A Sign You May Be In The Airport Too Late At Night
There are signs in life, all sorts of them … some we pay attention to, some we ignore, some that are obvious, some literal, some figurative … and sometimes there are signs you catch a glimpse of out of the corner of your eye.
Well as I sit here at Denver International Airport (DEN), in a mostly deserted terminal with hours to go before my flight, working on next week’s blog posts, out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a sign that I might be at the airport to late.
What is that sign? A row of five Departures display screens displaying no flights.
So this photo is for everyone who has found themselves sitting in an empty terminal thinking to themselves “I should probably be in bed sleeping 1709 miles away from here right now”
Happy Flying!
I guess it depends on the airport. Here in YYZ (where Timmies is still open 🙂 ), they just roll over to the next days flights. It’s even worse inside the operation, where the flight information displays never cease.
That sight would probably have me questioning my sanity. Though since I tend to fly places like Heathrow and LAX, I don’t think I’d ever see something like a row of empty screens…
It’s quite a cool photo.
Jack,
Having slept at Heathrow T3 quite a few times I know the departures board always shows something … however … Denver International Airport is a major international airport and major hub for the largest airline in the world, its not like flying through say Luton, Stansted or London City which shut down and go to sleep at night. My flight was at 12:55am, the gate agent said the flights “should come back on around 11:00pm”, I looked around 11:30 or so and the flights for the next day were across all the screens.
It was weird.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
I worked at DIA for many years and, for a time, oversaw my airline’s entries into the FIDS and BIDS monitors. The old system used to automatically roll over, and even at 2200 or 0100 the 0600 would show up. There was always something on the monitors, even if the next flight on that concourse was hours away. I left DIA a few years back, but I’m guessing that the new system is set up differently and doesn’t have long-term displays. There aren’t as many passenger flights in the middle of the night as, say, LHR. But there are late-night/early-morning operations.