UK Transport Minister Will Fix Heathrow

The United Kingdom's new transport minister, Peter Hammond, has said that he wants to make travel through London's Heathrow a more pleasant experience. How does he plan to do this? Increased regulation of airport operators, like BAA, of course!

Right now, 7% of Heathrow's income is up to be fined, but right now it is being considered to increase that to 10%. The airport can be docked for things like excessive waiting times at security or a lack of seats in the terminal.

It should be noted that Heathrow has been fined before - 2008 the airport paid out 7.34 million pounds to the airlines, for example. But these moves would be more stringent.

You can read more here. What do you think?

Continental Unveils Revampted Terminal C

Photo Credit: Continental

Yesterday, Continental announced the completion of renovations at its Terminal C at George Bush Houston Intercontinental Airport. And all the changes are there to help accommodate high passenger volumes. A new baggage carousel has been added, check-in positions have increased around 50%, and the main lobby has also bee expanded.

The biggest thing, I think, is the huge area dedicated to self-serve kiosks. Imagine how much has changed in the past decade. Ten years ago, were you checking in for your flight online? Probably not. But now its much easier for passengers, especially those not checking any bags, to handle things themselves. So having kiosks makes things move faster, and the traditional ticket counters can be used for passengers who need additional assistance.

Check out more here in the press release.

CLEAR Begins to Build Momentum

I wrote here a short while ago about how a new management team is trying to resurrect the now-defunct CLEAR registered travel program. The company made progress yesterday with two new executive appointments. Note how one new executive was head of properties of JetBlue. This is important because for CLEAR to get going again, they need to develop strong relationships with airports to make sure the program is available to plenty of passengers.

But they key here is product. CLEAR was a glorified elite line - it was not a trusted traveler program. Members had to go through the exact same screening process as every other passenger. That doesn't really make it worth it, especially for those that already have access to a shorter line thanks to elite membership in an airline frequent flyer program. Hopefully this iteration of the product will be much improved.

Detroit’s Feathered Friends

A bird comfortably explores Detroit's airport. Photo credit: Vicky_TGAW on Flickr.

The McNamara Terminal in Detroit, used by Delta for its hub operations there, is gorgeous and boasts many impressive features, including its own birds. Yes, birds.

No one really knows how they got in (a big guess is that they came during construction), but nevertheless the birds (the majority of which are sparrows) enjoy the environment. And why not? It's a protected building where the birds face no natural predators. The crumbs from human food are a nice perk as well. The sparrows are especially fond of the large fountain in the center of the terminal (pictured below).

Airport officials have tried many options to get rid of the birds - including birth control. Yeah, I didn't know birth control existed for birds, either. They're currently trying to play the sounds of the birds' predators over the airport's sound system, but that hasn't been working too great either.

Perhaps eventually the airport will give up. If the birds aren't bothering anyone, what's the point?

Read more here.

Detroit's uber-fancy fountain, where the birds like to hang out. Photo credit: Vicky_TGAQ on Flickr.

New Airport in Florida Opens

I've written here about Northwest Florida Beaches International Airpot (ECP) here before. It's an exciting project. The first publicly-funded airport to open since 9/11, in fact.

Well service has now started at the airport - and the big focus is that it's a new city for Southwest Airlines. It's interesting because this is a change in strategy for Southwest. The project is risky, but thanks to some financial assitance from the St. Joe real estate company, Southwest cannnot lose money here for the first two years of operation. It's an exciting prospect for other small communities, since Southwest hasn't been huge on incentives before, and this shows they're interested. Southwest is required to provide eight flights a day, and the airline is doing two flights each to Baltimore, Nashville, Houston, and Orlando.

But while all the focus is on Southwest - let's not forget Delta, who was the only carrier serving the old airport. Plus, Delta has upgraded some of its RJ flying to Memphis and Atlanta to mainline service, which provides a nice little boost.

Anyway, this is a project I have been very interested in following - it will be interesting to see how they do.

Green Parking Lot Coming to Denver

While I do follow news closely, to be honest there's not always very exciting news in the airport parking world on a daily basis. But on Tuesday there was some exciting news about a new "green" parking facility near Denver International Airport. What's so great about it? The facility, which offers uncovered and covered surface parking as well as climate-controlled valet parking, will be powered by green sources, namely wind turbines and solar panels on site. In addition, the facility will have charging facilities for electric cars using the same green power.

Exciting stuff - and the parking rates - starting at $8.95/day - aren't unreasonable. The facility is slated to be completed in December. Read more here.

Minneapolis Unveils New Parking Program

Let's say you're a business traveler, and you're rushing to the airport, already late for your flight. The last thing you want to do is waste a bunch of time looking for a parking space. Minneapolis Airport is trying to solve this problem with its new eParkElite service.

The new service guarantees its members spots that are open and only about a minute away from the terminal. It also promises to save time - a transmitter placed on the dash records entrances and exits so members are automatically charged for parking, so no time is wasted getting tickets or paying with cash/credit.

I like this idea - it does sound like it can make life easier for many. It's $95/month, along with a one-time activation fee of $20. Regular parking rates apply.

A TSA Head…Please?

President Obama has nominated the deputy director of the FBI, John Pistole, to head up the Transportation Security Administration. This is good news. Especially because the TSA hasn't had anyone leading it since the Obama Administration came into office. Also because we've seen big changes security-wise. There was an attempted attack on the country, and this has lead to the deployment of body scanners across the nation, representing a big shift in this country's security practices.

The last two nominees have been tied up in the Senate. Let's hope this can get over and done with as quickly as possible.

High Variation found in UK Parking Prices

Quick post today - the Daily Mail in the UK reports that a survey has found that airport parking prices in the UK can  "range from sublimely low to ridiculously high." The study looked at various parking services across the country, and found prices at Heathrow to be among the highest. This is apparently some kind of revelation, but it's simple economics - wouldn't one expect that one of the busiest airports in the world, with a restricted supply of parking, to have higher prices?

But what the study did also find is that in many cases, passengers can save a lot of money - over a hundred pounds, in some cases - by purchasing parking ahead of time. And this, dear readers, is where About Airport Parking comes in - where you can reserve parking at many airports in the UK.

Want to Stay Ahead of the Ash Cloud? Use Twitter!

As an airplane dork, I have been consistently checking up on the ash cloud that has now been affecting European air travel on and off for about a month now. But now I've been following the story a bit closer than usual, as I have a close friend returning home after a semester in Europe later on this week.

Unfortunately Eyjafjallajökull has been causing more delays. Britain's airports were closed yesterday through this afternoon. Nowhere near as bad as the huge delays we saw in Europe, but still a big inconvenience for passengers. So how does one keep up with all of the volcano news? I've found that, if you're flying, following your airline on Twitter can be helpful in finding updates. I've found some airlines, especially Icelandair, to be great at providing information. Plus, if you have any questions/comments, tweeting about it might work, but I'd recommend that you try traditional channels first.