January 05, 2004
IAH

This article from the Sunday Chron is about the new international terminal at Houston's Intercontinental Airport. (I refuse to call it Bush Intercontinental for the same reason that I refuse to call the Astrodome the "Reliant Astrodome".) I don't actually have any useful commentary, I just wanted to note that Tiffany thinks that it's the world's ugliest international terminal. As an esthetic retard, I'm not qualified to judge that. As far as I'm concerned, it can be as ugly as it wants to be. The fact that there's no smoking allowed still elevates it above just about all of the non-American terminals I've been in.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on January 05, 2004 to Elsewhere in Houston | TrackBack
Comments

Call it IAH instead.

IAH. IAH!! Pronounce it just right, and you could imagine the braying of a donkey... a Democratic donkey, of course.

Posted by: Steve Bates on January 5, 2004 9:30 AM

I've never been to Houston, so I wouldn't know about IAH, however, I can assure you that BWI (Baltimore-Washington International) is downright dark and ugly. Cleveland's Hopkins International Airport is no prize either.

Internationally, Frankfurt's airport is the worst I've been in. They seem to be on a constant construction project, and you have to walk from the end of one terminal to the far end of another to connect flights (Frankfurt - Munich comes to mind). Oh, well, at least there's the adult book stores to pass the time. ;-)

In Canada, Montreal's Dorval, Toronto's Pearson, and Ottawa International all have problems. Dorval and Ottawa are too small (Dorval also has a $10 Airport Improvement Fee you have to pay before you board the flight. I call it the "Get Out of My Airport Tax"), while the walk between the flight and Canadian customs at Pearson is so long that I swear that I crossed the border twice on my way there. (The first time I went, I yelled "Hello, Cleveland!" in the middle of my walk to customs.)

Let's not forget good old LGA (LaGuardia) in New York. If your flight does take off on time, it will be from an old cramped terminal.

Posted by: William Hughes on January 5, 2004 9:31 AM

Actually, Steve, my crowd has always called it "Intergalactic" because in our younger days we thought that it was way out there in the hinterlands. Ah, youth.

I'll have to check with Tiffany and see if she agrees with your observations, William. I don't think she's flown out of Frankfurt, though.

Posted by: Charles Kuffner on January 5, 2004 9:38 AM

It's not so bad---but it would be nice if they had some method of getting there other than walking all the way from a distant C gate.

Posted by: precinct1233 on January 5, 2004 10:40 AM

I'll agree that Frankfurt is horribly designed. Besides the distance walked, I think we had to go on about 5 up and 4 down escalators/staircases to get from where we landed to ground transportation. Up, down, down, up, up, down, up...

Posted by: rvman on January 6, 2004 10:16 AM

I like IAH! It's where I always make my connection (Continental) on my way to see my parents in Belize, besides they usually have some sort of art work on display so that is good.

Does anyone know why the heck it is called INTERCONTINENTAL? Is it some hippie thing of the 60's?

Posted by: Mauricio on April 12, 2006 4:01 PM