Longest airport walks! Have they got this correct?

[Simsy85]

Anyone ever done the walk from the ASP - DRW flight in the evening!

 

[drewbles]

I don't run for a plane. I walk. Like last month in ORD. I walked from L - K gates. Plane waited for me

This plane was *not* waiting and it was the last ORD-SFO for the day (and there were 4 of us). There was no way we were missing the plane!

 

[Awesom Andy]

Still remember being on landside in HKG 30min prior to departure, and the plane was all the way at the end of that 1.6km. Even with the internal shuttle train, it was not fun.

 

[drewbles]

"Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport - 2.1km"

That would be walking along an underground tunnel, past half a dozen train stops with nary a gate to be seen until one surfaces- why any would do so other than for fitness is beyond me.

I note this caveat: "distances from the entrance to the furthest departure gate."

That's why MIA terminal D is not mentioned - it is 1½ km airside end to end: https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=25.799543,-80.27637&spn=0.013948,0.019205&t=h&z=16

I think the entrance to further gate is a bit of a furphy, as it does not take into account connections.

Earlier this year I had a MIA gate 53 to gate 6 connection and 50 minutes to do it - but I did employ the train.

I had an international arrival at MIA earlier this year that arrived at D55. We walked. And walked. And walked. Until we reached the D immigration area to be asked "Did you arrive on this flight? Go that way!" and were directed pas the open and functioning immigration agents to the immigration area at the end of G gates. After waiting 40 minutes in queue (2 agents on duty!) we were then directed back to the D area to get our luggage.

All up: gate to luggage carousel was a few minutes shy of 2 hours. Then, 30 minutes to find my bag (they had 4-5 flights per carousel and most bags had been offloaded and were 3-4 bags deep off them around the edges. There was no room for people nor trolleys with all the bags there).

In a nutshell: never flying into MIA again with luggage and a 3 1/2 hour connection (I made my connection with less than 2 minutes to spare).

 

[codash1099]

Most airports seem to know when I have a connecting flight and will organise for the arriving and departing aircraft to be at the opposite ends of the largest terminal. They have, on occasion, been known to deliberately switch off moving walkways. :-|

 

[serfty]

...

In a nutshell: never flying into MIA again with luggage and a 3 1/2 hour connection (I made my connection with less than 2 minutes to spare).

I think you will find that immigration was at the E gates. I once did that from gate 6 - I did use the train between Stations 3 and 4 and then it was walk, walk, travelator, walk, walk to E.

I believe that old facility closed Aug 1 and a new immigration hall has opened around central D Aug 1.

 

[drewbles]

I think you will find that immigration was at the E gates. I once did that from gate 6 - I did use the train between Stations 3 and 4 and then it was walk, walk, travelator, walk, walk to E.

I believe that old facility closed Aug 1 and a new immigration hall has opened around central D Aug 1.

You're more familiar with MIA than I am. I'm basing it on :

We arrived in D, walked to the middle and turned right. We went past the E gates and around the corner towards G. Is it possible it was the H gates? It's the only time i've arrived on a non-carribbean originating flight into MIA so don't know the procedure well. I know it was like a maze though. One huge, badly organised and co-ordinated maze!

This was in late April this year...

 

[v8Statesman]

This plane was *not* waiting and it was the last ORD-SFO for the day (and there were 4 of us). There was no way we were missing the plane!

Not sure what I would do in this situation. My frame is not built for a 1.*anything*km run!

 

[anat0l]

Still remember being on landside in HKG 30min prior to departure, and the plane was all the way at the end of that 1.6km. Even with the internal shuttle train, it was not fun.

Can vouch for that one. 2009, flying HKG-ADL-MEL, was at F Wing plied with much food, dessert and alcohol, before sending a last minute fax and being told that I needed to run to the gate to make my flight. T-30 mins departure, gate located at the end of one of the arms of the pier. Took the automated train to the pier junction, started running. Saw the walking signboard attendant, thanked her, kept running. Saw another man with a radio, he confirmed me on the flight, called ahead. Kept running, boarded, relieved! "What would you like to drink, Sir?" <presents tray> "One of each, please."

Most of the modern airports these days have pretty long walks. Some have moving walkways, some don't (and of course those that have them, sometimes it doesn't help). HKG, BKK, ICN.... all have long walks from the furthest gates. BKK is a hell of an airport to run in if you're going from the central complexes to the furthest gates (it's an all tiled floor and you have to dodge lots of people along the way). Most people who have flown QF A380 to LHR know that the A380 gates at T3 are all located at the fringes of the airport. This makes for a great walk all the way to arrival procedures - up and down and up and down........ and then of course there's usually between 250 - 500 pax or more doing the same thing.

AKL Gate 15/16 is about the same as MEL at the new complex (mainly complicated by MEL redesigning the flow path from immigration / outbound security and through the duty free complex before you get to the gate concourse proper), or SYD from departures to the C gates (IIRC those are the ones mainly used by the Star Alliance carriers).

 

[burrco]

I didn't pay attention to where I was walking - but arriving from MEX into MIA the walk to immigration was certainly the longest trek I've ever undertaken! It really felt like a series of back tracking walkways.

 

[harvyk]

I had an international arrival at MIA earlier this year that arrived at D55. We walked. And walked. And walked. Until we reached the D immigration area to be asked "Did you arrive on this flight? Go that way!" and were directed pas the open and functioning immigration agents to the immigration area at the end of G gates. After waiting 40 minutes in queue (2 agents on duty!) we were then directed back to the D area to get our luggage.

All up: gate to luggage carousel was a few minutes shy of 2 hours. Then, 30 minutes to find my bag (they had 4-5 flights per carousel and most bags had been offloaded and were 3-4 bags deep off them around the edges. There was no room for people nor trolleys with all the bags there).

In a nutshell: never flying into MIA again with luggage and a 3 1/2 hour connection (I made my connection with less than 2 minutes to spare).

MIA is the proud winner of the "harvyk award for worlds most dysfunctional airport I've ever visited". In my two experiences of MIA are as follows - After making our way via the various "tunnels" to get down to baggage claim, it then took another hour before bags started coming out, and this was only a dom flight from LAX. (A 777 to boot), I'd had a faster experience at SFO the week earlier and that also involved customs / immi. Flying back to LAX a couple of days later, I was ever so glad for AAccess, as it meant my wait at security was only 20 minutes. I'd have hated to be a regular joe as that line was not moving.

I asked my Aunt and Uncle about it (who are both locals) and they mentioned it was not usual at all.

 

[JohnK]

Terminal to terminal there are some long walks in some airports if you get the furthest gates.

Some airports from memory are ORD, LGA, MIA.

 

[serfty]

You're more familiar with MIA than I am. I'm basing it on :

We arrived in D, walked to the middle and turned right. We went past the E gates and around the corner towards G. Is it possible it was the H gates? It's the only time i've arrived on a non-carribbean originating flight into MIA so don't know the procedure well. I know it was like a maze though. One huge, badly organised and co-ordinated maze!

This was in late April this year...

I know that walk from the 50's, it was upstairs/escalators though vast empty hallways interspersed with travelators ending with a hard left U turn to the immigration counters at E.

As far as I know, one cannot get to G airside from D/E, let alone pre-immigration arrivals (nor F, H or J for that matter).

It is quite a long way back from the E counters to the D carousels.

In any case all this has been moot for just over two weeks as the new D immigration facility has opened.

 

[Berlin]

Zurich and Frankfurt being high on that list seems about right from memory, they are both bad when it comes to endless walking with Frankfurt getting extra points for always, and I mean ALWAYS, being under construction somewhere. Oh, stop, wait- CDG got that special award already... :shock:

Now for Atlanta, that one I don't get. You can say many bad things about this airport but the connecting train between terminals usually works- have they missed the train and went via the taxiways?

 

[Robert Qld]

I had an international arrival at MIA earlier this year that arrived at D55. We walked. And walked. And walked. Until we reached the D immigration area to be asked "Did you arrive on this flight? Go that way!" and were directed pas the open and functioning immigration agents to the immigration area at the end of G gates. After waiting 40 minutes in queue (2 agents on duty!) we were then directed back to the D area to get our luggage.

All up: gate to luggage carousel was a few minutes shy of 2 hours. Then, 30 minutes to find my bag (they had 4-5 flights per carousel and most bags had been offloaded and were 3-4 bags deep off them around the edges. There was no room for people nor trolleys with all the bags there).

In a nutshell: never flying into MIA again with luggage and a 3 1/2 hour connection (I made my connection with less than 2 minutes to spare).

Sounds exactly like my experience with MIA last year!

Arrived internationally from SXM at Gate 42 or 43 (can't quiet remember) and even with using the monorail system it still took me THIRTY MINUTES to get to immigration (I timed it!) and then I had to go through what was basically one giant clusterf*ck in immigration (and I basically got lucky with my line as well when I noticed the first line was going a little faster then others due to the line worming around a corner then splitting up). I basically spent close to an hour chatting in line with a family from Brisbane who by random chance where at the same resort with me in Saint Martin.

And the headache with baggage... oy vey! I was connecting through to DFW and the baggage recheck was also a nightmare. I understand at that stage there was some renovations going on but nobody, even the AA staff seem to know where to recheck them. Eventually I found somebody passing them through a metal detector, but even then I was just told to leave my bags with a giant pile of other bags with nothing by a rope seperating them from the masses (and a parking lot - that is how far I had travelled within the airport!)

I wasn't too stressed with the connecting flight as I know AA would've rebooked me on a later flight, but I was still getting twitchy none the less!

Long long long...

In other words.... Miami is not nice, and I'm happy to say that thrice!

 

[drewbles]

Not sure what I would do in this situation. My frame is not built for a 1.*anything*km run!

Mine even less so. It's amazing the things you have to do when you can't miss a flight (I made it from Maribyrnong to a check-in counter in just under 20 minutes once; don't ask!).

 

[Robert Qld]

Zürich was big, but what made it feel even bigger was just the sheer... emptiness. The OW airlines seem to shoved all the way at one end of the airport away from all the other flights and thus alot of empty gates and not much happening in between. It was a little spooky actually.

The internal train system does make it look less, though immigration, at least on the outbound flight was basically what I called a big bat cave, adding more to the spooky ambience.

 

[Berlin]

Zürich was big, but what made it feel even bigger was just the sheer... emptiness. The OW airlines seem to shoved all the way at one end of the airport away from all the other flights and thus alot of empty gates and not much happening in between. It was a little spooky actually.

I do remember Zurich as one of those ghost airports in certain parts! That's exactly how Barcelona airport looked like the other day: An entire terminal absolutely empty which gives it a bit of a ghost-train like atmosphere, agreed. You're just waiting for someone to wake you up from this odd dream...

 

[horseman]

I vote for atlanta also, longest walk of my life!

 

[Blackadder]

Would be interesting to see the shortest walk.

As for the longest I have done, definitely the JFK Mile.