Skybridges at LaGuardia Terminal BJFK’s new Terminal One (rendering)Newark’s new Terminal A
Out of the multiple megaprojects that are underway, few are bigger than JFK’s Terminal 6, slated to open in the first half of next year. The team behind the $4.2 billion project invited us to join a tour of the active construction site. We loved the behind-the-scenes look at a major terminal coming together, and we came away with a better understanding of what flyers can expect once it is completed.
There will be a HUGE passenger experience boost compared with JFK’s older terminals. T6 will showcase JFK’s status as a world airport, hosting long-haul international airlines from multiple continents along with a few domestic and low-cost airlines. The building will sport plenty of high-tech features, some for the sake of improved passenger experience, and others boosting the sustainability and efficiency of behind-the-scenes operations. Importantly there will be plenty to keep people entertained, including a standout list of lounges, outposts of multiple famous NYC eateries, and some great planespotting potential.
Read on for more of what you can expect when JFK’s Terminal 6 opens in a few months.
Qatar’s oneworld 777 taxis beneath the new pedestrian bridge at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport hosted a “reveal reception” March 3 in preparation for opening its new $986 million International Arrivals Facility, which has been under construction for nearly four years.
The project’s most visible addition to the airport is a 780-foot-long pedestrian bridge over the taxiway that separates Concourses S and A. It’s the longest bridge of its type in the world, and its 85 feet of clearance allows for even the tallest of contemporary aircraft to safely pass beneath, even the behemoth 777x and its 64-foot, 7-inch tail. An airport spokesman said that the design even includes a calculated safety factor in the event a plane’s front landing gear were to collapse while beneath the bridge, which would raise the tail height even further.
A view from the skybridge
The skybridge is wide, with expansive views and a moving walkway. It’s essentially a cable-stayed bridge, and the cables were left visible. It’s this reporter’s guess that there will be much dawdling on the way to customs and immigration on sunny days, when Mount Rainier will be clearly visible from the bridge
Ryan Calkins, president of the Port of Seattle Commission, lauded the facility’s grand views and much-improved service areas as Seattle’s “front porch to the world.” Washington State Governor Jay Inslee talked about how the Seattle area had hosted refugees from Vietnam in the 1970s and from Afghanistan in the 2000s, and the new facility should open in time to greet refugees from the current war in Ukraine.
An Air Koryo Ilyushin IL-62 in Beijing, ready for boarding. Photo by Bernie Leighton.
To fly on an Ilyushin IL-62 in 2012 is not something many people would think of doing, let alone going to the lengths I did to enjoy the privilege.
On October 20, 2012 after months of planning, amounts of Euro cash that had bank-tellers convinced I was a spy; a lovely jaunt to Beijing on Air Macau and a visit to Datangshan, I was standing at the check in counter for Air Koryo in Terminal 2 at Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK). Oddly, and unfortunately for collectors of rare boarding passes, flights to Pyongyang are issued on Air China stock.
Chinese police, and politeness didn’t really allow me to capture the sight of the sheer amount of cargo the North Korean people were taking back but it was the contents I found more curious than the volume. A cursory search of the bindles and exposed boxes showed mostly flat-screen TVs and other completely civilian commercial goods.
