Airport El Prat

The main airport of Catalonia and the second largest of Spain is Airport El Prat (BCN).

It’s located in the municipality of El Prat de Llobregat, about 12 kilometers from Barcelona’s city center. Many international destinations are connected with El Prat.

The airport has two terminals: 1 and 2. Make sure you know from which one your plane departs, since the distance between both terminals is too big to walk. When you accidentally end up at the wrong terminal, you can take the free shuttle bus, which takes about 10-15 minutes.

From/to the airport of El Prat
A taxi between the city center of Barcelona and Airport El Prat takes about 20-30 minutes and will cost around 30 euros. Keep in mind drivers will charge €1 extra for each suitcase in the back of the car.

Another option to get to or from Catalonia’s main airport is public transport: train, airport bus, general bus and metro.

Train (R2 Norte Aeropuerto): leaves every 30 minutes from terminal 2. Tickets can be bought in the vending machine at the platform (single fare €2,20 and 10 rides for €10). The train stops at the following stations: Barcelona airport, El Prat de Llobregat, Bellvitge, Barcelona-Sants, Barcelona Passeig de Gràcia, Barcelona El Clot Aragó, Barcelona St. Andreu Comtal. Passengers traveling to Barcelona center, should get off at Passeig de Gràcia, 25 minutes from the airport.

After Barcelona, the R2 train continues its journey to final destination Maçanet-Massanes, with stops in:
Montcada I Reixac, La Llagosta, Mollet-Sant Fost, Montmeló, Granollers Centre, Les Franqueses-Granollers, Cardedeu, Llinars del Vallès, Palautordera, Sant Celoni, Gualba, Viells I Viabrea-Breda, Hostalric

Aerobus: The blue airport buses arrive and depart every 10 minutes at both terminal 1 and 2. A ticket costs €6 one way and the ride to the city center of Barcelona takes about 30 minutes.

The Aerobus direction Airport departs from the central Plaça Catalunya and stops at Supúlveda-Urgell and Plaça Espanya.
Direction city center, the airport bus stops at Plaça Espanya, Gran Via Urgell and Plaça Universitat.

Conventional bus: Slower but cheaper than Aerobus is the conventional bus L46, which departs from both terminal 1 and 2. It makes several stops at Gran Vía and afterwards at Plaça Espanya and Avinguda Paral-lel (twice). One-way tickets can be bought in the bus itself and cost €2,20.

Metro: The orange line L9 Sud connects both terminals of El Prat every 5 minutes with the metro station of Zona Universitaria (where you can change lines to metro L3). A single ticket costs €4,50 and can be bought in the vending machine before entering the platform.

The metro stops at the following stations: Mas Blau, Parc Nou, Céntric, El Prat Estació, Les Moreres, Mercabarna, Parc Logístic, Fira, Europa-Fira, Can Tries-Gornal, Torrassa (switch to metro L1), Collblanc (switch to metro L5).

Girona – Costa Brava airport

Aeropuerto Gerona (GRO) is the second biggest airport in Catalonia. The distance between the airport and Barcelona’s city center is 90 kilometers. It may not be the fastest option when Barcelona is your final destination, but when travelling to the province of Girona or Costa Brava, it is.

Moreover, for certain destinations, flying to or from Girona can be a lot cheaper than flying to El Prat – even with a bus ticket to your final destination included.

The airport of Girona – Costa Brava is very small and has only one terminal. There are no intercontinental flights departing from or arriving at Girona: by far most connections are operated by low cost carrier Ryanair.

From/to the airport of Girona
The airport is not connected by train nor metro, so your options for transport are limited to taxi and bus.

The price for a taxi to Girona center is around €28 and passengers travelling to Lloret de Mar or Platja D’Aro will have to pay between €45-50. When Barcelona is your final destination, we recommend to take the bus, since a taxi to the Catalan capital easily costs over €120.
The bus connections between Girona Airport and most touristic places around, like Barcelona, Girona and Costa Brava, are well organized.

Direct buses to Barcelona (line 604, company Sagales) are waiting outside the terminal after the arrival of the plane. A single ticket costs €16, roundtrip €25. The bus stops at Estació del Nord in Barcelona, close to the Arc de Triomf and central park Ciutadella.

Bus tickets to Girona city center (line 605 or 607) cost €2,75 (€5,25 return). The journey takes 20 minutes.

Passengers travelling to Costa Brava (Lloret del Mar, Tossa de Mar, Malgrat de Mar, Santa Susanna, Pineda de Mar, Calella de la Costa, Sant Pol, Canet, Arenys de Mar, St. Vicens de Montalt, St. Andreu de Lavaneres) can take the Sagales bus that connects the airport with south of the Costa Brava.

Sagales also offers the line Girona Airport – Figueres – Empurirabrava – Roses.

Reus Airport – Tarragona (Costa Dorada)

The smallest of the three main airports in Catalonia is Reus, 100 kilometers south of Barcelona. For passengers traveling to Tarragona, Salou or Theme Park PortAventura, Reus Airport is the closest option.

Like Girona airport, no intercontinental flights depart from or arrive at Reus. The airport has only one terminal, just two shops and most of the flights are operated by Ryanair. In general, direct flights to and from Reus are cheaper than El Prat.

From/to Reus Airport

There’s a bus (line 50) from Reus Airport to Reus city center (Plaça de la Llibertat), with stops at Renfe train station and the bus station. From here you can travel to other destinations.

When traveling to the Costa Daurada (Cambrils, La Pineda, Salou or Vilaseca), you can also take a direct bus from bus company Bus Plana outside the terminal. Departure times coincide with flight arrivals.

When Barcelona is your final destination, we wouldn’t recommend to fly to/from Reus Airport, since the connection between Reus and Barcelona city center isn’t ideal. There’s a direct bus (Hispano Igualadina) that goes to Barcelona’s main train station Sants, but it takes quite long and we’ve heard from several people it didn’t show up at the scheduled time.

You can opt for the train between Reus and Barcelona, but keep in mind the Reus train station is located 10 km from the airport. The journey between the train station and Barcelona (Sants) takes 1.30 hours.

This Guest Blog was provided by Things To Do in Barcelona 

So for our last news round-up, these are the headlines:

• No end in sight for Chile airport strikes
• Over 500 flights cancelled at Denver International Airport
• Pop group mistaken for sex workers at LAX

Yahoo! News reported that ten of Chile’s airports remained closed on Saturday as striking workers tied to the civil aviation authority and officials failed to reach an agreement, with the outlook for Sunday not looking much better. The article further outlined that LAN, Chile’s flagship airline and part of LATAM Airlines, has already been forced to cancel 200 domestic flights in the three days since the strikes began, the company said. The work stoppage, which was initially set to only last 48 hours, has already stranded thousands of passengers in the run-up to the Christmas holiday. Luckily flights were still being operated to and from the capital, Santiago (SCL), and the cities of Iquique, Antofagasta, Calama, Temuco and Punta Arenas.

In the United States the Denver Post reported this week that Denver International Airport (DEN) has canceled about 500 flights Tuesday morning and hundreds of other flights have been delayed on average nearly four hours, officials say. There a snowstorm dropped 7.7 inches (19.5cm) of snow […] according to the National Weather Service. Gusting winds and reduced visibility added to the delays. The average delay for departures was nearly four hours according to a spokeswoman.

And – for our very last news item – a bit of gossip from Los Angeles. There, according to Rocketnews24, awkwardness broke out at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) when the members of up-and-coming K-Pop group Oh My Girl were detained on suspicion of being sex workers. According to a statement from the group’s label, WM Entertainment, US customs officials got the idea after searching through the girls’ costumes and props. It’s actually quite surprising since, according to several videos of Oh My Girl stage shows, they tend to be rather conservatively dressed compared to other K-Pop offerings, the article argued.

That’s all for this week, for 2015 and in regards for airport news reviews on LateDeparture.com – probably for ever. We’ll be back with other interesting posts in 2016 though. Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to all our loyal readers and of course SAFE TRAVELS!

[Title photo “LAN Airlines Boeing 787-8 CC-BBE FRA 2014-06-09” by Konstantin von Wedelstaedt – http://www.airliners.net/photo/LAN-Airlines/Boeing-787-8-Dreamliner/2459220/L/. Licensed under GFDL 1.2 via Commons.]

• UK delays airport expansion decision until mid 2016
• Chinese airport fire fighters foam the wrong plane
• Who owns these three 747s parked in Kuala Lumpur?

Well the first story is also the one with the greatest implications for travellers. Maybe not this week, but certainly in the near future due to ongoing capacity constraints. We’re of course talking about the United Kingdom’s decision on whether to expand London Heathrow Airport (LHR) with a 3rd runway. What decision you say? Correct, the decision should have been made last week already but then this week we heard via The Wall Street Journal that the U.K. government on Thursday said it was putting off a decision on where to expand airport capacity in the London area until the middle of 2016, pending further study of environmental impacts.

The Airports Commission, a government-appointed independent panel, this year recommended the city’s primary airport, Heathrow, be allowed to build a third runway over rival proposals that included a second runway at Gatwick, to the south of the British capital. Expanding either airport would be one of Britain’s biggest infrastructure projects. The Airports Commission said expanding Heathrow could cost £17.6 billion ($26.7 billion). Adding a second runway at Gatwick would cost only £7.1 billion, it said, but deliver fewer economic benefits.

There sure were quite a lot of reactions to the governments in-action. The Financial Times for example wrote that the reaction from business was withering. John Longworth, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said companies would see it as a “gutless” move. The Institute of Directors said business leaders were “tearing their hair out” at the further delay, while the EEF manufacturers’ group said industry was “fed up and dismayed by the continued excuses and political dilly-dallying”.

Moving on to China where we heard about a rather bizarre incident this week: CBS News reported that when crew members of a passenger plane reported sparks coming from an engine while taxiing at an airport in southern China, eight fire trucks responded within minutes. Then they covered the wrong plane with white foam. The mistake at the Fuzhou city airport (FOC) Thursday was quickly amended and the firefighters turned their attention to the correct plane, but the other one – with passengers aboard – was delayed 10 hours and the entire incident delayed 30 flights, the airport said in a statement. That surely classifies as a late departure!

And finally to our favourite story this week. It all started quite innocently on Tuesday when Malaysia Airports (Sepang), the country’s main airport operator that also manages Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) put out a notice in the classifieds of a local newspaper to trace the owner of three Boeing 747 aircraft. According to the Malay Mail Online the ad read “If you fail to collect the aircraft within 14 days of the date of this notice, we reserve the right to sell or to set off any expenses and debt due to us under the said Regulations”. It also included registration numbers linking the aircraft to Iceland. LateDeparture’s own investigation showed that the aircraft, however, were no longer registered in Iceland. More and more media outlets broadcasted the story as the week continued.

Then on Friday The Star, that same local newspaper where the initial notice was published, reported that the ‘missing’ owner of the planes had come forward claiming that the company has been in contact with Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) on a “consistent basis”. Swift Air Cargo chief executive officer Captain Blue Peterson told The Star Friday that the three Boeing 747s that were featured in newspaper advertisements on Dec 7 belonged to the company. He said  Swift has been the owner of the three aircraft since June 8 this year. “MAHB knows this for we have been in many meetings with them about the aircraft.”

When contacted yesterday by the newspaper, MAHB responded via e-mail: “As we have mentioned before, the issuance of our notice was a legal process for debt recovery. Up to this point, the claims of ownership could not be satisfactorily verified. We urge the rightful owner to furnish us with the required information for verification.”

To be continued – we are sure!

That’s all for this week – safe travels!

[Title graphic of Heathrow’s proposed 3rd runway via Daily Mail]

• Chennai’s flooded airport
• Economics of aviation capacity
• Flights grounded at Dublin Airport due to storm
• Airbus plans to change how we board planes

It was on Wednesday when we first heard of this story from India, reported in the Economic Times: With no end to rains in Chennai and water logging on the runway, the Airports Authority of India has suspended operations in the city’s airport until noon on Sunday.
Chennai airport (MAA) is closed since Tuesday night. The authority had initially suspended operations until Thursday morning, but after a review it decided to extend it to Sunday, said a senior AAI official, who did not want to be named. On Wednesday, the AAI evacuated about 1,500 passengers, who were stuck at the airport. “People could not leave because the road outside the airport is submerged in knee-deep water. We have arranged for six buses to evacuate passengers,” said the official.

Yesterday then India Today reported that domestic passenger flight services from Chennai airport is likely to begin from 6AM Sunday as the water level has receded considerably. Decision on resumption of night services at the airport will be taken on Sunday, officials of Airports Authority of India said. While flood water has receded from the main runway, a large part of the airport is still submerged.

Moving on to a different story that we found in The Economist this week, titled The economics of aviation capacity – do hub airports boost growth? The story was timed to coninside with the expected decision from the UK’s Conservative government in regards whether or not to build a 3rd runway at London Heathrow Airport (LHR). As with pretty much all stories from The Economist this one is well explained and comes with a strong opinion towards one side. Basically the news magazine suggests that the additional economic benefits of a city having direct links to lots of destinations has been overstated, compared with just adding more capacity. It certainly is an interesting read and if the author is right, the British government will go ahead with the LHR expansion.

Over to Ireland where this week wasn’t the best for travellers as the Standard reported that  UK and international flights have been cancelled from Dublin Airport (DUB) because of grim weather conditions. Storm Desmond has swept northern areas of the UK and Ireland, with the Met Office issuing flood warnings across the country. In a statement on its website, the airport said: “A number of flights have been cancelled as a result of strong winds caused by Storm Desmond. Among the grounded flights are scores of RyanAir services.

And to finish off the week – we found an exciting ‘future of airports’ story. This time it came from Business Insider via Yahoo! Travel: Airbus has just been granted a patent for a wild new way to try to speed up boarding on planes:

[Drawing from Airbus via United States Patent and Trademark Office]

Here’s how it works. On normal planes, passengers line up to board and shuffle in one at a time. It’s inefficient and pretty time-consuming. The plane manufacturer Airbus thinks it has a new way of doing things — and it requires a revolution in plane design. Airbus suggests detaching the passenger cabin altogether, instead loading passengers in a specially designed bay in the airport. Once fully loaded, the plane can taxi into the bay, ready to receive its passengers. The passengers can then be lowered into place — like an articulated truck, or a shipping container — and the plane is good to go. As soon as the compartment is removed, a plane would be ready to make another flight, with no need to wait for cleaning or luggage unloading. It would also make it easy for any plane to carry freight cargo when required.

What do you think, will this become reality one day?

That’s all for this week – safe travels!

[Title Photo “Chennai airport front view” by User:Tshrinivasan – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.]

• Heathrow protest blockades tunnel to airport
• Busy Thanksgiving travel season in the USA
• Celebrities to evade fans and photographers at LAX
• Amsterdam’s airport robot

This week wasn’t a good one for travellers to and from London Heathrow’s terminal 1, 2 and 3. As The Telegraph reported five people have been arrested after anti-airport expansion activists blockaded a tunnel leading to Heathrow Airport (LHR). The protest, held on the day Parliament is due to debate airport expansion in the UK, left long tailbacks to terminals 1,2 and 3. The long-awaited final report of the Airports Commission, which will present the findings of an inquiry into Heathrow expansion, is due to be debated in the House of Commons.

Massive gridlock outside #Heathrow due to anti-third runway protesters. Total chaos. pic.twitter.com/6OaBcFEoLZ

— Mike Butcher (@mikebutcher.bsky.social) (@mikebutcher) November 26, 2015

It’s the Thanksgiving weekend in the USA which always means masses of people travel around the country leading to guaranteed delays. This week the New Jersey news website NJ.com published an article about the general time it takes planes taxiing. It reported that airplanes spent 23 minutes and 32 seconds, on average, taxiing between gates and runways during the first nine months of the year. That’s the longest it has been since the Bureau of Transportation Statistics started tracking taxi times in 1995 and a 50-second increase over last year’s average. The website argues that the creep in taxi times is attributed to a series of changes: massive runway construction projects at some of the nation’s busiest airports; schedule changes that increase the number of flights at peak hours; and new, distant runways that relieve congestion but require more time to reach.

We’re staying the the USA for our next article where The New York Times reported that soon celebrities coming through Los Angeles International airport (LAX) will be able to avoid the paparazzi — and security lines, the long walk to gates and contact with autograph-seekers — now that a plan has been approved to set up a private lounge for the rich and famous. Under the proposal, approved on Thursday by the Board of Airport Commissioners, a security firm that caters to the 1 percent will turn an old cargo facility into a special lounge for those who can afford it, to open as early as next spring. For a fee that will most likely run to about US$1,800 per trip, a movie star, sports legend, diplomat, business magnate or regular private citizen who craves privacy will be able to enter through a private gate, avoid the infamous airport traffic, and wait far from the crush of people at the central terminal of the airport.

And for our last story this week we go back to Europe. There Forbes reports that airports have been experimenting with technology to better help transiting passengers for the last few years in an effort to cut down on paid staff while maintaining some degree of customer service.  One of the most recent innovations revolves around virtual assistants, either through a remotely-staffed help desk or through an automated hologram such as at London Luton airport (LTN). Now, researchers are taking the virtual assistants mobile. Called SPENCER (or socially situation-aware perception and action for cognitive robots), the technology combines a digital help desk with advanced spacial detection tools, allowing the robot to both interact with travelers and navigate through a busy airport. A product of 36 months of work, six universities and  €4.2M of funding, the earliest public-facing stage of SPENCER is slated for testing in Amsterdam’s Schipol airport (AMS) starting on November 30th. Watch the YouTube video below for more details about the program:

That’s all for this week – safe travels!

[Title photo by @MikeButcher via Twitter}

We doubt anyone would complain much about extra security checks at European airports. USA Today wrote that strict controls were implemented on roads, rail and sea port border crossings into France, as well as at airports. Long lines could be seen at Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris (CDG) as fliers awaited security checks amid patrols by armed soldiers. That airport, and Paris Orly airport (ORY), warned travelers to expect delays due to extended border checks.

Tensions were high even outside of France: CNN reported that a Frenchman allegedly trying to discard a gun prompted the evacuation of one of two terminals Saturday morning at London’s Gatwick Airport (LGW). The incident came a few hours after the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, and the timing, police said, increased the level of concern. Police said they were called to the airport around 9:30 a.m. Saturday after a man was seen discarding a “suspicious article.”

Then over in the Netherlands an Air France flight was grounded in Amsterdam after somebody made threats over Twitter to blow it up, the Daily Mail reported. All passengers were evacuated from flight AF1741 from Schipol airport (AMS), which was due to land in Charles de Gaulle in Paris on Saturday afternoon. Security officials searched the plane with sniffer dogs after an account named @JihadiJohn8 said the jet would be blown up in the same way as the Russian plane leaving Sharm el-Sheikh last month. All passengers were disembarked and the plane searched with dogs. Nothing was found and the flight left for Paris with a 2-hour delay.

There surely will be further delays due to additional security checks well into the new week in Europe and some other airports around the world. So, if you fly this week, add some extra time.

We won’t be writing a news update next week as we’re taking a week off, but we’ll be back the week after. That’s all – safe travels.

[Illustration ‘Piece for Paris’ by Jean Jullien]

• Bali’s volcanic delays
• London’s fog is back
• Police standoff halts landings in San Diego
• Sydney’s lost baggage auction

It’s an on and off situation currently with Bali’s Mt Rinjani spewing ash into the flight paths of Bali bound aircraft. Just yesterday ABC News reported that Virgin Australia and Jetstar have cancelled their Saturday flights between Bali and Australia […]. It was more positive on Thursday when Sky News reported that Bali’s airport Ngurah Rai International (DPS) has reopened to the relief of stranded passengers, but authorities are closely watching the wind conditions that have blown volcanic ash into the busy flight path. In the same article a Brisbane traveller was asked what he would do after being delayed, he responded: ‘Play pool and have a few Bintangs.’ Not the worst plans, if you ask us.

Monday wasn’t a good day for the United Kingdom in terms of flight delays. That’s because Heathrow airport (LHR) said it had cancelled 122 flights, according to the BBC. London City (LCY) was closed to all flights for several hours, while other affected airports include Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast, Leeds Bradford and Cardiff. The reason? Fog over parts of England and Wales. The problems in the UK are being compounded by foggy conditions in much of western Europe, with major hubs such as Amsterdam’s Schiphol (AMS) also badly affected.

We also saw delays in San Diego this week, however, the reason was man made here. Literally. According to USA Today a standoff between San Diego police and a gunman who was firing rounds at officers Wednesday forced a halt to landings at San Diego International Airport (SAN), authorities said. Federal News Radio wrote further that the standoff lasted more than five hours. Titus Colbert, 33, walked out of the complex after tossing “multiple weapons” out an apartment window, San Diego Police said. The apartment building is under the airport’s approach path, and planes swoop low near the neighborhood before landing. Planes were allowed to depart from the airport, but many departures were affected because of the lack of incoming flights. In the end, about 30 arriving and departing flights were cancelled and another 30 or so were diverted to other airports, said a FAA spokesman.

Have you ever wondered what happens to all that unclaimed lost baggage a large airport must accumulate over time? Well, in the case of Sydney Airport (SYD) these things go under the hammer in a public auction. The Daily Telegraph wrote this week that designer clothes, a mini Mercedes Benz kids’ car and even an entire Canon 5D MkIII camera kit — worth upwards of $5000 — have been handed in by staff or other commuters, never to be claimed by their rightful owners. They are all set to go under the digital hammer next week in a series of online auctions through Pickles Auctions in Sydney, with proceeds going to a variety of local charities. The auction commences this coming Tuesday. Details including the list of items up for auction can be found here: www.pickles.com.au/general/promotions/-/content/lost-property

[Title Photo Credit of Mt Rinjani in pieceful times: w3i_yu via Compfight cc]

• Plane caught fire at Florida airport
• Crash-landing at South African airport
• Passenger jet hits airport walkway in Mexico
• Star Wars at Changi Airport

The most dangerous incident at any airport this week happened in the United States, more precisely in Florida. According to Business Insider a passenger plane caught on fire Thursday at the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL). The plane was a Dynamic Airways Boeing 767.

DEVELOPING: We're monitoring reports of a plane fire at Ft. Lauderdale airport — LIVE COVERAGE on Ch. 2 in minutes pic.twitter.com/o4gN8c21AT

— WSB-TV (@wsbtv) October 29, 2015

CNN precised the incident by saying that the engine of a Boeing 767 carrying 101 people caught fire as the plane taxied for departure Thursday at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida. It was bound for Caracas, Venezuela. Seventeen people were taken to Broward Health Medical Center, according to a spokeswoman there. Among those transported were a child and a trauma patient. Two of the 17 had been treated and discharged as of Thursday evening.

Then the Guardian reported that a British Airways-badged passenger jet is stuck on a runway in South Africa after its landing gear collapsed on arrival. According to the article Flight BA6234 became stuck on the runway at O.R. Tambo international airport (JNB), near Johannesburg, after touching down from its cross-country flight from Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, at about 12pm [on Monday]. All 94 passengers and six crew were evacuated safely to the terminal building. There were no injuries, the airport said.

Embarrassing news reached us from Mexico this week:

https://twitter.com/vargasmoni/status/659204804418342912

According to the Daily Mail the Interjet aircraft was being towed from its hangar to take up position at the terminal when it crashed into the passenger transporter. Staff wearing high visibility jackets can be seen surveying the damage at Mexico City International Airport (MEX). The cockpit of the plane suffered the most damage as the nose was dragged underneath the walkway causing damage to the top. It is not known if anyone was injured in the incident, although it is believed there were no passengers on board the aircraft.

And – to finish off the week – some exciting news for all Star Wars fans: The X-Wing and TIE fighter from popular sci-fi film series Star Wars will be landing at Changi Airport (SIN) on Nov 12, reported The Star. The life-sized X-Wing will be set up at Terminal 3, while a scale model of the TIE fighter will stand tall at Terminal 2. Both will be located in the terminal’s public areas. While the displays will be up at the airport until Jan 5, a one-off launch parade will be held on Nov 12 to mark the aircraft’s unveiling. Fans can expect to see Imperial Stormtroopers as well as starfighter X-Wing pilots face off in a show at Terminal 3 that day from 11.30am onwards.

That’s all for this week – safe travels!

[Title photo from @chrisdick via Twitter]

• Death I: British woman dies in Turkish airport
• Death II: Man dies on flight to Dublin
• Death III: Woman dies on plane at Auckland airport
• Airport greets arriving passengers with an adult movie

First up on Monday we heard a bizarre story through the Daily Mail reporting that a former BBC journalist was found hanged in a toilet cubicle at a Turkish airport. Jacky Sutton, an international development worker, was found dead at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport (IST) after missing a connecting flight to Erbil in Iraq. After early suspicions of foul play and after being granted access by Turkish Police to a dossier of evidence on Ms Sutton’s death, her family say they are satisfied no other parties were involved in her death, quoted ABC News on Friday.

Then, one day later on Tuesday the Daily Mail reported of a man dropping dead after biting a fellow passenger onboard an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin. The flight from Lisbon was forced to divert to Cork Airport (ORK) after the man became agitated and violent and had to be restrained. The post-mortem exam is to be carried out in an attempt to establish if the man suffered some form of a seizure or had an underlying medical condition or if there was another reason for his condition.

Death number 3 this week occurred in New Zealand: There the NZ Herald reported that an 81-year-old Fijian woman who died of a suspected heart attack at Auckland International Airport (AKL) this morning was in “good spirits” when a family member dropped her off. The woman, whose name has not been released, was returning home to Fiji after spending a few months visiting family in New Zealand, Auckland Police sergeant Peter Hunia said. The woman was sitting on board Fiji Airways flight 430 to Suva, which was scheduled to take off at 7am, when her breathing became laboured. Cabin crew alerted the airport’s emergency services team, Police and St John. Medics removed the woman from the plane and took her to an airport terminal where they attempted to recover her for about an hour. She died at the scene about 8am, he said. The plane left for Fiji at 8:15am.

To finish the week, we’re thankfully moving to a lighter subject. According to USA Today arriving passengers got an unexpected surprise at the checked luggage carousel at Portugal’s Lisbon Airport (LIS) earlier this week. An X-rated film began playing on the TV screens in the baggage area in the wee hours of Monday morning, leaving little to the imagination for travelers standing nearby. One of the passengers decided to capture the incident on video and posted the clip to social media. In the video, surprised passengers – some laughing – point to the screen while the graphic adult film plays in the carousel area. The video played for “several minutes” around 3 a.m. Monday morning,” Yahoo! News reports. A Lisbon Airport spokesman confirmed the incident to Yahoo!, saying “a TV was tuned (without sound) to a Portuguese generalist channel (this is not a porn channel), which at the time ran a soft porn movie. The situation was corrected promptly. There were no complaints. We will ensure that these situations are not repeated.”

That’s all for this week – safe travels!

[Title photo: “Ataturk Airport overview Karakas” by Ercan Karakaş – http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6225683&nseq=92. Licensed under GFDL via Commons.]

• Computer glitch causes frustrations to U.S. travellers
• Gatwick hits back at Heathrow
• Singapore Airlines plane nose collapses
• Abandoned airports in pictures

This was probably the biggest news of the week – at least in terms of how many travellers the delay affected: Time wrote on Wednesday that a malfunction with computer systems at airports [U.S.] nationwide caused frustrated travelers to spend hours stuck customs lines. Apparently the problem was with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) system that checks passenger names against the country’s terror watch lists with airports such as John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York (JFK), Boston’s Logan International (BOS) or Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta (ATL). Officials told NBC News that the system was back up 2 hours later.

The bitter fight between rival airports London Gatwick (LGW) and London Heathrow (LHR) continued this week. The Telegraph wrote that in a letter from Sir Roy McNulty, the chairman of Gatwick, to Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, the airport claimed that statements made by Sir Howard about Heathrow air pollution were “frankly astonishing”. In a veiled reference to the Volkswagen scandal, he warned that a third Heathrow runway would create “millions more car journeys” and that “it is hard to see how this will actually improve air quality – particularly in the light of recent revelations about car emissions”. Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to decide by the end of the year whether to approve the Heathrow runway. With a Government decision weeks away, Gatwick is mounting an increasingly vocal campaign to unpick the Commission’s findings.

Moving to Asia where this week we saw a picture that put a shiver through our spines:

@FlyerTalk @SingaporeAir nose breakdown at #changi #plane #singapore #accident hope no one is injured pic.twitter.com/jZspOREGZV

— Arno (@noar85) October 11, 2015

The Singapore based newspaper Straits Times wrote that a Singapore Airlines plane was seen lying awkwardly on its front end at Changi Airport (SIN), after the aircraft’s nose gear retracted on Sunday morning. According to an SIA spokesman, the Airbus A330-300, which had been undergoing a landing gear system check, was at a gate at around 8am when the incident happened. “Maintenance work was being carried out to rectify a defect, and the gear retracted during the subsequent system check,” said the spokesman. “There were no passengers or crew on board at the time. One engineer who was on the aircraft was not injured.

And – to finish the week off – we found a nice little article in The Guardian that portraits abandoned airports from around the world. Yes, some of our favourites, like Ciudad Real airport in Spain (CQM) or good, old Berlin Tempelhof (THF) are among them.

That’s all for this week – safe travels.

[Photo manipulated with https://snorpey.github.io/jpg-glitch/ based on a picture from Flickr: jaydon34 via Compfight cc]