The Federal Aviation Administration reported more than 4,000 cases of unruly passenger complaints this year through August, initiating more than 700 investigations to date, compared to 183 in 2020.
Deep into a six-hour travel delay recently, as I was pondering the role of airports in aggravating travelers, I found my way to Denver International Airport's Concourse B-West and a set of new gates with floor-to-ceiling windows, modular furniture, high-top library tables with ample outlets, clear signage, no TVs and - the biggest surprise - an outdoor lounge with views west to the Rocky Mountains.
"In the U.S., we view airports as a service provided not necessarily as a civic building, whereas the rest of the world wants to view it in a city context," said Ty Osbaugh, an architect and the leader of the aviation practice at Gensler, which has designed airport terminals in numerous cities, from Pittsburgh to Incheon, South Korea. According to Airports Council International, the trade association of commercial airports in the United States and Canada, the passenger facility charge has not been raised in more than 20 years and stands at $4.50 maximum; meanwhile, airports have an infrastructure backlog of $115 billion.
The quiet airport movement
Even if travelers have to occasionally cram into an overcrowded gate area as late flights beget late flights, there's something airports can do to calm the setting: Dial the noise down.
Before the pandemic, when the airport was setting passenger records, San Francisco International rolled out its "Quiet airport" program, a noise reduction plan that has eliminated TVs in seating areas of terminals and narrowed the scope of broadcast announcements, rather than airing them terminalwide.
"We have the incredible opportunity to build one of the first terminals post-pandemic," wrote Christina Cassotis, the chief executive of Pittsburgh International Airport, in written responses to questions, noting that wellness is central to the design, which includes indoor air quality monitoring. "Natural materials can echo biophilic design without fully bringing in plants and outdoor space into the project," said Laura Ettelman, a managing partner at the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and one of the lead architects working on the new Kansas City International Airport in Missouri, now under construction and expected to open in 2023.
Humanizing airports
New airport designs increasingly acknowledge the diversity of travelers and their basic human needs.
source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/07/travel/airport-design.html
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