Airports that cover an extra mile

Rameshinder Singh Sandhu

The world of airports is an enthralling place for any aviation fan. Several airports around the globe are going beyond their regular role and reaching out to the community. For this, they have been organising a variety of airport tours, aviation-themed parks, and a lot more. As the industry gears up to celebrate the World Tourism Day on September 27, here’s a look at some of these airports:

Experience the operations

They give a perfect chance to experience the backstage scene, which mainly covers all operations — check-in, baggage handling, emergencies, exploring the hangars, and most intriguingly being in the airfield where buses take the visitors for taking closer note of landings and take offs. Led by experts, including former pilots, these tours are given in groups and mainly demand prior reservation.

When in transit: When you are transiting in Zurich or Frankfurt, and have many hours for the connecting flight, you can be part of their transit tours. Beginning with Zurich, a daily tour is offered which costs CHF 200 for a group of eight that lasts for 1.5 hours. In Frankfurt, the options are even more that start from Euro 7 per head and for the family of four its Euro 28. This is for 45 minutes but if you want more, you can go for their many other longer duration tours, prices of which are obviously more. And, these tours are also open to the general public. By the way, try Frankfurt’s Sunset Tours as these present the airfield in a complete new hue and steal many hearts everyday.

On the other hand, although Vancouver, Toronto and Philadelphia airports do not offer transit tours but these generally keep hosting airport tours for free from time to time. Sydney Airport also sails in the same boat but whenever it does, it sells tickets for it. The money collected is usually flown to charity organisations.

Student tours: Students aspiring to make a career in the aviation sector are usually given these tours for free by all except the Zurich airport charges CHF 125 for a class of 20. Running various tour programmes, each giving a different insight, the examples come from Canberra, Auckland, Brisbane, Toronto, Philadelphia and Washington DC’s Dulles and Ronald Reagan National airports.

Celebrate your birthday in style

Zurich, Frankfurt and Dulles give opportunity to children and their families to celebrate birthdays at one of the best view points. After the party, all participants are also taken all around the runways, which boosts their excitement. While Zurich and Frankfurt charge CHF 33 and Euro 7 respectively, Dulles puts up a complimentary show.

Special theme parks

Coming up with special parks is another great effort. For instance, in Manchester, United Kingdom, there is a park called Runway Park, along the Manchester airport, which offers best views of the action on the runways and is home to several old planes, including British Airways historic Concorde. In this plane, a 20-minute tour costing 6 pounds and one hour tour costing 20 pounds is also given with open questions round at the end.

Similarly, the Vancouver airport has Larry Berg Flight Path Park named after former CEO of the airport which also presents its visitors with best window to the airport. Interestingly, its walking paths resemble runways and taxiways of the airport in front with same markings, making you understand map of the airfield. On top of that, there is also a giant globe in the centre and one can walk over it, which unfolds the direction flights, which take to various destinations from Vancouver and the distances they cover. There are also infinite info points around to know more about this airport and its history.

Entrancingly, in both these parks, airport teams also regularly connect with the locals and tourists through live concerts, exhibitions, seminars and parties. Recently, at the flight path park, the Vancouver airport organised its annual party known as YVR Chill Out where live concert was followed by a Q and A round, where experts answered all questions on the functioning of the airport.

Humanising the environment

Exhibitions: At the San Francisco airport, the culture of organising exhibitions on various themes in passenger zones has been on since 1980. These exhibitions throw light on local traditions as well as on cultures across the world. After every few months, many new exhibitions keep coming up with the help of noted historians from across the world. That’s why, it’s called ‘airport of exhibitions’.

Dog therapy: In late 2015, the Mumbai international airport like many world airports became the first Indian airport to introduce dog therapy. Since then, some trained golden retrievers dogs are always there at the departure terminal to help stressed fliers relax. They attract not only the passengers but even the officials on hectic duties and cabin crew members. An animal trainer there says, “Within minutes, these dogs take away the stress, and if you read our feedback, you will get many proofs.”

All-Inclusive space: At Brisbane, every month a tour is given to locals with disabilities to familiarise them with special services and assistance is offered to them when they fly from here. This is to make them understand that the airport is fully prepared to host them well.

Yoga rooms: After prayer rooms, now yoga rooms are also seen at almost every airport. Be it New Delhi, London, Frankfurt or Chicago where there are endless directions that guide passengers towards a ‘yoga room’.