US airports increasingly do it doggy-style

According to USA Today a growing number of 24-hour "pet hotels" are being built inside or near several north American airports.

Travelers can find "pet hotels" near the airports at Jacksonville, New Orleans and Portland, Ore. Pet hotel operators have plans to open facilities or are in discussions with Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Chicago O'Hare, Chicago Midway, Houston Bush Intercontinental, Houston Hobby and Minneapolis.

"Given that more people have pets, it's just a natural progression of services that airports should offer," Saq Nadeem, founder of Paradise 4 Paws told the newspaper. Paradise 4 Paws, which will open next month near Chicago O'Hare, will even operate a long-term, 22-spot parking lot on-site, so that its customers can take the shuttle directly to the airport. Daily rates for dog hotels can range widely — from $15 a night for a cage at the local veterinarian office to $70 for a large room with extra perks. The company has two locations within a mile of the airports at Jacksonville and New Orleans and plans to open at Houston Intercontinental and Houston Hobby.

Hats off to new exhibition

The hiring of the first female cabin crews by airlines in the 1930s necessitated the creation of uniforms for a new profession. The San Francisco Airport Museum is currently exhibiting a celebration of one element of that the uniform that has all but dissappeared: the cap. Visitors to the entrance lobby of Terminal 3 will be able to see for themselves the evolution of a garment that has often added the "crowning touch in the fashions of flight."

Us airports face ever longer delays

Wired Magazine has rated the US airports that face the longest delays and rendered it in a useful Google Map. It makes grim reading for anyone flying in or through the States. "The year 2007 was the worst for flight delays," it reads, "since the [US] government began keeping stats more than a decade ago. In 2002, 17 percent of flights arrived late (defined by the Federal Air Authority as delayed 15 minutes or more). Last summer it was nearly a third, and travel in 2008 won't be much better."


Newark Liberty is bottom of the list, racking up an astonishing average of 72.8 minutes for arrival delays and 67.3 minutes for departures