Since September 11, fewer travelers are taking to the skies, but those who do are spending a lot more time schlepping around the cavernous concourses. In true entrepreneurial fashion, airport businesses are working to capitalize on their captive audiences. Restaurants, bookstores, lounges, boutiques, kid spots–all have begun trying to take advantage of the new reality at American airports. The best of the best are now downright homey, with places to unwind, eat a decent meal at reasonable prices and even curl up with a DVD. You may not have to think about these amenities every trip–on lucky days, travelers may still be able to breeze through from check-in to boarding with nary a hassle–but sooner or later, you’re going to hear those dreaded words over the loudspeaker, “Ladies and gentlemen, sorry about today’s delay…”
Let’s get one thing straight: airports still aren’t fun. There are too many lines, too few seats and, yes, some extraordinarily bad lighting. But while you would never choose to spend time there–nobody will ever think of JFK International as a destination resort–it’s inevitable, all the more so as heightened security procedures take hold. Passengers currently waste an average of 109 minutes wandering around the airport before boarding a flight, according to Airport Interviewing and Research, an independent firm. That’s up about 10 percent since the terrorist attacks, and it may get worse if traffic returns to pre-9-11 levels. Most airports report that, on average, only 15 minutes of that “dwell time” (as industry jargon has it) is spent clearing the security checkpoint. (For example, Atlanta Hartsfield, the nation’s busiest airport, finds lines average 10 to 12 minutes.)
Yet many airports and airlines still instruct passengers to arrive two hours early for domestic flights. So once you’ve made it through the metal detector, and had your shoes inspected, what should you do with the downtime? Here’s our guide to improved airport services. Go ahead, make yourself at home:
Feed Me!
Don’t be duped into thinking you have to dine with Ronald McDonald. In the past few years, most airports brought in upscale eateries–and now there’s finally time to enjoy them. San Francisco International features a dozen local restaurants like Harry Denton’s (of Starlight Lounge fame) and vegetarians in Newark can find plenty on the Garden State Diner’s expansive menu. Even LAX, notorious for its terrible food, has the Encounter Restaurant, a Jetsons-looking spaceship-on-legs decorated by Disney’s Imagineers with mod fabrics and psychedelic lighting.
Travelers facing long foodless flights can also snatch up boxed meals, like those available from Philadelphia International’s “Take Out for Take Off” program or LaGuardia’s Figs on the Fly, a takeout version on Todd English’s well-known restaurant chain in Boston, New York City and elsewhere.
Shopping Spree
For “real” shopping, Pittsburgh International sets the standard. It’s “a mall with airplanes parked outside,” quips Michael Taylor, director of travel services for J.D. Power and Associates. And there’s no sales tax on clothes in Pennsylvania, making buying even more rewarding at the Airmall’s 62 stores, including a Gap, a Nine West and a Victoria’s Secret. “Who would ever have thought ladies’ lingerie would sell in an airport?” Taylor asks. Then again, the Mile High Club has to shop somewhere.
Child’s Play
It’s a well-known fact among parents that animated films act as a sedative for kids. InMotion Pictures made a business out of it at airports. It now rents DVDs and, for the laptop-less, portable DVD players at 16 major airports nationwide. “People seem to be renting more than one movie,” says Barney Freedman, the company’s cofounder. “They realize they need one while they’re waiting at the gate and another for the flight.” A five-inch screen costs $12 a day (the seven-inch runs $15), and can either be dropped off at the destination airport or put in a prepaid mailer. The kiosks stock almost 200 titles including Walt Disney’s complete animated canon.
Sound Mind, Sound Body
The more sedentary sort can seek inner peace, or at least outer calm, in meditation rooms at such airports as Washington-Dulles, Sea-Tac and Charlotte. (More of these rooms appear all the time as airport chapels become secularized.) There’s the occasional nondenominational-prayer service, but these comfy Zen lounges are also the perfect place to paint your nails, take a snooze or finish some trashy airport fiction. Any silent activity is considered OK.
Of course we’d all like to go back to the good old days, when boarding a flight was about as complicated as getting on a bus. The process now involves not just a calculation of how long it’ll take to park, check in and get through security, but what to do if everything goes smoothly and you’re stuck with part of an afternoon to waste. Las Vegas International has the solution. “Everyone has to plan for the worst,” says Hilarie Grey, the airport’s spokeswoman, “but then they fly through security and wind up with time on their hands. That’s when I tell them to go play the slots.” Those machines brought in an extra half a million last year. The American spirit endures.
