Sleep in a Grounded 747 in Stockholm

Jumbo jet conversion to airport accommodation

Last January, I learned of a project to convert a 747 into an airport hostel at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport and wrote a post about it. I just read a piece on a neat blog called Airport Hotels, not surprisingly about airport hotels but also related subjects, that it has been completed and is operating. Look at the image on the right and click back to the ratty aircraft the developer started with.

Airport Hotels blogger Susan R. has a fascinating post not just about the Jumbo Hostel* at Arlanda but also other interesting aircraft, grounded and otherwise. She found a 727 that has been turned into a treehouse-height executive suite in Costa Rica and a plane once used by East Germany's iron-fisted Erich Honecker and now a luxury suite at Holland's Teuge Airport. Susan R. also found some futuristic flying machines and has images of all the once and future airborne wonders on her post.

*The URLs to Jumbo Hostel's English and Swedish websites (www.jumbohostel.com and www.jumbohostel.com) are not functioning right now, but you can also read about it in a profile on the Hostel.com website and see photos in article in De Zeen, a design magazine.  

RIP, Edna Strand Dercum

Max Dercum founded Arapahoe Basin and Keystone -- and Edna was more than Mrs. Max Dercum

As I drove along Interstate 70 the other day, I thought of Max and Edna Dercum when I passed the Keystone and Arapahoe Basin exits, as I always do. Both were in their 90s -- and far as I knew, were still living in the house on Montezuma Road that they occupied forever. Today's Denver Post carried Edna's obituary. She died, the paper reported, "of natural causes" on Monday, September 15 at the age of 94.

Like many pioneering women who worked side by side with their husbands, Edna was Max's helpmate, partner and soulmate. Max Dercum and Edna Strand met at Penn State, where he taught and she studied forestry. The couple moved to Colorado in June 1942 to buy an old building that had been a stagecoach stop, because Max wanted to be in the snowy mountains to ski. Their son Rolf was, at the time, three months old. When Max founded Arapahoe Basin in 1946 and Keystone a quarter of a century later, Edna was right there. They turned the stagecoach stop into the storied Ski Tip Lodge, still a popular dining place at Keystone -- even though it has lost its remote and private feeling and is now a historic island in a sea of modern condominiums and townhouses.

As a beginning skier during their courtship, Edna had trepidations about the sport. Max said to her, "It's easy, Edna, it's downhill all the way." That became the title of her autobiography, even as she became a ski racer with a wall full of medals in masters racing.

I saw the Dercums numerous times over the years, and Edna was always a warm, wonderful, welcoming woman who had time to chat. The original Keystone Mountain was renamed Dercum Mountain not long ago. I feel honored to have known them both and am sad that I will not see her again.

The Cow Is Gone.TSA Closes the Barn Door.

Thwarted terrorist attempt "inspires" new TSA regulations that border on the ridiculous

Scroll to the bottom of this post for update.
According to conventional wisdom, generals are always fighting the last war. A corollary might be that security officias are always responding to the last terrorist incident. After Robert Reid was arrested for trying to ignite explosives in his shoes, every airline passenger was required to remove his/her shoes, send them through the X-ray machine and shuffle through the metal detector. Now, following a thwarted terrorist attempt on a plane bound for Detroit, new security measures have been instituted -- perhaps at least partly as a tactic to divert public attention from the fact that the the government ignored alerts by the father of Abdul Mudallad, the 23-year-old Nigerian who tried to blow up the plane using leg bomb and a syringe, had warned. New regulations that we can all find logical reasons to debate:

•  US-bound passengers are being physically patted down during the boarding process in addition to passing through metal detectors, removing their shoes, discarding water and beverages and being restricted to 3-ounce or smaller containers of liquids in carry-ons.
•  US-bound passengers will be permitted only one carry-on and will not have access to it, either throughout the flight or during the last hour.
•  Passengers on international flights to the United States must remain in their seats for the last hour of a flight without any latptops or other personal items, blankets or pillows on their laps. (Anyone who has to use the lavatory must be escorted by a crew member.)
•  Airliner entertainment systems will no longer display real-time route maps that would indicate when the plane enters US airspace or where it is.

 The new regs remind me of parochial school (hands on your desks) or old college dorm rules when boys were permitted to visit girls' dorms (door open, all four feet on the floor). The net result of all this security zeal, in addition casing delays and ticking off passengers, is that people will be increasingly reluctant to fly. Business travelers unable to use their laptops? Parents who will not be able to hold a sleeping baby wrapped in a blanket? Cold-sensitive travelers or underdressed vacationers returning from tropical resorts who could become chilled in refrigerated aircraft cabins? There unlikely to be eager to fly again in the near future. I know I'm not, and I'm scheduled for two (domestic) trips in January.

Beyond personal inconvenience will be theimpact on the airline industry, already heard-hit by unpredictable fuel prices, the global recession and weathter-related delays.

Dec. 28 update: According to an Associated Press report called "Passengers again free to move about the cabin"on MSNBC.com, the TSA has relaxed some of the strict rules in the wake of the failed bomb attempt and given captains discretion about instituting some of them. "it was now up to captains on each flight to decide whether passengers can have blankets and other items on their laps or can move around during the final phase of flight," the report said. "Confused? So were scores of passengers who flew Monday on one of the busiest travel days of the year. On some flights, passengers were told to keep their hands visible and not to listen to iPods. Even babies were frisked. But on other planes, security appeared no tighter than usual.The Transportation Security Administration did little to explain the rules. And that inconsistency might well have been deliberate: What's confusing to passengers is also confusing to potential terrorists."

FOR SALE: Airport (Convenient to London)

British Airports Authority to sell Gatwick

I had no idea that an airport authority could sell an airport until I read the headline, "BAA puts London Gatwick airport up for sale," on a Reuters dispatch. "Some in the industry have said Gatwick, one of Europe's busiest airports, serving 35 million passengers a year, could fetch 2 billion to 3 billion pounds ($3.57-$5.35 billion)," according to Reuters. Seems to me like a bargain, considering that Bank of America is paying $50 billion for failing Merrill Lynch and the US government is supporting a bailout of AIG to the tune of $85 million. That may be good business/investment moves -- or they might be worth the provervial paper they're printed on.

But Gatwick Airport, that's a deal. Thirty-five million passengers travel through Gatwick (airport code, LGW) every year. Twenty charter and schuled airlines, including Delta, currently use its two terminals. The British Airports Authority is not selling Gatwick by choice, according to Reuters, which reported, "The sale is a response to Britain's Competition Commission, which last month said in a provisional ruling that BAA must sell three of its seven UK airports, including two of London's Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted and one of Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland.

"BAA said it disagreed with the Competition Commission's analysis, and that it would try to keep all six of its remaining airports after the Gatwick sale, adding that a change of ownership at Stansted to the north of London could interfere with the airport's expansion."

Interested parties reportedly include Richard Branson's Virgin Altlantic as part of a consortium of some sort, a German builder called Hochtief, Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport, Manchester Airports Group and Global Infrastructure Partners, a consortium that already operates London City Airport (LCY).

Portland (OR) Airport Praised

Question: Why can't more domestic airports be like PDX?

There's lots in the world of air travel for The Cranky Flier to to get cranky about. In fact, there's lots to put all passengers out of sorts, but blogger Brett just explored an airport that made him smile -- at least I think he must of have been smiling when he wrote "Five Great Things About Portland Airport." You'll have to go to his blog to get details and see images, but here are the five things he found praiseworthy:

1. Green-tastic: Dual-flush toilets for saving water in "a place that gets far more rain in a year than should be legal ."
2. Pull Up a Seat - "Big benches just past security where you can sit and recompose yourself. "
3. Be Entertained - Live music, including a pianist, offered regularly. "I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn’t in a Nordstrom store," wrote Cranky.
4. Get Online Free - Free airport-wide Internet access, plus chargers for cell phones and iPods. Free WiFi is "more and more popular around the country, but I still don’t see it nearly enough."
5. Public Transit to the MAX -"There’s nothing I love more about an airport than good public transit access, and this has to be one of the best."

Amen!

The Grinch That Stole the Ski Train

Ski Train return anticipation turns to disappointment

Call U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn the Grinch who took away hopes for the imminent return of the Ski Train Denver and Winter Park. On Wednesday, His Honor declined to issue a temporary restraining order that would have forced Amtrak to operate the Rio Grande Scenic Ski Train beginning this coming Sunday. Iowa Pacific Holdings, the new operator of the legendary train, already had some 13,000 reservations on the books, it was cautious enough to take them all by phone rather than online. I was afraid something like this might happen when train service was not heavily promoted at the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Expo back in November.

Iowa Pacific, which claims that it had an "implicit" agreement with Amtrak to provide train crews, reportedly spent $800,000 to restart the legendary train, which should be celebrating its 70th anniversary this winter. Amtrak claims that Iowa Pacific had not agreed to required insurance and indemnification terms required and that the Pacific's railcars had not yet passed Federal Railroad Administration safety certification.

Judge Blackburn agreed with Amtrak. According to the Denver Post, "Blackburn said in his written order that Iowa Pacific. . . had not demonstrated it would 'suffer irreparable injury' if the court did not issue the restraining order against Amtrak." That is mystifying, because dedicated train service to a resort base that does not operate during the absolute peak weeks of the ski season would indeed be grievously injured.

January 6 is now the earliest that Ski Train operations could begin. Iowa Pacific released a statement by VP Dan Marko that was clearly vetted by attorneys: “We appreciate the due-diligence that Judge Blackburn afforded Iowa Pacific Holdings to share our story and provide information given the forced circumstances.We recognize that this leaves the operations of the Ski Train as indefinite, and will be focused on presenting a comprehensive case in January to clear these obstacles to future operation.” Keep your fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, all customers holding reservations can receive a full refund by contacting Iowa Pacific at skitrainservice@ iowapacific.com or 877-726-RAIL.

Tough Times for Travelers

What a bad week it's been for travelers, with weather, accidents and incidents impacting holiday travel

It started with the closure of the Chunnel under the English Channel and the suspension of Eurostar service. Closer to home, snowstorms across the northern tier of the United States have been gumming up travel since last weekend, especially a week ago when flight delays were epic. United Airlines canceled about 1,000 flights, and Washington's National Airport actually closed. Snow that started in Denver yesterday (Tuesday) evening, and while Denver International Airport reportedly had well-staffed security checkpoints and fast-moving lines, delays in the Midwest impacted flight schedules here too. Then there was the American Airlines jet that overshot the runway in Kingston, Jamaica, during a heavy rainstorm. Meanwhile, Amtrak stopped operating between Philadelphia and New York for a few hours this afternoon. Let's hope that 2010 begins more auspicially for travelers than 2009 seems to be ending.