Next stop on the roadtrip: Indianapolis. My main reason for being here was a visit with the in-laws, but while I was in town, I was able to arrange a tour of the brand-spanking new Indianapolis Airport that opens tonight, November 11. Ok, so it’s not actually a new airport in that the runways aren’t moving, but the new terminal completely replaces the old one, which will be knocked down. The new terminal is also in a completely different location and requires using a new exit from a different freeway. Needless to say, they’ve been promoting the heck out of this thing here in Indy before it opens for departures tomorrow (November 12) so people don’t get lost. (Arrivals after 8p tonight will come in to the new building for positioning, but departures don’t begin until tomorrow.) There’s a lot of good and some bad with this new terminal, but let’s just start with an overview map of the area and work our way through.

As you can see, the new exit is further from downtown, but it is a dedicated exit for the airport that has no stoplights along the way as is the case currently. It’s about a mile from the exit until you get to the terminal itself which sits between the two runways, so yes, it’s going to be a longer drive for most people who use the airport. The first thing you realize on your drive in is that there is PLENTY of room for expansion here. It’s almost reminiscent of Denver when you drive through flat emptiness for awhile before the terminal rises out of the ground. As you can imagine, that means there’s plenty of room for parking.

Parking is actually cheaper than it is in the old location. Daily maximum for the garage is only $16 (down from $22) and economy lots are as cheap as $7 a day. Through December, the airport is offering a free day or parking when you have at least two days. Click here for the coupon.

The terminal itself is set up very well in that traffic flows don’t cross each other often. Departing passengers will either come in on the second level at the curb or via the garage which is sort of on a level 1.5 that requires you to go up a half story for ticketing or down a half story for baggage. When you go up to ticketing, the ticket counters are on the left and right while straight ahead is the enormous, round Civic Plaza area to get to the gates. From here, you’ll see entrances to both concourses on opposite sides of the plaza surrounded by shops and restaurants. Here’s a video of the area:

The Civic Plaza is one area I just don’t understand. Sure, the open space is nice for people who are waiting for loved ones, but I can’t see the shops and restaurants doing very well. Anyone who is flying out is going to want to go through security and then relax whereas those people flying in aren’t going to want to hang out for a beer in the airport after they arrive. These shops will likely only cater to people waiting for people to arrive, so I’ll bet that they’re going to suffer. Besides, if I had to pick someone up at the airport, I’d plant myself in front of the huge picture window and just watch the planes go by, and I wouldn’t be shopping.

So, let’s get back to what matters here. There are two concourses, A and B, that can be entered from opposite sides of the Civic Plaza. It’s seems strange that A is on your right and B is on your left, but they named it this way since you drive in from the right and come upon A first. Unlike in the four concourses that exist today, these two are connected behind security so you never have to leave security unless you’re leaving the airport.

Speaking of security, they have it set up well here with plenty of room for lines, a dedicated CLEAR lane, and several gates and scanners on both sides. Over on the A side, you’ll find the gates dominated by Delta/Northwest with Continental as well. There are also two international-equipped gates on this side but obviously no international service as of yet. Over on B, you’ll find all the other airlines: Air Canada, AirTran, American, Frontier, Midwest, Southwest, United, and US Airways.

When you enter the concourses, there are three gates off to the left in B/right in A while the other 17 gates lie on the other side of each concourse for a grand total of 40, 7 more than in the current airport. In case you were wondering, there is plenty of room for expansion here as well if it’s needed.

The airport gets points for using local brands on the concourses. I’d highly recommend a stop at Shapiro’s deli over on B. I’ve been to two locations in town and they have really good food. It’s definitely the place to stop if you want to grab a sandwich for the road.

The concourses themselves are wide and airy and are filled with art. More importantly, they’re filled with a free wi-fi signal as well. On the plus side, there are laptop charging stations, but unfortunately there are no power outlets near the seats. You would think that a place designed in this day and age would have ample power outlet access throughout the seating area so people could recharge without going to some power charging location. Also, they’re taking bets here that the airlines won’t have interminably long delays. The seats have fixed armrests that make lying down impossible unless you’re Kate Moss-skinny and can squeeze underneath.

If you’re on an arriving flight, you head back towards security where they’ve actually done a good job of separating the entrance and exit so you don’t get tangled up here with opposing flows. You’ll walk back through the Civic Plaza and then head downstairs to baggage claim. There are six bag carousels with three on each side of the hall. Once you grab your bag, you can either walk out to the curb for pickup or you can head up a half level to go back through the tunnel to the parking garage.

If you need ground transportation or a rental car, you go back to the garage and then downstairs. In the old airport, you have to take a shuttle to get to rental cars, but they’ve actually put all the cars on the bottom floor of the garage in the new airport so it’s much easier.

So that’s it. Of course, the big question here is . . . how much will it raise operating costs at the airport? A brand new $1.1 billion terminal project has to be paid for somehow, and it’s going to fall on the shoulders of the airlines, as usual. Higher operating costs make it harder to maintain flights. So, I’ll be watching closely to see how much this new airport impacts the ability to keep flights at the airport. For more on this, see my BNET post on the economics of the new airport.

Links
All of my pictures and videos of the new airport
New Indianapolis Airport website with map
Indianapolis Star special section on the new airport

Air New Zealand recently rolled out its new check-in process for domestic flights, and I have to say that it takes the best ideas of Alaska’s Airport of the Future and expands upon it in all the right ways.

The idea is to keep people flowing through the system instead of creating dead-ends at ticket counters. As you can see in the picture at left, the airline will have a group of kiosks where people can check in. The kiosk will print out bag tags and once the passengers tag their own bags, they just walk over to the conveyor belt behind and drop their bags off before heading on their way. No need to talk to a person at all, though that option will be there if need be.

Passengers can check-in via mobile phone, but frequent fliers will have another option. . . RFID tags. The airline is planning on giving RFID tags to frequent fliers to stick on the back of their mobile phones (or anywhere else they so desire). They will be able to just head straight to the gate if they have no bags and scan their phone as they board. If they have a bag, they can scan it at the kiosk at check-in. A small receipt will print out for their records.

This makeover will start in Auckland and then make its way to Christchurch and Wellington. If you want to get a really good idea of what it will look like, you should take a look at this short video.

JetBlue travelers rejoice! The airline’s brand spanking new Terminal 5 opened yesterday. This means the cramped and awkward Terminal 6 is finally, mercifully empty.

If you’d like to learn more about the terminal, you can see my earlier post or you can check out JetBlue’s blog on the opening. You can also head over to JetBlue’s EXTREMELY detailed Flickr photostream. (I’m pretty sure I don’t need to see a sandwich that close-up.)

I snagged the following picture off their site. Looks like a beautiful day at JFK.

Thank you for submitting your questions after the inaugural Ask Cranky column. Please keep them coming . . .

Dear Cranky,

I’ve been reading you a while and I wonder what your experience/opinion is of the Clear program that is now in place at 17 US airports?

Thanks – Bill

Ah yes, the Clear program. This question is very timely since they raised price by more than 50% today. What I originally expected to be a trusted traveler program has become nothing more than a security fast pass. If you’re a member, you can skip to the head of the line. Don’t believe me? Here are the five benefits as listed by Clear.

• Get through security faster, in under four minutes.
• Don’t worry about unpredictably long lines.
• Access a designated security lane with special benefits.
• Allow our attendants and concierges to help you as you go through the Clear lane.
• Use your Clear card at airports nationwide.

For those keeping score, four of the five just mean that you get to head to the front of the class. The other point does mention that they have attendants to help you get through security. But what it doesn’t say is anything about separate screening equipment or an expedited screening regimen. No, all this does is let you cut in line.

So, let’s start with who doesn’t need this. If you are an elite member with one airline and don’t fly other airlines often or you fly in premium cabins, you probably get the same benefits already. If you’re an infrequent traveler, you’re not going to be able to justify the formerly $128 fee and now whopping $199 for the first year. And if you don’t fly primarily out of one of the 21 Clear airports, then you won’t get any use out of this either.

BUT, if you are one of the few who fly often and aren’t an elite member or you fly on a variety of airlines, this might be interesting for you because it will speed up the security process. Since they aren’t in any LA airports, I’ve never seriously considered it, but even if they were I doubt I’d do it. If you’d like to learn a little more, Benet Wilson has been covering this a lot over at Towers and Tarmacs, including the launch of Clear in Atlanta.

I was recently talking to someone and the subject of Continental’s relatively new auto check-in came up. It sounds pretty cool, but I honestly can’t quite figure out when I’d want to use this feature. Let’s see if you guys have any ideas.

The premise is simple. When you check in for your first flight on an itinerary, you can check a box that will then automatically check you in for your return flight once the check-in window opens up for that flight. You can then choose how you want to receive your boarding pass. It could be via email, fax, or on to your mobile device (where they currently allow mobile check-in). I understand that it saves you a little time by not requiring you to go back to the website to check-in, but it’s not really that useful.

Think about it. If you get it emailed to you, you still have to log on to get your boarding pass and then print it out somewhere. And if you have that printer, you can easily just check-in yourself when it’s time. I suppose a fax could be interesting, but this assumes you’re in a place (like 1985, apparently) where you have a fax machine but no printer access. I think there’s probably a limited benefit there. Of course, the mobile device is most interesting because once you receive it, that’s all you need to walk on the plane. But if you have your mobile device functioning, it’s just as easy to go online on your phone and check-in. Again, not much benefit.

In fact, this can take away some of the benefits of checking in yourself. With the exception of when you fly Southwest, can you think of any reason that checking in earlier rather than later really matters? The only time it matters is if you’re trying to snag some better seats that were released for check-in only. And in this case, you wouldn’t be able to change those seats unless you went back online again, and that defeats the purpose. So, if you’re happy with your seat, there might be a minor benefit in that it saves you a minute, but that’s about it.

Am I missing something? I’ll read your comments when I return next week.