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By David Parker Brown, on February 4th, 2011 at 6:00 am
 The tram wizzes by at Detroit's airport. Photo from DTW. Recently I was hanging out at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) waiting for a flight back home and I became annoyed that their airport did not provide free Wi-Fi internet. Oddly the airport did have free wired terminals were folks could check their email. I have become a spoiled traveler. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (my home base) has had free internet for quite some time. The more I travel the more and more I start finding free wireless access at airports. Heck, while waiting for the bus in Austin to go to the airport, I got free Wi-Fi from the city of Austin while standing at my bus stop.
I was voicing my frustration about no free Wi-Fi at AUS via Twitter, when Scott Wintner, who works for Pubic Affairs for Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW) and Willow Run Airport (YIP), reached out via Twitter and wanted to share why many airports do not offer free Wi-Fi. He pointed out that Wi-Fi isn’t free and not all airports can afford to give it to passengers without charging. I decided to try and learn more about why more airports don’t have free Wi-Fi and Wintner was more than happy to help out. Here is our talk:
AirlineReporter.com (AR): When did DTW get Wi-Fi?
Scott Wintner (SW): December 2003
AR: Who is it through?
SW: Concourse Communications (now part of Boingo)
AR: How much does it cost a passenger to get internet?
SW: The rates are established by the provider (Boingo), which currently offers several different rates and packages. You can find all of their rate/package info online at www.boingo.com (there are many to choose among). It’s important to note that, because we use one of the leading global providers, internet purchased for use at DTW also works at hotspots around the country and, with some plans, the world. Plus, customers who already have a Wi-Fi plan with another carrier with which Boingo currently has roaming agreements (such as AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.), you can login to our Wi-Fi using your existing account.
AR: How much does DTW get from each internet purchase?
SW: That’s a complicated question because it’s not as simple as a flat % or sum per transaction. So, the best I can offer you will likely be an annual total… which our finance folks are working on for me now. Please standby…
AR: How much did it cost DTW to set up Wi-Fi?
SW: It didn’t cost the Airport Authority anything because the system was developed by the provider (Boingo). They may be able to provide you with more info about how much a system such as the one in place at DTW costs to set-up and maintain.
AR: Does “free” Wi-Fi even exist?
SW: There is “no such thing as free Wi-Fi”. A wireless internet infrastructure costs money to develop and maintain… no news there. So, that cost has to be paid by someone. When you stay at a hotel that offers free Wi-Fi, you can bet that the cost of providing the service is merely baked-in to their operating costs and reflected in room rates. Likewise, when you go to a coffee shop, etc., that offers “free Wi-Fi”, the cost of providing that service is assumed in the price you pay for a latte or a bagel there. Of course, a for-profit business could elect to absorb the cost of providing Wi-Fi by paying for it out of profits rather than charging more for their goods/services. I don’t think it’s likely for many businesses to choose that option. But, either way, someone is paying for the cost of providing internet – and generally, it’s the customer.
AR: How do airports differ?
SW: Unlike hotels (which charge for a bed) and coffee shops (which charge for caffeine), airports do not charge their customers to use the airport. Yes, airports do charge for ancillary services such as parking and food/beverage/retail, but those services aren’t the airports primary reason for existing. Airport customers can – and many do – pass through the facility without spending a dime. So, airports can’t just jack-up their nightly rate or their admission fee to cover the costs of providing free Wi-Fi – there are no such fees to raise. Sure, airports could jack-up the price of parking and concessions to cover the cost of Wi-Fi – and many probably do.
AR: Can’t the costs be added to the airline’s fee for flying to an airport?
Raising airline costs at airports creates a whole separate set of effects. At minimum, those added airline costs become reflected in ticket prices. But, in most cases, added airline costs become a huge disincentive for airlines to expand (and in some cases even maintain) air service at that airport… which could lead to fewer options and less competition (read: higher prices). In either case, travelers are ultimately paying the bill.
AR: Why has DTW decided not to provide “free” Wi-Fi?
SW: While finding a way to cover the cost of providing Wi-Fi is one thing, here in Detroit (as at many airports), we take it a step further. Much like parking, food and retail, we approach Wi-Fi as an important revenue stream. It’s not a matter of lining our pockets—we don’t make a profit and haven’t run a surplus in our 100 year history. Meanwhile, we have an incredible airfield here and two beautiful, new terminals that need to be both paid-off and maintained. We get a lot of kudos on our facilities here, and both travelers and airlines appreciate that we rarely have delays to due capacity issues at DTW. But, maintaining J.D. Power & Associates #1 Airport in customer satisfaction takes money. We have to get it from somewhere… and, for the reasons I described above… it’s incumbent upon us – for the good of the community – to generate as much revenue from non-airline rent sources as possible.
AR: How much does Wi-Fi factor into the airport making money?
SW: Wi-Fi is a tiny percentage of our overall revenue, but it’s something – and, it at minimum pays for itself. We hope it can pay us even more, because our customers enjoy the things such revenue is used to pay for (i.e., heat, hot water, clean bathrooms, working escalators, a tram that whisks connecting customers through the mile-long Concourse A in 2 min to make their connection, clear runways, top-notch safety and security systems, etc.)
AR: Why do any airports provide “free” Wi-Fi then?
SW: To that question, I refer you back to my first key point – it’s not really free. How do some airports justify increasing costs elsewhere to cover providing free Wi-Fi? That you’d have to ask other airports. But, for smaller airports, it’s often for competitive reasons. Lots of people say to me, “I can’t believe you don’t have free Wi-Fi… even the tiny LANSING airport has free Wi-Fi,” – as if to suggest that a smaller airport would be the last to offer such a service. In reality, those smaller airports need to find ways to incentivize travelers to use them (and I say “small” loosely – airports such as OAK are actually not that small, but they are the “little guy” competing aggressively for Bay Area traffic). In their case, airlines aren’t likely to serve their airport unless the airport can show that travelers demand such air service. The economics of the smaller “spoke” airports are just entirely different than hub airports.
AR: Is there anything else travelers should know about DTW?
SW: Despite being a major hub for Delta (their second-largest), and formerly the largest for Northwest, DTW has an impressive roster of other carriers. Since we became an independent Airport Authority in 2002 (which largely affected our economics in terms of a focus on lowering airline costs), we’ve added service by Frontier, AirTran & Air France… and have gained new service on Southwest, Spirit & US Airways. All of those carriers fly routes also and already flown by NW/DL, which means we’ve been able to keep the economics to these carriers good enough to take-on an established hub carrier in their own hub and not only be successful, but GROW. That’s not easy to do – look at CLE today, MSP (until very recently), EWR, etc. We’ve done it with our focus on low-cost operations. We’re not the Nordstrom of airports… we’re more like the Target of airports. People fly out of DTW because they know they’ll get great rates and good service with LOTS of options all under one roof.
Hmm, okay I guess I have to be forgiving of this. How can I say it is alright for airlines to charge fees on things, since I shouldn’t have to pay for what I do not use, when I demand “free” Wi-Fi at the airport. It might be a bit selfish of me to ask others to help pick up with bill for Wi-Fi when not everyone will be using it. Just it can be difficult to pay out $10 for airport Wi-Fi, then another $10 for Wi-Fi on the plane. Of course, no one is forcing me to pay for it.
By David Parker Brown, on August 4th, 2009 at 9:25 am
 View of a crashpad in New York A lot of people in the in the business will know what a “crashpad” is, but most on the outside might have no idea. If you envision flight attendants and pilots travelling around the world staying at the best hotels, you would might be surprised to learn that most of the time they are staying at a crashpad.
So what is an airline crashpad? As it might sound, it is a place where airline employees can stay cheaply. A lot of crew do not live where they are based. For example, in this interview, Shelby lives in Texas, but it based out of New York. This means she must make the commute from DFW to LGA and have a cheap place to “crash” while waiting for her next flight. Depending on the type of crashpad, people can have their own bed and space. Others share a bed and having almost no private space.
To learn more, I interviewed Shelby (be sure to check out her blog), who works for a major US airlines. She has been working as a flight attendant since 2001. Here is our interview:
AirlineReporter: Who stays at crashpads?
Shelby:Our Crashpad is not only shared by pilots from all airlines, flight attendants from all airlines, but also with air marshals,& maintenance folks that have been displaced by their airlines. Thank goodness we are NOT all here at the same time!
AR: How big is your crashpad?
S:My crashpad has 6 Bedrooms & four bathrooms for approximately 25 people. I’m lucky, in the “Girls Room” (we call
 Picture of the laptops. "Seriously, we can't live without them" it the “Presidential Suite”) there are only two of us & we have our own bathroom. I share with a First Officer. She and I both work for the same airline, which is nice, we speak the same airline language. We are rarely here at the same time, which means 90% of the time, I have the place to myself.
AR: Do you have to pay to use them?
S:Oh yes, you have to pay, the “Owners” of the crashpads actually prefer it! I pay $250.00 for my crashpad and this is considered a high amount to most folks I speak to. For this price I get, my own bed, Wi-Fi, Cable, maid service, and use of all the common areas (living room, kitchen, deck, back yard & grill)
AR: Do you like your crashpad?
S:I like my CrashPad, I am within walking distance to LGA,;it takes approximately 11 minutes from my front door to my airline operations. There are way better neighborhoods for crashpads here in New York, like Kew Gardens, which is pretty much like crew crashpad headquarters; it’s half way between LGA & JFK and a preferred area, however this means every time you fly in or out, it is a bus or taxi ride.
AR: For example, how much will you be at your crashpad this month?
S:This month I fly LGA to MIA for 3 days straight returning to the crashpad every night, so for August, I will stay in my crashpad 12 days. It is nice to know, when I return I know that my bed will be waiting for me!
AR: Are there any short-term type crashpads?
S: Yes, they are called “hot beds”, meaning, they are 1st come 1st serve. They can run anywhere from $20.00 per night to $175.00 per month! When they arrive they have to find a bed, make up their bed, and crawl in, all the while trying not to wake up the others sleeping around them. This is one reason I pay more. After a long day, I like knowing that I have my bed, with my sheets, in my room to crawl into.
 The nicely kept shared kitchen needs to stay clean! AR: Which was your favorite crashpad?
S: When I was based in Chicago, we stayed at the DoubleTree Suites. We had seven flight attendants that shared one suite! The hotel had a nice Gym, Pool, Happy Hour, Free Breakfast …oh and the Double Tree COOKIES!!! (which is why we needed the gym).
AR: Which was your least favorite?
S: Was when I was a new hire, all the classmates that I graduated with piled into a cheap nasty hotel… 10 of us 2 beds. “ Are you Serious??” I stayed 4 hours & left!
AR: With all those people sharing a shower, how do you work it out?
S:Since I’m lucky now & only share with one, it is not an issue. Most crash pads have signup sheets for “Shower Time”, based on what time you fly the next day. Trust me, you know your fellow crashpad
buddies. You do a lot of things in the dark & a lot of tip-toeing is going on in the wee hours of the morning.
Some other questions that some fine followers of Shelby on Twitter asked:
Who does the dishes?
If you want to make your fellow crashpaders angry, don’t clean up after yourself. You will be asked to leave ASAP! You do your own dishes!!
Who washes your sheets?
Well, If you stay at a hotel crashpad, they are usually done for you. If you live in a single family home, hopefully the owner of the crashpad has a washer & dryer and they let you use it. We don’t have
one here at our crashpad. Thank goodness we have lots of Laundromats, in our neighborhood.
Who puts the CrashPads together?
My CrashPad is run by a New York Cop! A lot of pilots & flight attendants run their own crashpads, I believe, out of years of frustration! There is this one crashpad here in New York that is affectionately called the “Sticky-Note” crashpad, because the owner is constantly putting up Sticky Notes on what NOT to do, I mean they are everywhere!
Thank you Shelby for the interview and if any of you have any additional questions, let me know and I will ask her!
By David Parker Brown, on June 30th, 2009 at 4:15 am
 Mark and his wife on an AirTran Boeing 737's wing. I wrote about Mark being on AirTran for 30 days near the begining of the his journey and wanted to catch up with him at the end of his long journey. He was able to connect while over Ohio to answer some questions I had for him:
TheAirlineBlog.com: Where are you right now (“in an airplane won’t cut it”  )?
Mark Malkoff: I’M IN THE AIR USING GOGO WIFI HEADING TO CANTON, OHIO FOR A TAILGATING PARTY ON THE TARMAC. I’M HANGING WITH THE PRO FOOTBALL HOF AND HOF LEGEND ANTHONY MUNOZ.
TAB: What is your favorite picture taken during this whole experience ?
MM: I REALLY, REALLY LIKE THE PHOTOS OF MY WIFE AND I HAVING OUR ANNIVERSARY DINNER ON THE WING OF A PLANE. AIRTRAN SET IT UP AND CATERED THE MEAL. IT WAS QUITE INCREDIBLE.
TAB: Tell me a little bit about the person sitting next to you right now.
MM: THE PERSON CURRENTLY SITTING NEXT TO ME IS MY CAMERA PERSON. HE MOST LIKELY SMELLS BETTER BECAUSE HE GETS TO SLEEP IN A HOTEL A NIGHT THAT HAS A SHOWER WHERE AS I SLEEP ALONE ON THE PLANE AND HAVE TO USE BABYWIPES IN THE AIRPLANE BATHROOM.
TAB: Who is the most interesting person you have met on this experience?
MM: IT WAS FUN SITTING NEXT TO FOOTBALL HOF LEGEND FRANCO HARRIS ON A FLIGHT TO PITTSBURGH. I LATER FOUND OUT THEY HAVE A STATUE OF HIM IN THE PITTSBURGH AIRPORT. WE TALKED THE ENTIRE FLIGHT AND HE EVEN TAPED A VIDEO WITH ME. I SHOULD ALSO MENTION THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS ARE ALWAYS GOOD TO TALK TO. THE STORIES THEY HAVE ARE ENDLESSLY ENTERTAINING.
TAB: What is the most interesting conversation you have had?
MM: FOR ME PERSONALLY IT WAS TALKING TO THE PILOTS ONE ON ONE. THEY REALLY BROKE DOWN MY FEAR OF FLYING INTO TERMS THAT HAVE FOR THE MOST PART CURED MY ANXIETY. MY MAIN ISSUE WAS TURBULENCE. ALL OF THEM SAID THE SAME KIND OF THING, “IT’S LIKE BEING IN AN OCEAN AND GOING OVER A WAKE. IT’S LIKE DRIVING OVER GRAVEL.” SO WHENEVER TURBULENCE HITS I DON’T LIKE IT, BUT I’M ABLE TO TOLERATE IT.
TAB: Do you prefer the Boeing 737 or the Boeing 717?
MM: I LIKE THE 737.
TAB: Will you ever eat pretzels ever again?
MM: I’VE CONSUMED MY WEIGHT IN PRETZELS. I THINK I MIGHT TAKE A FEW YEARS OFF FROM EATING THEM.
TAB: At this point do you have the SkyMall magazine memorized? Off the top of your head describe the Litter Robot (no cheating).
MM: I HAVE ALMOST THE ENTIRE SKYMALL CATALOG MEMORIZED. THE LITTER ROBOT I’M FAIRLY CERTAIN IS WHAT I REFER TO AS THE CAT SPACESHIP. IT WAS DEVELOPED BY NASA TO SEND CATS INTO SPACE WHERE THEY CAN NAP IN ZERO GRAVITY.
TAB: What is your favorite airline related joke?
MM: IT’S A BAD JOKE BUT MY DAD HAS BEEN TELLING PEOPLE THAT MY CAREER IS “TAKING OFF”.
TAB: This is not your first stunt like this; you lived in Ikea, lived in a Boeing, what’s next?
MM: NEXT IS A THIRTY DAY PROJECT WHERE I SLEEP IN A BED IN MY APARTMENT. I’M GUESSING IT WON’T BE AS INTERESTING.
Pretty amazing journey Mark has had over the last 30 days.
By David Parker Brown, on May 26th, 2009 at 10:01 am
This starts a new series where I will be interviewing people from different aspects of the airline industry. From pilots, to baggage handlers, to airline executives. If you have someone you would like to suggest for an interview or if you would be willing to be interviewed yourself, let me know!
 Kras Air Tupolev Tu-154M RA-85702 is climbing into a surrealistic sky. When creating each blog I try to find a picture that corresponds with the story. Sometimes this is an easy 10 second task, but most times it takes me a bit longer to find a picture I really enjoy and that fits well. A great number of times I end up wanting to use one Photographer, Thomas Becker through Flickr. I emailed him a few questions and here are his answers:
The Airline Blog: How does the airline photography business work?
Thomas Becker: For me it is no business. I am doing aviation photography and post processing as a hobby. If there was a chance to earn money with it, I would definitely take it!
TAB: What types of clients do you get?
TB: From time to time I get asked by different organizations or companies, if I am willing to allow them to use one or more of my photos. Up to now there was no “paid” contract.
TAB: How do you get the type of access you need to take great photos?
TB: Almost all of my photos were taken at Frankfurt Airport (FRA/EDDF). Fraport is offering a limited number of good photo positions for spotters. There is no need to get special access to restricted areas to get good shots.
TAB: What is your favorite airplane to photograph? What is your favorite airline?
TB: My favorite airplane is the Tupolev Tu-154 which is no longer in service to Frankfurt. The 747 is great, too, as this aircraft still is the most elegant in the sky. From a photographic point of view, S7 Airlines is my favorite one as they really stand out with their green livery followed by Vietnam Airlines with their beautiful deep blue and yellow paint scheme.
TAB: What is your funniest, scariest, most bizarre, or most thought-provoking experience during a photo shoot?
TB: Every photographer is looking for “special” occasions he can shoot with his camera. A lot of them could easily be caught on video like aborted take-offs, go-arounds due to a blocked runway or a runway change shortly before touchdown.
So, for me as a photographer I am looking for unusual situations like funny faces during short finals, smoking landings (usually freighters…) and power-ups (you should see a 777 powering up her engines…) as well as rarely seen aircraft like military or private jets. The most bizarre experience was an aborted take-off of a B747 due to an engine failure – the complete runway length was necessary to stop as the decision to abort was taken almost at V1.
TAB: Do you keep up with the airline industry news? Anything on your mind?
TB: I am reading a number of magazines and blogs that cover the airline industry. Additionally I am discovering Twitter as an efficient source of information.
TAB: Why airline photography?
TB: When living near a large airport like Frankfurt and doing photography with semi-professional equipment, two things come together that lead to airline photography automatically. It´s a great activity that helps developing photographic skills as well as finding the right motives. And it´s fun! Aviation still is a very special way of transportation that fascinates a lot of people. I am one of them.
TAB: Do you see the airline industry differently through the lens of the camera?
TB: One thing adds to another – I was always interested in the airline industry, and that was fueled by starting aviation photography a few years ago. With my photography, I try to show the most beautiful sides of this industry.
TAB: Anything else you would like to share?
TB: Those who are interested in airline photography should invest into a DSLR camera and a good telezoom lens and
remember: the first 10,000 photos will be your worst! 
TAB: I have messed with my own pics on Flickr and it can be time consuming, how do you handle the thousands you have?
TB: I have built up a work-flow within Adobe Lightroom that works very well and minimizes the amount of manual work. I am using a 24″ iMac with an additional 24″ LCD. Within Lightroom two Plugins do the work in adding geotags into the EXIF data and exporting the photos to Flickr. Jeffrey Friedl has done a great work in developing these Plugins – the latest version is able to add photos to the Flickr groups/pools upfront, so A LOT of manual work is no longer necessary.
For me tagging, geotagging and machine tags are very important as the number of photos I have posted is several thousands now. You will find my photos in a number of groups – I personally run 23 of them like “Airplanes: Nose Shots” or “Aircraft with Names”.
Flickr is so great that I cannot remember anything in my “computerized” life (that started back then in 1982 with a Commodore 64) that had a similar impact on my free time…
Please feel free to check out Thomas’ other pictures on his Flickr account.
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