In October, Dubai’s massive new airport—World Central Airport Dubai—cleared its first commercial flight. It’s expected to become the world’s busiest airport, but, with plenty of other contenders quickly taking shape in Asia and the Middle East, it’s going to have some stiff competition. Welcome to the mega-airport boom.
     |
Commercial planes have gotten bigger and bigger over the past few decades, but the size of the gate at most airports have stayed the same. To circumvent this little infrastructural disconnect, Boeing’s future 777x jet will have a massive wingspan that folds up upon landing.
| |
In a little less than two weeks, Americans will engage in the county’s annual combat ritual: Holiday Travel Season—a brutal tradition pitting travelers against the monolithic security and transportation apparatus in a race to their respective destinations. Believe it or not, it’s possible to make it through with your dignity intact. It just takes a bit of planning.
| |
A new airport complex is taking shape in Abu Dhabi, where roughly 12,000 construction workers are on-site daily to finish the massive structure, whose floor area is larger than that of the Pentagon. According to UAE paper The National, it will take 84,000 tons of steel to build the structure’s dramatic arches, designed by New York-based KPF.
| |
If you’ve flown into Los Angeles International Airport anytime in the last 50 years, the final segment of your journey may have taken you down a long hallway featuring a gorgeous color-blocked tile mural. Well, on your next flight to L.A., you can wear the socks to match it.
| |
All airports are absolutely, positively not created equal. Case in point: the brand new Terminal 3 at Shenzhen’s Bao’an International hub, which will be inaugurated next month after five years in the making. This place is a certifiable beaut that befits the awesome act of flying that we take for granted all the dang time.
| |
Airports administrators are always valiantly attempting to add some levity to the travel experience, god bless ’em. Yet in this ongoing quest for whimsy and spectacle, they’ve also managed to commission some of the world’s weirdest art. Because what could possibly aid your re-entry into civilization after being strapped to a chair for six hours? Flying corn!
| |
At bustling traffic hubs like O’Hare International, planes can spend an interminably long time waiting for their turn to land. And at airports like Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International, pilots must contend with tight flight paths to avoid crowded population centers and hills on their final approach. But thanks to a new hyper-accurate GPS-based tracking system, airliners will no longer have to contend with land-locked navigation beacons and overworked control towers.
| |
One of the most tedious parts of air travel is waiting for your bag to arrive on the luggage carousel after a long flight. But in Japan, the wait is far more bearable because the luggage carousels are covered in fun 3D advertisements humorously selling you everything from sushi to the local produce. So here’s yet another reason to complain about the airports in the US.
| |
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
