There’s been a lot of coverage of NATO-related activity in Chicago, but not much about the role O’Hare Airport has played in the summit.

So the folks at the airport tallied up some of NATO-related numbers relating to the arrivals of world leaders, international delegations and foreign press:

Number of Flight Arrivals:

O’Hare private flight NATO operations: 34

O’Hare commercial flight NATO operations: 68

Estimated number of delegates through O’Hare: more than 1,300

Estimated number of people greeting/assisting them at the airport: 700+

Agencies and organizations involved: U.S. State Department, U.S. Secret Service, Illinois State Police and the Illinois Air National Guard.

They even had time to take pictures:

Czech Rep arrives at ORD

Motorcade meeting plane bearing NATO guests at ORD

(Photos courtesy Chicago Department of Aviation/kp)

Wow! Look what rolled into Denver International Airport.

“Vochol Art on Wheels” is a Volkswagen Beetle covered in the traditional bead-work of the Huichol, an indigenous culture from Mexico. 

Eight Huichol artisans covered this car in more than two million glass beads.

The exhibit will be on display in the Jeppesen Terminal at Denver International Airport through August 31.

Photos courtesy Denver International Airport

In July, when the computerized avatars begin offering automated information at LaGuardia’s Central Terminal Building, at Newark’s Terminal B and at JFK’s Terminal 5, it will be the first time the hologram-like technology will be used at a North American airport.

Other improvements to be rolled out in the next 90 days include additional (live) customer care agents during peak travel times, an expanded effort to halt taxi hustling, the installation of additional power poles to charge electronic devices and cleaner restroom facilities.

Here are some more details from the plan:

At Newark Liberty, more than 100 chairs and more than 50 tables will be added to food courts in Terminals A and B, full-time restroom attendants will be on duty in Terminal A and additional quality control visits will be made to airport stores “to ensure customers are treated fairly.”

Newark, JFK, LaGuardia (and Stewart International Airport) are now included in the free FlySmart mobile app that offers real-time flight notifications for smart phones, terminal maps and basic listings for ground transportation and concessions.

The Port Authority is also starting a “We Listen” campaign to give travelers a chance to meet with airport management.

These short-term initiatives, the Port Authority points out, dovetail with the agency’s long-term efforts to improve the infrastructure at all three airports.

It all sounds promising. Except perhaps for those virtual assistants. In the promo “AVA” says she never takes a vacation, but when I arrived at Dubai International Airport recently, the representative meeting our group said the virtual assistants that were supposed to be on duty there hadn’t been working “for quite some time.”

A new version of the free “FlySmart” app is out and this time around Clear Channel has added flight push notifications and Bing Maps to the mix in hopes that you’ll use this mobile travel app over the very popular GateGuru airport app and others on the market.

The new FlySmart app is an enhanced/improved version of SapientNitro’s goHow airport application and covers 96 U.S. and international airports, including Boston, Denver and Minneapolis, which are partner airports.

The application says it allows passengers to add ratings and feedback about restaurants, shops and services at the airport and there’s a button to rate a place and send feedback.  Actual reviews don’t yet seem to be available.

The promoted features include “Suggestions for things to do in the area,” and I was hoping for some tips on nearby outlet malls, bowling alleys or multiplex movie theaters, but all I see are very general listings of restaurants and hotels that may be – or may sort of be – nearby the airports.

Someday these apps will offer everything you need to make your way to, from and through any airport, but in the meantime I think tracking your flight with your airline and going directly to an airport’s own website is going to provide you with the most up-to-date and complete information.

(Disclaimer: One of my projects is the 50 airport guides currently on the USATODAY.com website. I update about 25 of those guides each month with information I gather directly from the airports and from my own research. [It's geeky, but I read a lot of airport newsletters.] “My” guides aren’t really competing with the automated mobile apps out there that grab general info from airport websites and add searchable maps, but I just thought you should know.)

As a Seattle gal, I’m no longer impressed – or alarmed – to find a Starbucks on every corner and in many area groceries, hardware stores and banks. But I am amused that Helsinki Airport is crowing about the fact that Finland’s first Starbucks coffee shop has opened up at the airport.

I’m far more interested in the airport’s art activities, which include a fashion gallery, a photo gallery and a design gallery.

Right now, the Design Gallery is exhibiting a variety of chairs created by Finnish designers.

The chairs aren’t just for show: passengers are allowed to sit down and enjoy “a unique moment of Finnish design and restfulness.” There are even headphones available to block out the noise of the airport.

And, over in the airport’s Fashion Gallery, there’s a catwalk where passengers can show off their travel outfits.

Heading to Helsinki? The Design Gallery is Gate 11, the Art Gallery by gates 16–17, the Photo Gallery is above gate 26 and the Fashion Gallery at Gate 31.

Photos courtesy Helsinki Airport. Coffee cups, courtesy National Archives, via Flickr Commons

According to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, indoor smoking is completely banned at 27 of the top 35 U.S. airports.

Make that 28. Well, almost.

Denver International Airport (DIA), which currently has four indoor smoking lounges, announced Friday that three of those smoking areas will be shutting down.

According to a statement from the airport, two concessionaires, Airport Lounges and Quiz-DIA, have agreed to close the three smoking lounges they currently operate by the end of the year. The fourth lounge, Timberline, operated by Smokin’ Bear, LLC, will shut down after its lease expires in 2018.

Two Aviator’s Lounges will close this year: the one in Jeppesen Terminal and the one on the B Concourse. The Jeppesen Terminal lounge will become a Jamba Juice and the B Concourse lounge will re-open as a barbecue restaurant called the Aviator’s Sports Bar.

The third lounge to be closed is inside the Mesa Verde Restaurant and Bar on the A Concourse. Mesa Verde will be remodeled to offer extra seating.

The fourth indoor smoking lounge – inside Timberline Steaks & Grill on Concourse C – will stay open until 2018.

After that: no smoking at Denver International Airport.

Here’s a link to a (long) list of other U.S. airports that ban smoking.

What do you think: should ALL airports ban smoking?

At John F. Kennedy International Airport, they’re working on it.

On May 22, 30 veterans who work at the airport for several airlines, government agencies and private security and service companies will get N.I.C.E (Neutralize Irritations Customers Experience) program training to teach them how to use skills learned in the military to help frustrated passengers at the airport.

Many other airport employees at JFK have already gone through N.I.C.E training offered by the Human Resiliency Institute based at New York’s Fordham University, which also has a special program for veterans. Now the program is tapping vets already working at the airport to use their leadership skills to help enhance customer service.

“Through our Edge4Vets program, we at Fordham have first-hand knowledge of the strong leadership strengths vets possess,” said institute director Tom Murphy. “Now we’re tapping resources offered by vets working at the airport and training them to apply their inherent leadership strengths and their ‘N.I.C.E.’ tools to help their airport enhance service.”

Murphy said the special N.I.C.E. Corps training for veterans at the kick-off event in JFK Terminal 4 Tuesday will include will include role–playing exercises in which the veterans will use the keen observation skills they’ve learned in the military to spot and come to the aid of passengers in need of assistance. Members of the N.I.C.E. Corps will also be trained to note when other airport employees go out of their way to help frustrated passengers and to document those success stories on the ‘N.I.C.E’ website.

Employees caught using N.I.C.E. skills become eligible to win a variety of incentive awards, including gift checks, meals, and hotel stays. Two veterans participating in the JFK N.I.C.E. Corps will win a fishing trip to Alaska so they can catch salmon for a salmon-bake for the whole team.

The chance of winning that fishing trip isn’t what convinced veteran Egbert Haynes, a TSA supervisor at JFK, to volunteer to be captain of the JFK N.I.C.E. Corps. “I’m from New York; when I need fish I go to the fish market,” said Haynes. “But when I heard of the program and saw the potential to recognize the good things done daily by airport employees outside of their job description, it all made sense.”

In addition to JFK, employees at Los Angeles International Airport, Pittsburgh International Airport and Manchester-Boston Regional Airport have been trained in the N.I.C.E. program.

*My story, JFK trains its workers to be N.I.C.E., first appeared on msnbc.com.

(Photo courtesy: Alexander Obst/Marion Schmieding/Berlin Brandenburg Airport)

After announcing that the planned June 3 opening date would be postponed for about three months, yesterday the airport’s supervisory board announced that the opening will now be pushed back until March 17, 2013.

The airport also announced the dismissal of the managing director for operations and construction and termination of the contract with the project management company for the airport.

On May 8, the airport company announced that the planned June 3 opening date for the new airport would be postponed due to a problem with fire safety systems at the airport. They thought they could solve that problem in three months by putting together an interim, partially automated system. But, evidently, that solution won’t work.

The plan now is to complete the fire safety and control system by December 2012 and open the airport once winter – and the potential for more headaches from adverse winter conditions – is over.

According to a statement released today,

“The Supervisory Board …followed the recommendation of the management and decided that all construction work should be completed first before the remaining necessary steps are taken that will allow the airport to commence operations. These steps entail the so-called impact and complex inspection by certified experts, subsequent inspection by the Building Standards Authority, further trial runs, designation of the airport site as a security area, and delivery of goods to storage facilities, shops and restaurants.”

And here’s a fun, short video filled with airport factoids.

The world’s busiest passenger airport is getting bigger.

Today, May 16, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport opens the new $1.4 billion Maynard H. Jackson Jr. International Terminal, named in honor of the city’s first black mayor.

“The opening of the international terminal is huge for Atlanta,” said the airport’s Aviation General Manager Louis Miller. “It gives international passengers their own terminal with its own entrance, it ends the baggage recheck process for Atlanta–bound passengers, and it enhances the airport’s overall capacity now and for the future.”

The opening of Atlanta airport’s new terminal comes on the heels of some other high-profile — and pricey — terminal openings in 2011, most notably San Francisco International Airport’s $388 million renovated Terminal 2 in April and Sacramento International Airport’s $1 billion new terminal in October.

The airport upgrades don’t stop there. Here are six more projects you may spy next time you fly:

Las Vegas

On June 27, McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas will open “T3,” a new high-tech, $2.4 billion terminal that will serve both international and domestic flights.

“Our plans for T3 include self-boarding podiums at all 14 gates, self-service kiosks equipped for customers to print and affix their own baggage tags, and a robust [free] wireless Internet system that will extend out to the ramp and allow customers to log on whether they’re inside the terminal or aboard an aircraft parked at the gate,” said Randall H. Walker, director for the Clark County Department of Aviation.

Miami

This summer, Miami International Airport will open a new federal inspection area at the North Terminal that is twice the size of the existing Concourse E facility. In early 2013, the airport hopes to have the entire multibillion dollar North Terminal project completed. “What remains to be opened are three passenger gates and five of the 10 baggage claim carousels in the international arrivals area,” said Greg Chin, communications director for the Miami-Dade County Aviation Department.

A new AirportLink Metrorail extension that will speed connections to downtown Miami is also being built.

San Diego

San Diego International Airport is halfway through a $1 billion sustainable “Green Build” expansion of its Terminal 2 that is scheduled to be completed in August 2013.

“When complete, Terminal 2 will have 10 new gates, a dual-level roadway to separate arriving and departing passengers, a large, bright concessions core and the largest airport USO in the world,” said Katie Jones, spokesperson for the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles International Airport is building a new $1.5 billion Tom Bradley International Terminal, which will include new concourse areas and gates that will be able to accommodate the superjumbo Airbus A380 airplanes.
Renovations and upgrades are also underway throughout the rest of the airport.

New York

And in New York, Delta Air Lines is spending more than $160 million to renovate Terminals C and D at LaGuardia Airport and more than $1.2 billion on John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 4. The LaGuardia project may be completed by the end of 2013; the JFK project, by spring 2013.

That’s a lot of airport-upgrade activity at a time when the economy remains skittish, fuel prices are still sky-high and airlines continue to scale back schedules.

“Airports are investing in modern infrastructure to ensure that their communities, and the companies in them, can successfully compete in an increasingly global economy,” said Greg Principato, president of Airports Council International -North America, an airport membership organization. “These facilities are an investment in our economic future.”

(My story about airport upgrades first appeared on msnbc.com)