TECHNOLOGY: Vegas airport's a flight ahead
If you're looking for innovative airport services, it's a sure bet you'll find them in Las Vegas. And I'm not talking
about on-site slot machines. McCarran International Airport just finished installing free wireless access across
90 percent of its public areas - not the first but by far the biggest domestic airport to do this. In the United
States, it pioneered multi-airline, self-service kiosks, and ticket counters and gate podiums that can be shared
by different carriers throughout the airport. In the cards this year are tags that emit radio signals to direct your
bags to the right plane and remote check-in from hotels. McCarran has achieved these firsts while struggling
to keep pace with Sin City's explosive expansion. Passenger traffic doubled in less than 15 years, reaching
41.44 million last year, more than 14 percent over 2003. Besides shared terminal equipment, these include: SpeedCheck. McCarran in October 2003 became the first U.S. airport to install multi-airline check-in kiosks
known as SpeedCheck. These connect customers to the computer systems of more than half the airport's
28 airlines, allowing them to check in, print boarding passes and - if they have no bags to check - bypass the
ticket counter. WiFi. By tapping into its own fiber-optic network, McCarran was able to install high-speed
wireless access for a little more than $70,000, considered inexpensive for such a wide-ranging system.
Passengers with wireless-enabled laptops and personal digital assistants can access the Internet from nearly
any public area for free - for now. Walker said the airport might consider charging. Remote check-in. Under
this program, an extension of SpeedCheck, future McCarran International Airport users may be able to print
out boarding passes and check in luggage from their Las Vegas hotels. A subcontractor would tag their bags
on-site and haul them to the airport for screening." If checkout is at noon and your flight isn't until 7 p.m., you
can get rid of your bags, and you're free for the next several hours," Walker said. "You can arrive at the airport
an hour before your flight and float through security." Several airlines have signed up to test this program, he
added; passengers would pay a fee. RFID luggage tags. By April, Walker said, McCarran hopes to begin
attaching radio frequency identification tags to checked bags to shepherd them through security and onto
flights. The system is being tested. The tags, which broadcast a unique ID number to scanners along an
automated belt, are more accurate than bar codes, Walker said.
BWI may get a new -- and very long -- name
A proposal to change the name of Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) could come with a multi-
million-dollar price tag. The name change is attached to a bill in the Maryland General Assembly, which
would rename BWI as Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The new six-word,
17-syllable name would be the airport's first name change since 1973, when BWI was known as
Friendship International. A new name would also cost $2.1 million, analysts tell The Washington Post .
The Baltimore change would honor Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court justice and civil rights
leader who was born in Baltimore in 1908. A spokeswoman for Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. (R) says the
governor is"open to the idea." But who among the living stand to gain? Sign painters, of course, but also
commercial printers who would have to change stationery, not to mention uniforms, pamphlets, marketing
materials and bus insignia. Beth Berry, director of sales at the BWI Airport Marriott, likes the idea of
honoring Marshall. Still, she says, "I think they need to give some thought as to how to do it. That's a
pretty good mouthful."
FAA closes its investigation into waste that fell from plane
The Federal Aviation Administration has closed its investigation into a beach ball-sized chunk of frozen
human waste that fell onto a parked car from a passing plane. FAA spokesman Jim Peters said Tuesday
that investigators were unable to determine which plane dropped the waste on Jan. 27. It smashed the
windshield and roof of Nina Gambone's Toyota Corolla minutes after she and her 13-year-old son had
gotten out of the car. Peters said the waste was most likely dropped by a commercial overseas flight
headed into Logan International Airport. "We pulled the radar tracks and narrowed it down to about five
possible carriers," Peters said. "Sometimes we do have success, but we were unable to do it this time."
Gambone and her son were not injured, but the car was totaled.
Public Wi-Fi networks slow to take off at airports
Air travelers generally are finding it easier to check e-mail wirelessly, but big airports are adding Wi-Fi hot
spots at a slower pace than are other public places. Mark Bolger, marketing chief for T-Mobile HotSpot,
says providing wireless Internet access at airports can be more complicated than at say, a coffeehouse or
hotel. "Airports are very large entities," he says. "They're governmental bodies. There are just a lot of
steps involved with making decisions of this nature." The company provides service for nine U.S. airports
and for 110 VIP lounges operated by American, United, Delta and US Airways.
Five years into the rollout of wireless Internet connections in public places, most airline lounges are offering
them. The service is slowly becoming more common at gates and in concourses. Users usually need an
account with the provider or must pay a fee. About half of the USA's 30 busiest airports provide Wi-Fi in
public areas, according to a USA TODAY survey. All offer it in airline clubs. David Blumenfeld, vice
president at JiWire.com, an online hot-spot directory, says the number of hot spots in public places tripled
last year. It's expected to double again this year. Wi-Fi hot spots let multiple users share high-speed
Internet connections within a few hundred feet of a special radio device. The smaller the airport, the fewer
radio devices required for full coverage. That's partly why many smaller and midsize airports offer Wi-Fi.
Nearly 20 small to midsize airports offer it free. Even tiny airports can offer powerful hot spots for about
$500, says Colby Goff, vice president at Boingo Wireless. His company provides service in 14 of the top
30 U.S. airports. About five years ago, airports were at the forefront of Wi-Fi rollout, along with
coffeehouses -- notably, Starbucks. Business travelers were the perfect test audience: They carry laptops,
they need to stay in touch, and they have an expense account to pay for wireless access. "They've come
to expect the convenience of using Wi-Fi everywhere they go," Bolger says.
The average time spent on T-Mobile airport connections is 40 minutes, up from about 30 minutes last year.
Just one of the top five U.S. airports provides wireless Internet access outside of membership-only airline
clubs: No. 4 Dallas/Fort Worth. The other four -- Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles and Phoenix --
are in varying stages of rolling out Wi-Fi in public areas. No. 1 Atlanta (based on scheduled departing
seats) will start phasing it in by summer in its public atrium area. No. 3 Los Angeles hopes to offer it by
year's end. Passengers, however, may find that Internet service providers have struck separate deals with
airport concessionaires to provide limited Wi-Fi service. Even though LAX, for instance, hasn't hired an
airportwide provider, Boingo provides some Wi-Fi in the terminals and around specific restaurants, such as
a California Pizza Kitchen. Fliers should look either for banners in airports or use the Wi-Fi providers'
locator software.
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