is named, unlike ships, a bottle of champagne is not broken when naming them, but when used, it is poured over the fuselage. Here are as many major airlines that I…
US Electronics Ban -what to do if You are a Passenger
As I blogged about earlier today, The United States has announced today that any electronic item larger than a phone will be banned from cabins on all flights from ten airports in eight Middle Eastern countries. Check if you are flying from or through any of the ten affected airports to the USA. It is important to note it only applies at this stage to flights to the USA. So if you are flying New York to Dubai for example, the rules do not apply to you. If you feel uncomfortable or concerned with flying…
US Electronics Ban on MidEast originating flights
– This morning US time, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued an emergency security directive banning on certain electronic gadgets being taken brought into cabins on some flights to the USA. Of course, we knew about the ban already, because Royal Jordanian tweeted about it yesterday! Where they got the information from and why they announced it is a mystery. They also were in error suggesting that the ban applied to US originating flights. There has been a suggestion they inadvertently published information from a TSA circular that was…
I have now flown to airports with codes starting with 24 letters of the alphabet
Every airport possesses its own three letter unique code. For example: Bos = Boston Logan LAX = Los Angeles For some travelers, these codes are mysterious: BOM = Mumbai EZE = Buenos Aires For others, they represent hubs of business: JFK = New York John F Kennedy LHR= London Heathrow I have now been to 215 airports from ABQ to ZRH.Back in April, I reflected that these airport codes started with 23 letters of the alphabet. Up to last weekend, I was only missing airport with codes starting with Q, U or X. I have now added two…
Los Angeles Long Overdue Transport Makeover
I have flown through Los Angeles International LAX multiple times over the last 20 years! I have used every one of its eight terminals with a range of current and defunct US and international airlines. If I was a commuter, then LAX is like one of my Grand Central Terminals! It is the world’s fifth busiest airport with almost 75 million people using it last year. And it is not good enough. Ugly buildings, a sprawling, confusing terminal layout, poor signage, horrific traffic and poor public transport connections, underwhelming food choices (definitely improved in the recent Tom…
Van hits plane at Hong Kong airport
This is the aftermath of a China Aircraft Services hitting a fully loaded Dragonair Airbus 330 at Hong Kong International Airport’s apron 25 at about 4pm local time. The video of the incident appears to shows the van driving directly towards the aircraft as it moves towards the runway for takeoff. The van then seems to veer straight toward the engine. Completely bizarre. The vehicle was dragged along the tarmac for several metres by the plane. The pilot stopped the plane. Five fire engines and two ambulances were called to the scene. The driver was reportedly…
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