best/worst airport design features

Factual Questions
21

Airport seating tends to suck The designers seem to have the idea that if thepublic is provided comfortable seats, they will camp out in the public square.

Excuse me, people have to wait for hours, that is the terminal’s function.

I was at some airport (Amsterdam?) that had a bank of wide carpeted steps, perfect for a nap. Amsterdam also has great security (although that is because of their people) and a nifty hotel in the secure area. (Same for Bahrain.)

Another winning point is a real live train station right outside and a great shopping area.

All in all Amsterdam, although an older airport, is perhaps the best in the world.

22

OK it was my idea so I will toss in some suggestions
Busses or people movers like Dulles Suck, a much better idea is either a tunnel like O’hare (with the way cool neon) or a train like SEA-TAC. If you go with a train the cars have to be BIG with big doors. An example of how not to do it is the monorail at Newark Tiny car, small doors, and if one person gets on with a lot of luggage the car is over 50% full.

We are now living in a post 9/11 world. You must allow room for security screening (both for luggage and Pax) room for the Passengers to line up, and please an area just past security where we can gather our stuff, and chairs to put or freaking shoes back on! Prepare if you can a system that can lock down a portion of the terminal in the event of a security breach. This beats the hell out of having to empty an entire terminal. if you can design the system so that security people can get from place to place not in the public view, this might be a plus

A certain amount of level changing is going to be inevitable, I have always considered the United terminal at LAX to be a pretty good example of how to do it right. Once you clear security you go up an escalator and have full access to terminals 6, 7, and 8 gates all without have to exit and reclear security (or change levels). So you can arrive at terminal 6 and connect to a gate at terminal 8 without having to reclear security.

As has been said, food, and drink inside security. A smoking area might just avert a scene. Since you said international airport make sure you have lots of quality duty free shipping. Copenhaggen, and Shiphol are good examples of this, London Heathrow with their overcrowed combo departure lounge/ duty free is a PITA.

Passenger pickup. O’hare and Portland (PDX) have got this right. Mutiple lanes. Taxi from the curb in front of the terminal. Busses to rental cars and remote lots, cross two lanes of traffic, and wait on the sidewalk there. Hotel shared ride cross two more lanes of traffic, wait on the curb there, finally cross two more lanes of traffic and private passenger pickup. This also has the advantage of keeping any car bombs in private cars as far from the terminal as possible. An Example of how not to do this is LAX Only one pick up sidewalk so if you come in terminal 8 and need to get a ride to private parking lot, you are have walked almost to terminal 6 to get to the right area. :mad:

PLAN AHEAD! Look at what the largest airplane currently in service, now go look at what Airbus has on the boards. Figure that Whatever you see today on Airbus’ web site is smaller than what they will be building in 25 years. Make your ramps, and terminals big enough to accomdate Spruce Goose and it may just be big enough. :slight_smile:

If I think of any others, I’ll post them, if I can offer any other assistance feel free to drop me a line.

23

Bravo, Rick!

Bad design: the runway layout at SFO. As I understand it, whenever the airport gets fogged in, the runway capacity is effectively halved. There’s no room to fit in additional runways without either demolishing the terminal and a big hunk of freeway, or filling in part of the bay.

Oakland International has been getting a lot more business the last few years, so I suppose you might say they have a “good design.”

24

How about Singapore’s Airport? It has an excellent design with quiet areas, reclining chairs for watching TV (free), nice restaurants and bars, every kind of shopping imaginable (and duty free), live entertainment, outdoor rooftop gardens, and helpdesks with friendly help. I spent a few hours a few times there and actually enjoyed it all. A runner-up is Hong Kong’s new airport.

25

FTR my post above was my 747th post. :cool:

way OT i’ll admit, but kinda airport related.

26

Frankfurt had something like and entire shopping mall under the airport. It was pretty neat. Having subway stops was really handy, too. Of course since we don’t use subways or commuter trains in the vast majority of the USA, that’s not really relevant to our airports.

Detroit airport looks like a bus terminal. It’s old and icky. No shopping and not much food in the secured area. There is a new terminal at Detroit, but I’ve not been there yet.

Midway is nice – it’s small and getting to rental cars or public parking is easy. It’s kind of sucky getting to freeways from there, but then again Chicago and suburbs’ freeway system was always kind of lame to me.
O’Hare, in contrast, has great access from the roads, but the damn place is so huge it’s a horrible, horrible hub. For some reason I couldn’t get a direct from Dallas to Detroit flight a few weeks ago, and we had to transfer at O’Hare. It took 45 minutes of walking! There was no train or other transportation we could find, and it was a maze. On the plus side, it’s a beautiful airport.

Dallas is a good hub. It’s so small it’s not a big deal getting from terminal to terminal. Plus there’s a TRAAIN if you’re in a hurry. Good shopping and food in the secured area. Being a smaller internation airport, it’s my favorite for flying back from Mexico – immigration and customs are really, really fast.

Houston is huge but beautiful, and lots of food and shopping in the secured areas. If you’re in a hurry to connect, though, size could be a problem. Coming through customs and immigration has NEVER been a quick thing for me there.

In all cases, there’s no secured smoking area. I think Atlanta had one – I’ve only been there once. Long ago I’ve been to some other cities that had secured smoking areas – Las Vegas does I seem to recall. These are good airports. Oh yeah, in Leon, Mexico, you can smoke anywhere in the airport you want. Backwardness or freedom?

Let me tell you about Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. I once flew from Leon, MX to Cd. Juarez. I was already in the country, so I didn’t think I needed my tourist papers or passport. Come time to return to Leon, we had to clear customs and immigration to “enter Mexico,” and me without papers! Just keep that in mind if you’re ever in the back woods.

27

IIRC, Saarinen’s idea was that airplanes wasted too much fuel taxiing, airports wasted too much money building sprawling terminals, and people wasted too much time walking through said airports to get to the planes. So make a much smaller (exquisitely designed) buiding, and use complex buslike people-movers.

Problems: (1) people-movers use fuel, and lots of it.

(2) Because people-movers have to rise and lower to accommodate different sizes of planes, they’re prone to breakdowns.

(3) People movers are very disorienting to passengers, because it’s difficult to see where you’re going. And stressful, because they effectively roll back the plane’s take-off time.

There may be more. Net is they won’t be missed.

Improving, though; the big problem right now is the enormous construction projects designed to make it much less bad. I’ve been hearing very good reviews of the first really huge JFK project to be completed, which is the international terminal (terminal 4). Am moderately hopeful about the AirTrain, which from what I’ve been seeing stands a very good chance of opening by the end of the year, and possibly sooner. The big disaster right now is American Airlines, which is replacing two small terminals (current 8 & 9) with a single, much larger one slated for '05 or '06. In the meantime, though, it’s a mess.

28

Am I the only one who thinks Charlotte is a well designed hub? I love flying through Charlotte. The concourses are laid out in a sort of star pattern. I was reading an article about the airport while, surprise, waiting through my layover. Turns out the place was designed in the star pattern to allow room for further expansion, as its needed. The food and amenities are all in the center. It’s even easy to get into and out of when you use the airport as a terminal airport. While they do not have inside-security smoking rooms, like Atlanta, you can smoke in the bars and restaurants, so you don’t have to go through security again just to get a nicotine fix.

Cleveland Hopkins is an airport I don’t much care for. Poorly planned expansions, long walks to everything and no place to smoke.

29

i’ve been to amsterdam’s schipol airport its a nice simple little airport. the dutyfree ripped u off, especially if ur going to buy gifts for friends, they really rip u off. schipol is a nice convenient airport the last time i was there 1997 it wasn’t crowded at all. i got to my connecting flight pretty quickly. my pick for the absolute worst airport in the world is frankfurt international in germany. that airport is so confusing and screwed up. if anyone has been there u’ll know. if u go into the international terminal all u’ll see is 1000 arrows pointing everyway and a small section for passport control. i hated that place! the train system there is right next to the passport control area, which is long walk away from baggage claim. absolute worst airport in the world is frankfurt.

30

LACKAGE OF VIEWING AREAS

This may not be of all that economic importance, but as an aviation hobbiest, I sure wish more airports had designated areas where spotters (or family members, people waiting, etc.) could go and actually have a great view of the runways.

31

I love Charlotte too. Especially the middle area with the big windows and skylights and rocking chairs.

Personally I think that Atlanta is one of the worst airports I have ever been in.

32

Worst design feature: hour-and-a-half waits at passport control (Sheremetievo II, Moscow), and when you get through that your luggage still hasn’t come out onto the carousel yet… Second prize - being out in the middle of nowhere (Mirabel, equidistant between Ottawa and Montreal)
Best design feature: Cheap and convenient train access to downtown - Schipol (Amsterdam), Domodedovo (Moscow). Oh, and cheap duty free, secure smoking areas, toilets designed with small children in mind, seats you can sleep in, etc. but good train access is essential.

33

For a hub, I love the new Detroit airport, as I said on another thread. I have never actually flown there, so I don’t know what that is like. It is a long line with a train on the balcony that stops at about 1/6, 1/2, and 5/6 of the way and there are moving sidewalks in between.

To fly to, it is hard to beat Philadelphia since you leave your gate and get on a train to 30th St. or center city. But it is an awful place to change at.

I like Zurich because you can also take a train right to the Hauptbahnhof and also because you can check your bags when you get on all the way to the train station nearest where you are going. Really great, especially since there all the train stations are low platform.