New Tokyo Air Terminal Offers Special Services

Terminal 2, the new wing of Tokyo’s Narita Airport, is scheduled to open today after controversy and numerous delays, but it brings improved services for visitors traveling on the 32 airlines that will call it home. Begun four years ago and costing about $1.4 billion, the new terminal will ease the burden on overcrowded Terminal 1, which services some 22 million passengers annually and was anticipating aircraft traffic increases of 54.4% between 1991 and 2000. The new wing has been assigned approximately half of the passenger load; the remainder will continue to flow through Terminal 1, which opened in 1978. Amenities in Terminal 2 include easy access to the JR Narita Express rail service between the airport and downtown Tokyo, plus rest cabins for travelers who want to take naps, public showers and a family service lounge. Construction of the new wing was stalled on several occasions by farm-family landowners in the area and by environmental groups, both of which opposed airport growth. Airlines that will use the new terminal include Japan Airlines, All Nippon, Delta, Continental, Air New Zealand, Qantas, Thai Airways, KLM and Malaysia Airlines. The new terminal will be linked with Terminal 1 by an automatic shuttle service.

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Travel Quiz: What Chicago-based airline is co-sponsor and namesake of the new sports arena that will be home to the NBA’s Chicago Bulls and NHL’s Blackhawks?

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Easier to Aspen: Skiers to Colorado’s western resorts should check out the new $490-million stretch of I-70, which begins about 60 miles west of Vail and continues to Glenwood Springs. The four-lane, 12-mile stretch, which took 12 years to build, replaces a narrow, winding two-lane road and offers a time savings of, for example, from 30 minutes to 1 hour between Denver and Aspen.

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Yet Another Use for ATMs: Tourists visiting Hawaii now have access to a new kind of enhanced automated teller machine that assists travelers in making restaurant and car rental reservations and other arrangements--in addition to distributing cash. The new ATM, called the “PLUS Travel Center,� is operated by the Bank of Hawaii and can be found at the main entrance to the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel and, by early 1993, will be at the Outrigger Waikiki Hotel. The enhanced ATMs are part of a multi-state test, now also in Phoenix and New Orleans, being conducted by the PLUS international ATM network. At the Sheraton, it enables travelers to make reservations at Sheraton restaurants, speak by an attached telephone with either the hotel’s local operator or its national reservations service, make travel-related arrangements through the hotel’s travel service, contact Bank of Hawaii’s 24-hour Customer Service Center or receive a free map of Waikiki.

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What a Racket: Now’s the time to think about next summer--and those coveted Wimbledon Centre Court seats for the June 21-July 4 event. A lottery to be drawn early next year gives fans a good chance of getting a Centre Court ticket for the last four days of play. To join the lottery, write for an application form, enclosing a self-addressed envelope and one International Reply Coupon, to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Church Road, London SW19 5AE, England. Forms must be returned by the end of December. Another way to get tickets for Centre Court, says the British Tourist Authority, is to book an inclusive tour package, available through: NAA Events International, (404) 325-7995 (the tournament’s official tour operator in North America); Peter Curtis Sport Travel, (800) 362-6743, and Steve Furgal’s International Tennis Tours, (800) 258-3664.

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Quick Fact: The new Pittsburgh International Airport, which opened Oct. 1, is requiring all retail tenants to charge the same prices in the airport as they do in nearby malls. Could this signal an end to the $5 airport hot dog?

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More Discounting Predicted: Domestic travel is headed for another year of discounted air fares, hotel package deals and modest (5%) growth, according to the annual Travel Outlook Forum meeting sponsored by the U.S. Travel Data Center, the Travel and Tourism Research Assn. and the Travel Industry Assn. of America. Suzanne Cook, executive director of the data center, predicted Americans will travel more in 1993 than they did this year, but they’ll spend less money and continue taking shorter trips. Cook and others who track travel trends believe that such discounting will continue as long as the economy is weak.

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French Guide: To help travelers plan ski vacations, the French Government Tourist Office is offering a free guide to the French Alps. The 32-page brochure has articles describing 15 ski resorts in three departments of the Northern French Alps--Savoie, Haute Savoie and Dauphine--and will include charts listing the base elevation, vertical drop, number of lifts, cost of lift tickets and average hotel rates for each resort. For a copy, write the French Government Tourist Office, 610 Fifth Ave., New York 10020.

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Hong Kong Haunts: The Hong Kong Tourist Assn. is offering a free brochure describing the contents of 16 local museums, including the Museum of Chinese Historical Relics, a showcase for Chinese paintings and handicrafts; the Tsui Museum of Art, containing more than 2,000 Chinese antiquities, and the Fung Pin Shan Museum, which has the world’s largest collection of bronze ware dating back to the Yuan Dynasty. For a copy of “Museums,� contact the Hong Kong Tourist Assn., 10940 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1220, Los Angeles 90024-3915, (310) 208-4582.

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Comparatively Speaking: Ten most expensive U.S. cities for business travelers, ranked by per-day costs: New York, $297; Washington, $248; Honolulu, $238; Chicago, $215; Boston, $197; San Francisco, $194; Atlantic City, $191; Los Angeles, $190; Anchorage, $167; Philadelphia, $161. (Source: Runzheimer International.)

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Quiz Answer: The new arena, to open in 1994, will be called the United Center, after United Airlines.