One final thought… Your parents were lucky – often as I drive round the airport one of the car park buses is broken down by the side of the service road (because they have acquired Manchester’s old bangers which were pretty muck knackered before they got them!). At least your parents made it back to the terminal without having to be rescued by a “back-up” bus!

Andy

Because EMA cater for cheap and nasty airlines who don’t pay much to use the facilities, so EMA can only afford to provide cheap and nasty facilities for the passengers. Where passengers have to pay (for car parking, catering etc) they are ripped off compared to other airports in compensation for the airport not charging the airlines much. And finally, if you think the car parking arrangements are bad you want to see how long the lines are for security on a Monday morning – because the airport is too cost-focused (sorry, mean) to provide enough scanners, x-ray machines and staff to cope with their peak volumes with a reasonable queue wait.

One thing in their defence though (and contrary to your report), for what its worth the short term car park is free for 15 minutes, so even though you have to go into the short term car park drop off and pick up doesn’t actually cost anything.

Andy

Can you imagine the queues at security if they had to check with the airline to make sure you actually have a booking on a flight before they let you airside!

All that will be gone in time… Like I said, a chip in your identity document (passport or national id card, etc) will allow a remote reader to identify you. The system to which the reader is connected will then be capable (for example) of retrieving your facial details and displaying them on a screen so a positive ID between you and your picture can be done at a security check (or it could be based on finger prints, iris scan etc), and at the same time the system will confirm that you’re checked in for a flight and that you’re entitled to pass through security. Part of this is already in place at Amsterdam, where regular passengers can acquire a card that identifies them and compares a stored iris scan against the passenger’s eye – what is possible but has not yet been done is that the document identifying the passenger can be read remotely from up to 1 or 2 meters away whilst its still in the passenger’s pocket, rather than there being a need to put a card in a reader.

Andy

Question: In the year 2004 why do airlines use boarding passes?

Even in 2004, someone has got to ensure that the punter is getting onto the right flight. And even in 2004, the punter will forget what seat they’ve been assigned to unless they carry that bit of card onto the airplane. Processes and documents need to be standardised for through-checkin etc, and many departure control systems are so antiquated that reconciliation of the part of the boarding card the airline keeps at the gate with the headcount onboard is still required.

In years to come, biometric identity documents will have RFID (radio frequency ID) chips embedded into them. The chip will allow facial features, iris images or finger prints (for example) to be stored on the chips or on a central database. As the passenger carrying the document moves into proximity (2-3meters) of a RFID reader, and data obtained from the chip will be used to retrieve the passenger’s biometric data and this will be visually compared to facial features (or automatically compared to a print or iris image obtained from the passenger) at both checkin and at the gate, without the passenger ever having to actually show the identity document. The catpure of biometric data via the chip on the id document at checkin, and reverification using the chip again at the gate will allow the airline to confirm that the passenger is getting onto the right flight (or even automatically open a turn-style), again without anyone actually touching any physical document. Sad thing is, the punter will still forget which seat they’re meant to sit in unless they have a bit of paper to look at when they get on board, unless that is airplanes are equipped with readers that detect the movement of each passenger through the cabin and point them to their seat through some sort of display.

This technology will also allow airlines and airports to monitor indivual passenger movement around a terminal (if they wish to, or are allowed to), which will mean they’ll know that last passenger is still in the bar when they want to close the flight.

All the technology needed to achieve this is available now – its just a case of identity document issuers, airlines, and airports getting together and making it happen – we were demonstrating some of it at an airline trade show in Lisbon earlier this week. But because of the need for global standardisation and because so many players are involved, its going to take quite a long time!

Andy

Incredivle to think baby had 24 routes from EMA back in 2002!

LOL! The synical knee-jerk reaction by BMI management to the introduction of service by Go at EMA is finally being seen to have backfired. BMI was never going to make a success of Baby on the key routes at EMA, although it might just have worked serving bucket-and-spade destinations only. The sooner the Baby throws all of its toys out of its pram at EMA the better for the airport and the customers who fly from there regularly.

Andy

Nice Antonovs… Just ordered them from mine and Allen’s friend in California – $29.95 at todays exchange rate less a 15% Thanksgiving discount should mean they’re not much more than £15 a pop if ordered from the US (although there’ll be a little postage to pay on top). How much was Nasty Nige at the Skyline asking for them?

Andy

UPS have a 767-300PF inbound every weekday evening at around 20:30 (ish) from the US – it goes on to Cologne later the same evening. On a Monday, the aircraft that arrives Sunday evening day-sits and leaves at 22:30-ish. UPS also have a Danish registered 757-200F (Star Air) each weekday evening, arriving sometime around 21:00. There also used to be a Danish registered 727 but that stopped a while ago. There might be other a/c supporting the UPS operation (never quite sure) but if so they’re not painted in UPS colours.

Andy

PS: “Now” is relative – UPS has been in EMA for many years, firstly with DC-8s

The bridge can’t always be seen quite as clearly as in those shots… 😮

By the way, its also a railway bridge – the train from downtown Osaka goes over to the island on that bridge too. FWIW, all the pictures were taken from the observation deck at KIX.

Andy