which us airport is the best?

As a further point of interest MCO also suffers more from ‘PPL wants to play with the big boys’ syndrome

Interseting you mention that. It costs $15 (or did two years ago) to land at MCO which is about the same as Leicester Airport!
I think most use, I think its 18R where as the jets use 18L or the one over Terminal B side in the case of Delta, Virgin, Southwest etc. Should be fairly out the way here but I suppose may cause a few problems with the approach.

Originally posted by mikeconnell
But my favourite will always be CMH because that’s where I first met my wife.

Mike

Just a bit of useless trivia about Columbus is the airports identifier stands for C olumbus M aintenance H angar.

Some of my favorites:

IAD (Washington-Dulles)- awesome modern airport layout with plenty of international wide-bodies. I don’t care for the People-Movers you must ride to get from concourse to concourse though.

DCA (Washington National)- a bunch of great close in views of landing and departing traffic from both inside and outside the airport. Flying in and out of this airport gives you one of the most unique views of any big city. It also has great terminal that’s nearly all glass facing the runways giving you a great view of the operations and the Washington monuments/buildings.

LGA (New York LaGuardia)- the airport is a nightmare on the ground but the views coming in are awesome of Manhattan island. The visual approaches up both the Hudson and East Rivers are tops! ATC clears you to fly to the Statue of Liberty and fly up the Hudson River. The normal response is “To the lady, up the river.” 🙂 Those controllers are some of the hardest, if not THE hardest, working controllers out there. It’s amazing the amount of traffic inbound and outbound they can move with only 2 ruways that intersect. It makes me nervous just watching it.

ATL (Atlanta Hartsfield)- great airport and terminal layouts. If you’re lucky enough to get stuck in a line of departing airplanes on the north runways (26L) you get a great look into the Delta maintenance and paintshop hangars. Just the other day there were 3 MD-11’s, 2 767’s and 3 757’s parked outside. Inside the hangars (and they usually keep the huge doors open) was another 10+ aircraft (MD-80’s, 737’s, 757’s, etc.) in various stages of repair. Awesome to look at! Just make sure you’re on the right side of the aircraft.

ORD (Chicago-O’Hare) a patch work of decades of different airport expansion projects but it has some of the best traffic in and out of there. Not only is there a hugh domestic operation by United and American (and nearly every other US airline operates out of there) but the international ops by both US and foreign airlines is great. I love holding short of a runway and being able to watch a Bristish Airways 777 launch, a KLM 747 land, a United 757 land followed by a Beech 1900D.

DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) – I think has the easiest curb to gate setup. Lines are small if they exist at all every time I’ve been through there. A modern airport layout that makes for a quick and easy operation.

CLE (Cleveland) – for no other reason as it’s the home airport. No international terminal. Awful 1950’s terminal layouts. 1940’s airport runway/taxiway layout. Southerly approaches do provide a nice view of downtown but that’s about it. I still love flying there. 😀

Originally posted by Florida Dude
Look at what happend Caladonian though, and the other charters of this century operated into Terminal A

Caledonian still exists under a different name.

I can understand that most pilots would prefer SFB to MCO, it is alot smaller and easier to operate out of in terms of traffic etc. I always hear of how people think takes ages to get through the system but we always seem to be off and in our car within 30-45 minutes which I know is pretty good for MCO. The whole idea is that yes, to Mr average holiday maker the system takes quite a while and seems endless, but to the frequent traveller who knows how to cut time here and there it can easily be done in the above stated time.

Look at what happend Caladonian though, and the other charters of this century operated into Terminal A.

Never fear about PPL’s there are plans for their future.

Lets agree to this there will always be two sides of an opinion (would’nt really be fun if there was not) and that on this one we’ll just have to agree to disagree. Makes life more fun.
🙂

Also Tampa is a very good, nice and airey inside.

I can understand that most pilots would prefer SFB to MCO, it is alot smaller and easier to operate out of in terms of traffic etc. I always hear of how people think takes ages to get through the system but we always seem to be off and in our car within 30-45 minutes which I know is pretty good for MCO. The whole idea is that yes, to Mr average holiday maker the system takes quite a while and seems endless, but to the frequent traveller who knows how to cut time here and there it can easily be done in the above stated time.

Look at what happend Caladonian though, and the other charters of this century operated into Terminal A.

Never fear about PPL’s there are plans for their future.

Lets agree to this there will always be two sides of an opinion (would’nt really be fun if there was not) and that on this one we’ll just have to agree to disagree. Makes life more fun.
🙂

I’ve only been to LAX so can’t really comment.

Willow thats because its just a really good airport

Several answers to this one.

As a passenger

Newark – lots of space, good views, plenty of action, no queues

As a spotter

Miami – for the variety

or maybe

Dallas Fort Worth – for the sheer number of aircraft

As a photographer (before 9-11-01)

LAX – under the approach near the ‘Proud Bird’ diner.

As a photographer (post 9-11-01)

Fort Lauderdale – only 1 runway in major use, good sun, great angles, good viewing area (with tannoy giving out the ATC!).

And the least favourite

Washington Dulles – because you can’t see out and it’s really stuffy

There’s so many great airports in the US that it makes it really hard to choose, but the above is what I’m going for at the moment.

Willow

P.S. Tampa gets a special mention. I don’t know why, I just like it!

Best Airport?

Well I have been to KLAX AND KJFK in 1997 when i was 11 but i like KJFK but then again KORD is a pretty good airport. So I answer with to of my favourites.
KJFK and KLAX.
Others airports:
KSFO
KORD
Cheers!!!

The best: probably ORD for a large one or CVG for something smaller.

But my favourite will always be CMH because that’s where I first met my wife.

Mike

MCO appeals to people who like glitz even if it takes gawd knows how long to get through the system! LBArules brings up a very good point wrt the baggage loaders refusing to work during the frequent thunderstorms. We routinely used to get up to an hours delay for our bags which after a 9 hour flight wasn’t much fun. MCO is almost as much of a theme park experience as Disney! The holiday makers must find the post flight delays tedious but I dread to think how it must pee off the business passengers!

Interestingly enough I was having lunch with SkyCruiser yesterday (he was on a LHR layover) and a friend of his joined us who is an ex-BA now EAL B742 skipper. He was saying he would rather operate into Sanford rather than MCO anyday. ‘Much better airport’ were his words.

The statement about the charters being in a different terminal to Virgin is not correct. You would invariably see Caledonian aircraft parked next door to Virgin aircraft in the early 90’s.

As a further point of interest MCO also suffers more from ‘PPL wants to play with the big boys’ syndrome. An awful lot of UK PPL’s travel to Florida for hours building during which they take advantage of the freedom to fly their spamcans into international airports at little or no cost. MCO is the local Mecca for these guys which can make operating commercial aircraft into there a pain in the ar5e.

Got to stick up for MCO here. OK I haven’t got any figures but lets face it, the reason the charters fly in to SFB is the reason they do anything, because its cheaper.
Why else would charters move to an airport further away and the likes of BA, Virgin and all the other major US carriers stay at MCO?

As for the double baggage claim, it is a bit silly but on the second claim its kinda like collecting your hand luggage from the x-ray thing, you don’t usually have to wait long.

Everybody has their opinion but for me MCO always looks spotless, both inside and out with the water all around the airport, it just adds to the feel.

Maybe its because I like Florida so much that I like the airport, the first sights you see of the place are the airport afterall!

THE ONLY PROBLEM EITH SANFORD IS THAT WHEN THERE IS A THUNDERSTORM YOU HAVE TO STAY ON THE AIRCRAFT OR IF YOU ARE OFF YOU WONT GET YOUR BAGAGE OR IF YOU ARE TREYING TO BOARD YOU WONT BECAUSE A GUY GOT KILLED BY LIGHTNING AND THEY WONT DO ANYTHING IN A THUNDERSTORM

Well as you may or may not know many US airports are all privatly owned, with their owner only owning them. In an annual year airlines from abroad in their larger aircraft were charged 15% more than the regulars (security and priority etc), when Sanford became a visible option it offered lower costs and not to far away from the action (theoretically on a good day from our area you can do MCO in 30 minutes and it will take SFB at least an hour or more). Softland isf you had done your research you would have found out that the carters flew into terminal A without the baggage reclaim problems not terminal B were Virgin and BA fly into. It was also the airports operators forecasts to be rid of the charters before 2002 (actual account from a family friend who works with the airports manager and operators).

Back up that statement please Florida Gude. What are the figures?

Only because they could not afford it SOFTLAND

Ive been into, detroit, jfk, atlanta, charlotte, tampa, orlando, i know its not US but toronto,

my personal opinion of the actuall airport is Tampa intl!!!!!!!

Well , I have flown a lot of them:
JFK, LAX , LGB ,SFO , DFW , ATL , CVG ,IAD , OAK, DET

ATL is the most impressive .
LGB and SFO for personnal reeason my favorites.

I think that US airport are more convinient than ours in Europe
regardless AMS maybe

ORD. very effecient for a big airport.

Iv’e flown into a lot of them, and i have always found Honolulu with it’s open air walkways to be my favourite.
Las Vegas would have to be my least favourite,it’s full of those noisy poker machines
Most airports are a labyrinth of walkways and shops, i think the simpler the layout the better.