Airports have very large infrastructure and a lot is happening on their premises. No wonder there are many curious facts about them. This article will let you know something new which you might have never heard about!
What happens to the lost luggage in airports?
As you can imagine, there is a lot of lost luggage in airports. Some of it was lost or left by passengers, while other was lost or misplaced by airlines. You might be wondering what happens to this luggage.
Certainly, airports are trying to find the owners of such luggage and contact them. Yet, the time for is limited. Usually, passengers have up to ninety days to claim their lost luggage. As you can imagine, during this time luggage is kept in special storage rooms, however, they are not infinite, so airports have to get rid of unclaimed luggage.
Usually, it is done in two ways. Luggage can be donated to charity or sold on special auctions.
The price for landing a plane at an airport can be enormous
As you can imagine, landing a plane at an airport may have different prices based on the day of a week and time of landing. Some of the landing time is particularly expensive. Actually, airlines are selling landing slots between each other.
One of the best examples of the costs of slots was the one purchased by Oman Air in 2016 to Air France. The airline company paid 75 million USD for the slot available for early morning arrivals at the London Heathrow Airport.
In fact, thus high prices for landing slots were one of the major reasons for the increase in airfare.
The airport cash exchange points have very poor rates
If only you have a choice, do not exchange money at airports. This is so since passengers who did not take care of their currency beforehand are the major source of income for the airport exchange bureaus. Providing something like this happens to you and you have to travel somewhere without local cash, it is always better to order it online rather than use exchange bureaus located at airports.
Airports know how to create the illusion of airlines being punctual
If you use airlines regularly, in all likelihood, you have got into a situation in which your plane was late at least once. There are many factors which can make airplanes be late and, according to a study conducted in 2017, only 74% of the flights were punctual. In this survey, 850000 flights took part.
At the same time, airports are changing arrival times which makes it look as if there are no delays and planes are arriving on time.
There is no rush in the air traffic controller tower
You might have heard about the profession of air traffic controllers which seems to be very demanding and stressful. Many people imagine air traffic control towers to be very messy places where people are rushing over boosting with anxiety. This is very far from the truth. Actually the environment inside these working spaces is very serene which always surprises visitors.
The layout of airports is meant to stop people from getting lost
It might not be obvious, but a lot of attention is paid to preventing people from getting lost at airports. The design of these constructions is leading people from security to their gate in the most effective way. Of course, one of the design ideas is the location of duty free shops which are supposed to be an area of relaxation after passengers have cleared security. At the same time, these are meant to distract passengers who are stressed by the perspective of flying itself.
Celebrities board in a secret way
You might be not aware of it, but celebrities are usually transferred to the plane from the building with terminals in a secret way which is regulated by special security protocols created specifically for celebrities. Celebrities can use separate check-ins and board planes using a secret door which is located under the jet bridge.
Such a treatment sounds amazing but costs a lot.