Long Live the Airport Marquee
Harkening to an earlier age.
December 3, 2020
I WAS IN Madrid the other day and was able to snap the photograph above. This is the old Terminal 2, built in 1954, when the field was known as Barajas Airport. Like many old airport buildings, it instantly evokes another time, another era. I can easily picture an Iberia DC-8, or maybe a Caravelle, parked below the control tower, passengers in hats and suits climbing a set of drive-up stairs.
What I love best, though, is the airport name up on the facade. This was a common flourish in decades past, a nod to the platform signs often seen at railroad stations. The purpose, in this case, isn’t for orientation; obviously the airline passenger knows what city he or she has arrived in. That’s not the point. Rather, it’s a matter of greeting. The thrill of air travel isn’t so much the journey as it is the destination, and like the title frame in the opening credits of a film, this is a way of welcoming the visitor with a bit of drama and flair.
And I’m happy to report that location signs still exist, even at some of the newest and most modern terminals. You’ll find them on the apron side, facing the runways, or on the roadway side where passengers enter and exit the terminal. The latter are perhaps more common — the enormous lettering atop the departure hall at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport being the most dramatic example. But it’s the apron-side marquees that I like the best, the ones glimpsed from the airplane window, adding a touch of excitement as you prepare to disembark.
I always get a picture when I can. Most of my collection is posted below. Reader submissions are welcome, and I’ll add the best of them to the page.
Welcome to Amsterdam.
Aloha, Honolulu
Bucharest’s Henri Coanda – Otopeni Airport.
A Royal Jordanian A320 at Cairo International.
Dubrovnik, Croatia.
The old terminal at BOM was replaced in 2014.
Dakar’s newly opened Blaise Diagne International.
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
JRO airport, Tanzania.
“Town of the hurdled ford.”
Kenneth Kaunda International, in Lusaka, Zambia.
A down-home effort at Roberts Field, Liberia.
The Sudanese-style main building at Timbuktu, Mali.
Once a bustling stopover point, Gander sits empty.
Mexico City’s terminal 2.
The colorful Cheddi Jagan airport in Guyana.
Another shot from Cheddi Jagan. Notice the topiary.
Under the wing at Prague’s Vaclav Havel International.
Nnamdi Azikiwe is the airport serving Abuja, Nigeria.
John Paul II Airport in Ponta Delgada, Azores.
Your favorite pilot at Amsterdam-Schiphol.
Fes (Fez), Morocco. From Daniel Foster.
The old terminal at DCA. From Itamar Reuven.
Marrakech, Morocco. From Itamar Reuven.
Burbank, California. From Itamar Reuven.
Flamingo Airport, Bonaire. From Bruce Myrick.
Valetta, Malta. From Rick Wilson.
Tenerife South (TFS). From Rick Wilson.
Vienna, Austria. From Andrew Nash.
Zurich. From Andrew Nash.
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31 Responses to “Long Live the Airport Marquee”
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My favorite part about coming into SFO has always been looking out for the South San Francisco hillside sign. Who knew that it’s been there since 1929?
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=South_San_Francisco_Hillside_Sign
Also the “TOKYO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT” sign at Haneda. Though that one always reminds me of the JAL123 documentary.
I recently flew through Flamingo in Bonaire and Queen Beatrix in Aruba. They both have runway large facing signs. I have a good picture of Flamingo.
MSP has a nice, if understated marquee outside the food court between the E and F gates.
Gander and its people graciously received all the planes and passengers arriving from Europe after 9/11. The situation is portrayed in the true-to-life musical “Come From Away.” It is still touring. See it if you can. See it if you care. It’s that good.
Warsaw has marquees both landside and airside:
https://www.warsaw-airport.com/images/warsaw-chopin-airport-waw.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Lotnisko_Chopina_w_Warszawie_2018b.jpg/1200px-Lotnisko_Chopina_w_Warszawie_2018b.jpg
I also like when they list the elevation, like the airport in El Paso.
Not the best photo, but here’s Moscow Sheremetyevo: https://www.dropbox.com/s/02y9je4u8u8x51g/IMG_1046.JPG?dl=0
SFO had its name on the old tower, facing the runways, but I believe it is gone now, along with the old tower. I have photos from 2009 when I toured the construction of the current Terminal 2 when I last saw it in person. Here are some nice historic photos from the SFO Museum. (Thanks many times for this blog)
https://www.sfomuseum.org/exhibitions/1954-san-francisco-international-airport-terminal/detail#0
Definitely, a great sight at any airport, which makes every passenger feel the sensation that it has reached its destination. A remarkable example is Manchester airport with a sign at ground level at the main apron, next to Terminal 1, which states “I Love MCR”. Funny though, since it would quite hard to spot from an aircraft window. 😉
Zanzibar, Tansania:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q1u8bDKXd8XSdXZe6
To me it’ll always be Washington National, or National Airport. Somehow I can’t honor Ronald Reagan…
SFO (on the new international terminal, facing the road and BART approaches):
https://www.flysfo.com/sites/default/files/About_SFO_850x374.jpg
It’s not a major international airport, but Dallas Love Field has a nice big sign on the new terminal building (road side). Television reporters often stand in front of it (from atop the nearby parking garage) when filming stories that involve aviation, even if the story is about neighboring DFW. There is also a sign at the edge of the airport property, in front of the fence at the intersection of Mockingbird and Denton avenues.
My favourite was taxiing in to Berlin Schönefeld past the unfinished Berlin Brandenburg airport, and the general consternation those marquees caused.
I grew up in Venezuela and traveled through Maracaibo regularly. The “old” port was Grano de Oro, which closed in 1969 and was replaced by “La Chinita”. Pictures of the old and new:
http://www.elzulianorajao.com/images/site/aeropuerto-grano-de-oro-2.jpg
https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/7648380
I grew up in Madrid with American parents, and we were lucky to travel every summer to see our extended family on Cape Cod, MA. I can trace my aviation geekery to when I was a young child. Back in the late 70s and early 80s, there were few carriers which flew to the east coast from Madrid. We flew a TWA 747-100 from MAD to JFK (Flight 903, also known as the “noon balloon”, a cutesy reference to the departure time). On the return flight, I loved being able to pick out the “Aeropuerto de Madrid – Barajas” sign from the plane, pressed against the window, as we landed. You’re right, Patrick; it’s a modest but significant welcome, and it always filled me with a sense of homecoming.
I’m sure function overrides form nearly entirely but not unlike airplanes, there’s a sameness to airport terminals that I find tiresome. Or maybe it’s just me.
LGA recently finished restoring its iconic sign alongside 13/31:
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/iconic-welcome-to-ny-sign-at-laguardia-gets-makeover_new-york/68487/
“If there’s a Canadian equivalent of tumbleweeds, …” I believe they call them “snowdrifts”.
I’ve always loved the one that welcomes you to the airport in Key West, FL. Plus, it’s one of few airports in the US without jet bridges and where you still exit the plane down the stairs and walk across the tarmac to get to the terminal.
https://www.monroecounty-fl.gov/ImageRepository/Document?documentId=13368
I love Havana airport. It’s absolutely brutal!
https://www.airportsdata.net/fotos/hav-aeropuerto.jpg
That is awful. I love it.
Here’s another shot of the TUS tower at night:
http://tucsonairportrides.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/TIA-tower-at-night-small.jpg
and some more info on it:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tucson-airport-control-tower
There is, of course, the famous ‘welcome to Helsinki, badass’ sign:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/finland/helsinki/articles/helsinki-welcomes-winter-visitors-with-badass-sign/
See http://www.weinstock.us/iqaluit.jpg for a photo I took when my DL flight from DTW to HKG was diverted due to a medical emergency. We could not get off the plane but the border protection guys let me out to the top of the boarding stairs. The airport name is barely visible over the wing.
See http://www.weinstock.us/wellington.jpg for a photo from a visit to Wellington, NZ. Not exactly an airport marquee, but along the same lines.
One of my favorites:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ab/b1/fd/abb1fd63a15aeb59cae36639d704a4e3.jpg
That one is great. I’ve never been to Tucson and didn’t know about it. I’m glad it exists.
I love that at the new terminal at HOU they have the original William P. Hobby marquee inside overlooking the security area.
Central Nepal – Pokhara:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/GGfCFJLjBYpgTQNr6
Gander is the airport of “Come From Away.”