If it seems to you that every trip you take by air is proceeded and followed by a marathon walking experience, you’re not alone and you’re not imagining it. The distance between the door and the gate is growing nearly everywhere.
Columnist Chris Elliott recently wrote that “I couldn’t find any recent scientific studies on how far passengers have to walk, or if they have to walk farther now than before. But it sure feels that way.” And almost every traveler you talk to backs that up.
Ironically, one of the most-heralded, awarded and praised new terminals, Terminal B at LaGuardia, has turned an airport notable for short distances into one with dauntingly long hikes across bridges and down stairs.
Long concourses allow more gates and more planes, especially large ones, to be served. Even then, if the planes are too close to the gates, they don’t fit—and the solution is to make the walk down the jetway to the plane even longer!
In the early 1960s, it appeared that Eero Saarinen tried to solve the problem at Washington’s Dulles Airport with mobile lounges… a sort of motorized combination waiting room and jetway that rolled the passengers from the terminal to the plane door. But as planes grew to carry 100, 200, 300 and more passengers that became impractical.
Sometime, somewhere, somehow, someone may find a solution. For now, bring your hiking boots to the airport…
