In the Air Again, or rather, on the ground

Further adventures. Ever notice that amid the noise and confusion of crowded boarding areas, announcements are made that strain one's ability to discern what language is being spoken much less understanding the announcement? The airlines must have some personnel who are familiar with and speak a recognizable form of American English.

Orlando, Florida's airport is lauded as one of the better airports in the United States but I don't see it. It isn't very intuitively designed. For instance, just before entering the main reception hall, ticketing is to the left and right of you. It is a very long, narrow area and if you are flying on an airline which happens to be at either end of the hall you have a long walk ahead of you. If you know your gate number, you probably have no need to be in the ticketing hall unless you have to check your baggage but you are there mainly because you need to check in. Finding the monitors could be a problem because they are just above your head as you are walking along and you don’t have room to back off and look up because of all of the passengers waiting to check in. Ironically, though, if you had gone straight into the entrance hall , bypassing the ticket counters you would have seen a huge monitor display giving you all the information you need.

Orlando has a land side and an airside building as do many other newer airports in the US. The ride from one to the other is a shuttle train. This train has windows and the ride from one building to the other is smooth and quite lovely. As you arrive at either station, you cannot tell which side to disembark from since the station, for some odd reason encases the train in metal sheathing instead of in glass as in most shuttles. When you arrive, (as well as depart) it is more like an elevator than a train..There is a lot of walking and the usual roller coaster feeling getting up to the train and then down to the service levels, although there are commodious well placed elevators which make using them very convenient.

Security (this was at noon) was bedlam. Wall to wall people. I asked a TSA officer if it was always like this and he responded “this isn’t busy.” I can’t imagine it getting worse.

Other than that, I didn’t notice anything either to its credit or detriment and wonder what all the fuss is about.I’d give it a 7 or 8.

Amarillo airport (Rick Husband Airport, formally) is the usual small town airport with a few stores and about 8 gates. Small as it is, it has one of the longest runways in the United States because it is also used by a fleet of military transports which are based there. Due to its diminutive size it is very convenient for parking, rental car facilities and for waiting. It usually isn’t crowded. They have free wifi and best of all, permanently fixed bar stools at narrow tables containing built-in electric outlets and USB ports.

Listening to some conversations, I gleaned that an entire group was traveling to Israel. They were all wearing something orange for ease of identification. It was a two week trip and this was the first leg from Amarillo to Houston. They were not scheduled to fly out till the following evening and then only to Paris where they would change planes. Seems like real torture, but maybe it was a cheap tour. I think they paid about $3800.00 per person including meals and hotels.. Also, while seated at one of the aforementioned tables and doing my thing on the internet, I noticed that the waiting area which just a few moments ago had been all but empty was suddenly filling up at an alarming rate. Usually a waiting area fills slowly, with people drifting in from other areas. This was a flood. Suddenly there were 60 or so people crowding into the area. This must have been the result of a gate change but I never did find out. I closed my computer and waited for my own flight across the hall which was just being announced albeit in an accent so thick, I couldn’t be sure whether they were canceling the flight or calling it.