I was blue, just as blue as I could be Ev’ry day was a cloudy day for me Then good luck came a-knocking at my door Skies were gray but they’re not gray anymore Blue skies Smiling at me Nothing but blue skies Do I see – Irving Berlin “JFK please!” They were the words
Airlines
New York blues
And the papers love to say It’s the meanest town in the USA But I think it’s okay It’s the town I’ve made my home – New York City Blues, Neil Sedaka Things you don’t want to read when you’re stranded abroad (1): “The last recorded eruption of Eyjafjallajokull lasted over a year (1821-1823) but
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Airports
Setting new Standards
This Blog comes to you from the Courtyard Marriott hotel near New York JFK Airport. It’s the recurrent story of my life; to visit great cities and only stay in airport hotels. I’m in the ‘Big Apple’ on a whistle-stop, one-day visit to view what I hear is an exciting alliance between Diageo Global Travel &
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Airports
Make my day
“Come over here Sir please.” Oh, oh, I was clearly in trouble again for taking photographs at London Heathrow Airport… The scene is Heathrow Airport Terminal 1 last Friday and I am making my way from the formal opening of Aelia’s impressive new Longchamp boutique to the Tin Goose bar at the other end of
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Airports
Getting the star treatment in-store
This just may rank as the look of the year. No I’m not talking about the male shop assistant; I’m talking about the expression emanating from the Rita Hayworth lookalike at Athens International Airport earlier this month. ‘Smouldering’ they used to call such looks in the golden age of Hollywood. And indeed the movie industry
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Airports
Promoting partnership, not beauty contests
Today’s announcement by Zürich Airport that it has extended the contract terms of its key commercial partners is highly significant, not just in contractual terms but also because of the way it was articulated. The airport’s Chief Commercial Officer Peter Eriksson (below) has quietly emerged as one of the most influential figures within the international
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Airports
Sign of the times
It’s good to see first-hand evidence of our industry’s highly efficient lobby. Travelling through Orlando Airport last week en route to London, I visited the Alpha duty and tax free store, a nice, tidy, accessible outlet. The constraints that US airport retailers have to face, though, were plain to see. There’s the painful process of
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Airports
A question of age
Sometimes life is stranger than fiction… Today, for the first time since I was a young student drinking at my local pub in Christchurch, New Zealand, I was asked for proof of age after ordering alcohol. I kid you not. This Blog comes to you from Orlando Airport, where, having arrived early to ensure I
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Airports
Hyderabad hits new heights
It is July 2007 and The Moodie Report is in Hyderabad to view construction work at the city’s new Rajiv Gandhi International Airport. It is just eight months from opening and the whole facility is a giant construction site. Some 6,000 workers are crawling over the site like ants, working feverishly day and night to ensure the
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Airports
‘The media is no longer on it – Haiti needs us’
[Picture: Nancy Roc] Sometimes comment is unnecessary. This Blog will be one of my shortest. Last night I received a note from Alexandra Bottrie, wife of The Estée Lauder Companies Travel Retailing Worldwide President Olivier Bottrie. Alexandra is from Haiti. Though her family are safe and well after the catastrophic earthquake of January 12, she has
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Airports
Out with the old and in with the new at Delhi airport
Indira Gandhi International Airport at 2p.m in the morning is a fascinating place. There’s good, bad and (very) indifferent here, underling the challenge facing GMR and Delhi International Airport Group in creating a world-class airport at the new Terminal 3, slated to open in June. Airports are not just about infrastructure or facilities. The customer
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Airports
Meet Supersonic Suredj
“He’s an ebullient, live-wire, irrepressible character who knows only one speed – supersonic.” In my role as Chairman of the first day of the Delhi Terminal 3 concessionaires’ conference held by Delhi International Airport and GMR this week, that’s how I introduced GMR Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Strategic Planning Suredj Autar (below). The name
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Airports
Destination Delhi as T3 opening looms
The Moodie Report is in Delhi, where we’ll be helping to chair a GMR conference on the exciting new Terminal 3 at Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport which opens in a few months, in plenty of time for September’s Commonwealth Games. First I had to fly out of another T3 – at London Heathrow. I