by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 18, 2017 | Airports, Featured, Passenger Experience |
I came across an interesting video showing research and simulations that are taking place that suggest that a circular, banked runway (Think race track style) is better, safer, and more environmentally sound.
The research is being conduct at The Netherlands Aerospace Center and several advantages are being discovered with a 360 degree runway. One being the idea that you can micro-tune approaches and departures to account for wind conditions; eliminating all those enjoyable cross-wind landings we like to watch on Youtube. The research suggests that you can have 3 aircraft departing and or arriving at the same time which would reduce congestion at major airports. Also with a circular runway, aircraft would spend less time in the air holding patterns over airports which in turn would reduce air and noise pollution near the airports.
Here is the video (Courtesy of BBC) explaining the concept along with simulator work showing the effectiveness of the idea. (PS, if any of you use X-Plane 10 or 11, there’s a circular airport that is available….and it’s a blast!).
by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 4, 2017 | Airports, FAA, Featured, Passenger Experience, Security, TSA |
According to an article published earlier today by Bloomberg, it appears that our friends at the TSA have revised their screening policies as it relates to ‘patting down’ passengers at security check points.
Citing a 2015 study concluding that more and more weapons are making it past screening procedures, the TSA has notified its officers to be more thorough when patting down passengers. Up until now, the TSA had 5 different approaches when it came to physical contact or screening of a passenger. With the new policy, that list of 5 has been narrowed to 1, and that ‘1’ is more comprehensive than the previous 5.
A spokesman for the TSA stated that passenger will ‘notice that the new pat-down is more involved’. The TSA also said that this will apply to airline crew. The TSA randomly screens a small number of ‘known crew’ passing through ‘crew security’, but that small percentage of crew being screened will be subject to the same new scrutiny as a passengers.
According to the article, the new strategy has been quietly rolled out in smaller airports over the past 2 weeks, and is now being rolled out to airports nationwide. No mention was made if this would affect ‘Pre Check’ or similar expedited security programs.
Turn and Cough……
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 17, 2017 | Business Class, Featured, Lounges, Lufthansa, Passenger Experience, Senator |
In another week or so, Lufthansa will be opening new Senator and Business Lounges at Boston’s Logan Airport (Terminal E).
The new lounge is part of a wider renovation that has been taking place in ‘BOS’ and the new lounges promise to be substantial upgrades over the previous versions.
What will be new is the fact that passengers can now board their flights directly from the lounge, similar to what is in place at airports like Washington Dulles. So you can see your A350 from your seat in the lounge!
The 6,800 square foot lounge will also introduce a new concept to Lufthansa Lounges which focuses on separate ‘Living Areas’. For example, this lounge will offer a separate Bar, Bistro, and rest areas. The view promises to be fantastic as well as the lounge will over look Boston Harbor.
