Airports Develop Ways to While Away the Wait

Thanks mostly to faulty airline scheduling, a growing number of domestic and international passengers are finding themselves spending more and more time at airports.

Delays, overbookings, mechanical malfunctions and weather changes are all too frequently responsible for long, boring waits.

The good news for travelers, however, is that many airports are doing their best to make the waiting more manageable--if not enjoyable.

In Rome, airport officials are offering a free tour of nearby areas for waiting passengers.

In Singapore, guests transiting Changi Airport and who have a few hours between connections are invited to take a free city tour.

The two-hour tour leaves the airport twice each day and includes visits to Orchard Road, Chinatown, the Sri Mariamman Temple and Little India. Free refreshments are provided. Airport officials have also waived Singapore’s departure tax for any transit passengers who take the tour.

Time to Shop

Whether you take the tour or not, be sure to leave enough time for shopping--back at the airport, that is. Changi features 47 shops and nine restaurants. Also, there is one-hour photo developing, barber shops and shower facilities.

If you’re worried about the prices charged at airport shops, you’re not alone. Recently, Singapore airport authorities forced some airport vendors to sign contracts guaranteeing that they will sell their products for prices at least 5% less than in the city.

The Singapore city tour is an appetizer to something called the “Changi Connection.”

Any passenger who transits or connects in Singapore through June 30, 1988, receives a booklet of bonus vouchers offering generous discounts on hotels, shopping and sightseeing in Singapore.

“Waiting at airports is never fun,” says Lim Hock Sam, director general of civil aviation for Changi, “and our figures show that about 2 million passengers transfer or transit here each year. We want them to know that next time, instead of just stopping at the airport, they should visit Singapore.”

To encourage this, airport officials have printed 1 million vouchers and have contracted with 34 hotels to offer highly discounted one-night stays. The hotels are offered in two categories. Among those in Category A are Hilton International, Meridien, Hyatt Regency and the legendary Raffles Hotel. One-night rates are $65 Singapore (about $33 U.S.). Category B hotels run $45 Singapore each night, about $23 U.S.

Discount coupons are also offered by some airport merchants for products ranging from chocolates to perfume and sports products.

You can find one of Europe’s most complete shopping centers at the Frankfurt-Main Airport. If you have an hour or two between flights, it’s hardly enough time to visit all that the airport has to offer.

The 100-shop complex at the Frankfurt airport opens early and stays open late. There are more than 30 restaurants, two supermarkets, antique and modern art stores, and shops selling everything from smoked salmon to stuffed toy bears. You’ll also find a pharmacy, dry cleaner, locksmith and shoemaker. And a Harrods branch.

Some travelers use their airport layover periods in other, possibly more constructive ways. Some passengers landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport and connecting to or from international flights make use of the airport’s full-time dental facilities.

You can find Dr. Robert Trager in Room 2311 in the International Arrivals building at JFK. The staff at the Dental Center is multilingual and often handles dental emergencies of foreign passengers.

Sometimes the clinic will get an airphone call from a passenger on incoming planes who just lost a filling.

Preventive Dentistry

But an increasing number of passengers use the facility for preventive, rather than emergency, dental work. It’s not unusual for some regular transiting passengers to visit Dr. Trager to get their teeth cleaned.

Some airline VIP clubs have gone beyond being mere holding rooms. At Washington’s National Airport, the Eastern Ionosphere Club features an IBM computer. The British Airways Oasis lounge at Heathrow’s Terminal 4 in London features shower facilities and sleeper seats.

If you’re ever stuck at the Dallas-Fort Worth or Phoenix airports, check out something called Air Vita, a new chain of airport fitness centers. For $15 a visit (or $150 a year), you can work out with weights or enjoy a sauna or Jacuzzi. The centers also feature private sleeping rooms.

But no one sleeps during layovers at one airport--the Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates. It is, believe it or not, the second-largest transit airport in the world. And the folks who regularly transit this Arabian Gulf sheikdom come prepared.

They hit the ground running and head immediately for the airport’s duty-free shopping complex, perhaps the most intense (and inexpensive) shopping experience in the world.

The 22,000-square-foot buyer’s oasis is always active. But it hits a peak around 1 a.m. each day when a dozen planes from around the world land within a 30-minute period.

My late-night flight stopped there recently on the way to London from Asia. As I exited the plane, aircraft from Ghana, India, Ethiopia, Germany, Amsterdam, Russia, England and Singapore lined the tarmac, each unloading passengers.

Dubai is a duty-free port and the duty-free complex offers products at unbelievable prices--a liter of Johnnie Walker Scotch for $3.75, a carton of Marlboro cigarettes for $5.85 and cheap chocolates.

But the real bargains can be found on high-ticket items: a Rolex Oysterdate for $500, perfume (up to 40% cheaper than anywhere else), half a kilo of beluga caviar for $90 and gold sold by weight. There’s a special room for Cuban cigars and a fur shop where a mink coat sells for $1,800.

“We’re the best excuse for a layover,” says John Sutcliffe, deputy general manager of the complex, “and we never close.”

Some passengers choose to stop in Dubai on routes that offer alternative nonstop flights between destinations, just to come to the store.

Last year Sutcliffe’s operation sold more than $47 million worth of duty-free items, including a ton of caviar and more than 40 tons of Tobler chocolates.

But you can’t always predict buying habits during short layovers. Just last month an airplane from LOT, the Polish airline, landed in Dubai on a flight from Delhi.

The passengers rushed the store, cash in hand. An hour later the plane was almost overweight when it roared down the runway toward its destination in Warsaw.

In just 60 minutes the passengers had bought 58 videocassette players and 78 cases--yes, cases --of Johnnie Walker Scotch.