Airport website

what’s important to you?

[jchampliaud]

I’m in the process of creating a website about an airport and I was wondering what you look for in a site like that. I mean when you are arriving or flying out of an airport you know nothing about what type of things do you want to know? I figure location is important – this airport is in the countryside along with flight info, services, access, hotels, car rental, parking… anything not listed you would want to know about? All suggestions welcome. Thanks.

[dcheney]

Locations of WiFi hotspots within the terminals; restaurants; bathrooms, newsstands, chapel(s).

An easy way to find out what gate and/or baggage claim area to use (by city, by flight number).

Also a good map of the terminal area.

If the airport serves as a hub, then you may want to have some info on what to do while waiting for a connection (things for kids to do; any exhibits, etc. in the terminals to kill time, etc.).

[buy_online]

You may want to include technical information about it too. Many flight-simmers will use an airport's web-site to garner extra info. Like Trainspotters, there are also folks that love to go to airports and watch the planes, and just generally know all about the airport. Accordingly, where can people go just to watch the planes come and go (if possible at all).

Hope that doesn't sound too strange, but it may be worth some more organic traffic, and general goodwill.

F

[jchampliaud]

Hope that doesn't sound too strange, but it may be worth some more organic traffic, and general goodwill.

That doesn’t sound strange, that's exactly what I‘m looking for. I though about a history section but a ‘plane spotting’ section might be worth some bandwidth.
Thanks guys for the suggestions.

[decaff]

If you had access to the approach vector maps...this would be really cool - a pilot friend of mine once showed me his international flight manual...it had all the approach vector maps of the major and secondary airports near major population cities around the globe... really cool technical data there...

[AlexMiles]

What I always wished I knew when arriving at an airport prior to departure is 1) Is there a bookshop after you've gone through security 2) ditto veggie food 3) where exactly is the wifi hotspot. (I don't mean a vague 'at gate 3' or something, I mean *exactly* where should I sit).

After I've landed I need to know where I can buy a lighter.

[henry0]

I am a frequent international and domestic flyer

What will make me so happy is:
Clearly list all Companies located at this airport and that do have a customer service local phone # and not that stupid 800 that send you to a national switchboard with endless phone key-padding!

[Tropical Island]

Is there an Internet Cafe?

While Wi-Fi is nice if you have a lap top many of us infrequent travelers don't carry one and need somewhere to access the net.

I can't be away from my e-mail & numbers for more than a few hours :-).

Was in Miami in June and couldn't find one in the airport.

[superbird]

I would like to know what shops are there and where, and it sounds obvious but I'd like a list of the airlines that serve it. I've been surprised by how many don't.

[innocbystr]

Along the lines of AlexMiles post it would be nice to know what's available prior to going through security and after. Since they don't allow non-ticket holders to go past security anymore it would be nice to know what's where for someone seeing you off. Also the location of smoking areas for those of us subject to nicotine withdrawals.

[TheRookie]

I'd like to see some weather info...maybe a 5-day forecast?

Also, numbers for local taxi and limo services would be helpful. Even better would me some links to book hotels or taxis on your site - could provide for some nice affiliate income.

[sem4u]

Where the tax free shop is :)

[D_Blackwell]

My own edit came out as new reply. (Wonder what this will do:)) (Hopefully not make it worse.)

[edited by: D_Blackwell at 12:32 am (utc) on Oct. 3, 2005]

[D_Blackwell]

As can readily be seen, there are a lot of different things that people will want to look for. My biggest problem with the couple of airport sites that I've needed to use, it that the site navigation isn't up to the task. It isn't enough to cover the subject - I have to be able to find it.

A search function may be useful as a backup - if it's actually useful. A lot of sites have a search function (I guess 'cause they think that they should have one.) that just brings up a laundry list of junk results.

[jomaxx]

Hours of operation of services. A lot of airports store and services run on very funky hours. This is not directly related to what I'm talking about, but the last time I was in an airport the McDonalds didn't start serving breakfast until 8:00 A.M. I showed up at 6:30 A.M. and all they had were cheeseburgers and fries. Yum.

Also a list of airlines serving the airport and an aggregated flight schedule for the airport. It doesn't have to be up-to-the-second with flight delays and cancellations. You can can the airline for that. It's so you can figure out what the direct flight routes are and what days they fly. This is practically the only reason I visit the website for the airport where I live, and this data is woefully lacking.

[Essex_boy]

i always look for for an internet cafe.

One policy you may like to list is whether or not they allow you sleep in the chairs while waiting for a flight to arrive.

I once spent 3 days at Toulouse airport being constantly woken up.

May sound daft but how far is it from the town?

[jchampliaud]

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions. You have given me a lot to work with. Now back to development.