Product Description
This book describes how two islands and a vast area of sea were converted into a 1,248-hectare airport platform site in just two and a half years. The sensitivity of the local environment required that all environmental aspects of the work were completely planned and controlled. Written and edited by leading practitioners who played key roles in the successful completion of this huge project, this book is not merely a record of the works but highlights the many complex issues that the construction team faced, from design through to the completion of the next airport platform. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Should Be Renamed "Airlines Serving LAX"
Name change required.

With much expectation and joy, I picked up thisbook at a local bookstore hoping to find info about the airport layout andarchitecture.Flipping one page after another, pictures of airlines andaircrafts with careful captions, my joy slowly dwindled and turned todisappointment.Pictures and captions are all nicely done except this isnot what I want.

"LAX: Los Angeles International Airport"should be renamed "Airlines Serving LAX".This is more or less afield guide showcasing all the major airlines operating out of the airport. There is not even one blueprint on the airport layout, runways andpassenger terminal.Had it not titled LAX, I wouldn't even bother to pickit up from the shelf.

First class aviation photography of Los Angeles airport
In the publisher's airport series I consider this book on LAX to be one of the better ones. It is well laid out and shows most of the airlines using this exciting airport. Worth every dollar. I look forward to buying hisnext book : Pacific Glory. ... Read more

Product Description
Denver International Airport, completed in 1995, is both famous and infamous in the aviation industry and with the flying public. The largest and most technology advanced airport on earth, its construction was plagued by massive cost overruns, political and financial scandals, and embarrassing technical difficulties. Denver International Airport: Lessons Learned tells the fascinating story of what went wrong, what went right, and what we can learn from this great public works project. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A few words about the author
I had the extraordinary good fortune to have Paul Dempsey as a professor at the University of Denver College of Law. DU Law School is nationally, if not internationally, recognized as having one of the best transportation law programs in the United States. Paul Dempsey is, more than anyone, responsible for this honor. He regularly travels the globe as a consultant in all areas of transportation law. In the year I had Professor Dempsey, he went to China and Italy to consult with the local governments. Dempsey is also a founding and continuing member of the board of Frontier Airlines. If you are a CNN junkie, you've probably seen Dempsey testifying before Congress. In short, if you want the definitive inside scoop on the airline industry, and the building of DIA, you're not likely to find a more informed person than this guy.

Dempsey is a prolific author, and a highly respected academic. He has published far more than what you see listed here at Amazon.com.

For more information on Paul Dempsey, check out his exhaustive listing of publications at http://www.law.du.edu/support/facbibs/dempsey.htm. For even more information on Professor Dempsey, you can see Frontier Airlines latest 10K report at http://www.sec.gov/edaux/formlynx.htm

Dan Lobnitz, 2L, DU Law

Tome on DIA covers all bases
Lessons Learned is a long-winded tome on DIA and the complexities of airport management and design. Most of the book's facts and information are derived from already published sources. I would have liked to have seenexclusive interviews with the actual people involved in the making of DIA(politicians, workers, et al) -- this book is simply devoid of theinvestigative touch. Nevertheless, a lot of time and work went into writingLessons Learned, of which the authors deserve credit. DIA is a story worthyof the 500 plus pages of material, unfortunately Lessons Learned drifts offinto territory that will only interest those involved in airport design andmanagement -- some of the technical discussion is boring and does notpertain to DIA directly. The book doesexplain in detail the politicalmaneuvering within Denver that went into the making of DIA -- this materialis the most interesting part of the book. In conclusion, if you share aninterest in DIA or airports, get this book. I did and I don't regret it. ... Read more

Product Description
From the bestselling author of The Art of Travel comes a wittily intriguing exploration of the strange "non-place" that he believes is the imaginative center of our civilization.

Given unprecedented access to one of the world’s busiest airports as a “writer-in-residence,” Alain de Botton found it to be a showcase for many of the major crosscurrents of the modern world—from our faith in technology to our destruction of nature, from our global interconnectedness to our romanticizing of the exotic. He met travelers from all over and spoke with everyone from baggage handlers to pilots to the airport chaplain. Weaving together these conversations and his own observations—of everything from the poetry of room service menus to the eerie silence in the middle of the runway at midnight—de Botton has produced an extraordinary meditation on a place that most of us never slow down enough to see clearly. Lavishly illustrated in color by renowned photographer Richard Baker, A Week at the Airport reveals the airport in all its turbulence and soullessness and—yes—even beauty. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

AIRPORTS are FASCINATING
I am an avid reader of Alain's work.This is one of my favorites.It's brief yet so knowledgeable about how people interact and react to airports.Read it, it's fast and a great book to add to your library.

Craftsmanship
I have long lamented that Mr. De Botton's publishers can't seem motivated enough to provide color illustrations. I would gladly repurchase a new edition of The Architecture of Happiness, among others, if the illustrations could be redone to the quality of those in A Week at the Airport.Now, having established myself as a reader who likes pretty pictures, I will go on record to say that if Mr. De Botton were responsible for a picture-free user's manual of some piece of software in painfully tiny print, I would still purchase it and read it cover to cover.

This man has something worthwhile to say and a piercing intellect with which to say it.The executive who chose him to profile the airport should be promoted.Fine writing is like a journey and as Mr. De Botton has taught us, travel is an art.Obviously the author leaves traces of his biases and interests in any work and reading this work only serves to increase my envy of those travelers who, having encountered the man at the table, were able to engage him in a two-sided conversation.

However, a one-sided conversation with this author quite suffices.Lest your powers of perception be dim, this is a book about an airport--nothing more, nothing less.We need, sometimes, to be reminded of the successes of our culture and the example of a Ghanian family leaving London with a prized new possession sums it up nicely. The airport may contain a posh and comfortable retreat for the wealthy, but as a whole represents the strivings of an entire civilization to explore and do business to the limits of the globe itself.

An airport is an enterprise worth describing and this book does credit to the concept of turning a trained observer loose on what may otherwise escape our attention.

Highest Recommendation

"A Week at the Airport" is more compelling than flight itself.
If you've ever imagined where the airport departures timetable might take you, Alain de Botton shares your travel lust. The author was fortunate to receive an assignment to set up a desk at the new Terminal 5 at London's Heathrow Airport for a week, and write about his observations. It is our good fortune to observe his week, and enjoy the unprecedented access he shares with us in "A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary."

His assignment as Writer in Residence gave him full privileges to wander the airport, night and day, and he doesn't miss a thing from security, loneliness, behind-the-scenes workers, and mechanical marvels. de Botton writes with a conversational tone as though he is thinking aloud, as in his other books, and he invites us in to look into the lives of travelers.

I look forward to seeing the airport through de Botton's eyes the next time I pack a bag and travel. And, with great anticipation, I will also await Alain de Botton's next book, wherever the world takes him.

Helen Gallagher Release Your Writing: Book Publishing, Your Way

Brilliant!
This is my first experience of Alain de Botton's writing and after devouring this book in less than 2 hours (partly due to it's brevity and partly because I enjoyed it so much) I'll be looking to read more of his work.

I'm probably a little unusual in that I love airports and attempt to arrive much earlier than is really necessary so I can get airside as soon as possible and begin to immerse myself in the world of the terminal. I've never been to terminal 5 but the world that de Botton describes could be any large airport terminal; it feels very familiar.

I loved de Botton's perceptive writing and his incisive and insightful look at the lifeblood of the airport. The book is funny, interesting and very engaging. He meets a variety of people and captures their essence in a few short words; impressive observational writing. The photographs by Richard Baker make the book and it wouldn't be as good or feel as complete without them.

This little book is thoroughly enjoyable for the high quality writing and high quality photography. It's one of my favourite books read this year and I'll be getting The Art of Travel soon!

Excellent
Classic de Botton. Insightful, engaging, written with an eye for detail and a depth few other writers can match. ... Read more

Product Description
This proceedings, "Meeting the Challenge: Rebuilding Inner City Airports", includes papers presented at the 24th International Air Transportation Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, June 5-7, 1996. This volume discusses the issues involved with the redevelopment of inner city airports. It covers such topics as airport planning, financing, airfield pavements, airport security, terminal planning and accessibility. Redevelopment of the Louisville International Airport to include UPS expansions and relocation of Air National Guard facilities is also included. ... Read more

Product Description
The new building of San Francisco International Airport offers a recognizable image to arriving and leaving passengers. It is organized over five levels, making it America's first mid-rise terminal. According to Craig Hartman, design architect with SOM, the terminal is founded upon the qualities of light and lightness. The building's position above several lanes of traffic required a 380-foot long span between the central columns - essentially the building is a bridge. ... Read more

Product Description
The realisation of mankind's age-old dream of flight is probably one of the collective adventures that best characterises the century we have just left, its greatest novelty. In the space of only three or four generations aviation has conquered the entire planet and international airports have developed into sleepless cities. At the beginning of 1999, the European Commission sponsored an international project on aviation's architectural heritage, set up at the instigation of the French Ministry of Culture together with English Heritage and Landesdenkmalamt Berlin, the official heritage body of the German capital. The project's primary aim was to contribute to the better understanding and conservation of aviation architecture, focusing on three pilot-sites: Berlin-Tempelhof, Paris-Le Bourget and Liverpool-Speke - all rare survivors from the late 1930s.An international network of expertise on aviation architecture grew out of three international workshops, the proceedings of which are presented here. Through contributions from historians, architects, development agencies and airline companies, among others, the book examines how best to identify and preserve the sites worth keeping, the place of the airport in the 21st-century city, and the future of our historic airports. ... Read more

Product Description
Throughout the working day, a constant stream of airliners queue to land or depart from Europe's premier airport. This book offers the aircraft enthusiast a look into Heathrow's chaotic world, containing colour pictures of the planes, and specially commissioned ramp and operations photographs. ... Read more

Product Description
A series of graded readers covering a wide range of styles and kinds of English, both fiction and non-fiction, with comprehension exercises, questions and crosswords. Level 4 has a vocabulary of 1500 words. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

informativeaccount on airport functioning
well i have read it long back . ill like to read it again. its full of facts about airport functioning and illegal functions that are happening around the airports all,over the globe. there is so much to learn aboutaparticular area in this book ... Read more

Product Description
As international terrorism has grown over the past decades, airlines and airports have become increasingly popular targets for violent attacks and hijackings. In this volume, Peter St. John provides a survey of international air piracy and airline terrorism, and of the ways airline professionals and governments are coping, or attempting to cope, with the crisis. St. John not only deals with the history, politics, psychology, and sociology of air piracy, but also provides an assessment of the threat to commercial aircraft and ways to counter the danger. The principal theme he develops is that security for airports and aircraft can be achieved, and the fear of terrorists overcome, if Western countries cooperate in installing effective security policies and plans. St. John begins his work with a two-chapter history of the evolution of hijacking, tracing the five-to-seven-year cycles that seem to have emerged and the growth of the politically motivated hijacking that has become the most persistent and dangerous form. He next analyzes the eight types of individuals who have hijacked aircraft in the past, their different motives, and how they can be identified by airport security and flight crews. A major chapter discusses the politics of Western governments toward highjacking in Europe and North America, and identifies the best and worst airports around the globe. A seven-stage system of security that will probably be a necessity for the 1990s is also proposed. Ensuing chapters address the problem of the hijacked plane, offering advice for passengers and crew members who are victims of hijacking, and for government behavior, which often does more to encourage air terrorism than to prevent it. Finally, St. John looks to the future of airport security and describes the need for a concentrated attempt at all levels of national and international government to develop effective defenses against air piracy. A group of appendices is also included, documenting the principal hijacks of the past forty years as well as sabotage attempts on commercial aircraft. This work will be an important reference tool for professionals in security services and the airline and airport management field, and for students in political science and international relations courses. It will also be a valuable addition to college, university, and public libraries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Definitive Study of Air Piracy
Peter St. John has written the definitive book on air piracy and airportsecurity.I have perused some 20 books and papers dealing with thechallenge of keeping hundreds of millions of airline travelers safe.St.John's book is the best.It is at once a text and a page-turner, easilythe most comprehensive, analytical, and readable study of a subject thatshould fascinate anyone who flies.

Where other authors struggle toarrange their material in some coherent manner, St. John's book has achronology and organization that keeps the reader on track. Too manyscholarly authors write pedantic (read: dull) prose; St. John deliversexcellent expository writing. While most authors focus on one or selectedaspects of this complex international problem, St. John manages, in sevenchapters and just 190 pages of text, to examine 60 years of aerialhijacking and sabotage.Yet St. John's book is anything but a historicaloverview; he scrutinizes past and present situations to develop hisprescriptions for improved airport and in-flight security.And although hepresents copious detail, hisconcise, varied syntax reads more like anovel than non-fiction.Hoping to skim some sections, I found thisimpossible:each chapter captured my concentration, every segment provedintegral to the whole.

An Associate Professor at the University ofManitoba, St. John pulls no punches, unhesitatingly criticizing his owngovernment:

"Even after 331 people died on one June day in 1985 as aresult of air terrorism in Canada, the government scarcely changed itspolicy of studied neglect of the airports of Canada."

"The centralproblem in both U.S. and Canadian airports is that the security personnelare completely inadequate...."

"But in North America at present, moreattention is paid to illegal parking of cars...than to security."

Incompiling this seminal textbook (for airlines and their passengers, foragencies and governments) on air terrorism, St. John invokes and dulycredits more than 100 sources.However, he states his own specific andcogent conclusions as to what must be done, on the ground and in the air,to combat terrorism.

"Good airport security involves a delicate balanceof human and technological expertise in which the human element takes thelead...it involves close cooperation between all agencies that can, together,block all security loopholes that exist...."

"The main problem ...has todo with chinks in the armor, the loopholes that are still far too plentifulin a Western commercial aviation system more finely tuned to profitabilitythan to security."

Most of the loopholes St. John identifies relate toinadequacies not of machines, but of humans.His message is clear: excellent security is a function of not of resources, but of resolve.Interms of resolve, he cites Israel as the benchmark:

"No attemptedhijacking of an El Al airliner has been attempted since 1970, and that onefailed...."

St. John augments his study with ten appendices found nowhereelse in the literature.These include chronological listings of aircraftsabotage (1949-1988) and of important aircraft hijacks (1968-1989), as wellas diagrams of the "terror-proof" airports he deems crucial to controllinghijacking.Two non-statistical appendices, however, stand out as themostintriguing.The first is "Terrorism from Below and Above," whichsummarizes human aspects of terrorism through profiles of both terroristsand their victims.The other is "My People Shall Live," Leila Khaled'sautobiographical account of the two hijackings she led.Khaled survivedcapture and temporary imprisonment to live on as the grande dame of thePalestinian Intifada.

St. John's book is fully annotated and wellindexed.If you can own but one book on terrorism in the air, choose thisone. ... Read more

Product Description
An inspiring series that follows the development of five architectural and engineering wonders. Get the history behind the building projects and the hurdles their builders faced and overcame, as well as how these wonders affected their surroundings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Just OK
The English words were poorly chosen, making the book less clear than required for children to fully understand. ... Read more

Product Description
A contemporary look at Switzerland's international airport, with history, data and map.

The colour photos show off the individual characteristics of the airport, the aircraft operated by local and international airlines, and presidential jets.   ... Read more

Product Description
Growth on the flatlands along the western extents of Imperial Highway in the 1920s was once measured in beans, barley, and jackrabbits. After 2000, the site that became Los Angeles International Airport would be measured by the more than 60 million passengers and nearly two million tons of cargo passing through it each year. One of the world’s busiest airports grew out of Mines Field and expanded quickly in the 1930s with the exploits of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes and Will Rogers, Curtiss and Martin, and Boeing and Lockheed. After World War II, this large portion of coastal Los Angeles between El Segundo and Marina del Rey became the main airport for Greater Los Angeles. With the advent of the jet age in the town of the jet set, LAX became a nexus of international travel and a symbol of sophistication as the “Gateway to the World,” a cutting-edge center for the overlapping spheres of aviation, business, politics, and entertainment. ... Read more

Product Description
Approaching management topics from a strategic and commercial perspective rather than from an operational and technical angle, Managing Airports, second edition, provides an innovative insight into the processes behind running a successful airport. It contains examples and case studies from airports all over the world to aid understanding of the key topic areas and to place them in a practical context.

The book:

* tackles the key airport management issues related to economic performance, marketing and service provision within the context of the industry's wider development
* systematically considers the impact that airports have on the surrounding community, from both an environmental and economic viewpoint
* analyses the contemporary trends towards privatization and globalization that are fundamentally changing the nature of the industry

Accessible and up-to-date, Managing Airports second edition, is ideal for students, lecturers and researchers of transport and tourism, and practitioners within the air transport industry. Airport case studies include those from BAA, Vienna, Aer Rianta, Amsterdam, Australia and the USA.



* Revised second edition which reflect huge changes in airports management today in the light of disasters such as 9/11
* Comprehensive text which considers all the key economic, marketing and planning issues related to airport management
* International case studies ... Read more

Product Description
Managing Airports presents a comprehensive and cutting-edge insight into today's international airport industry.

Approaching management topics from a strategic and commercial perspective rather than from an operational and technical angle, the book provides an innovative insight into the processes behind running a successful airport.

Completely revised and updated for a third edition, with international case studies from BAA, Vienna, Aer Rianta, and countries around the world, this book reflects the huge changes in the management of airports today and tackles many key issues.

Accessible and up-to-date, Managing Airports is ideal for students, lecturers and researchers of transport and tourism, and practitioners within the air transport industry.

. Vast increases of air traffic - how can airport development cope with predicted levels of future demand?
. Commercialization and privatization of airports and the emergence of new types of airport operators as the private airport industry has matured.
. The increased number of airline alliances and the new demands they place on the airport operators.
. The growth of the low cost carrier sector and its impact on airport operations worldwide.
. Security and the environmental impacts. ... Read more

Product Description
Washington Dulles International Airport is one of the three major airports that transports passengers into and out of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The beauty of the site is admired not only by millions who arrive and leave the area, but by local residents as well. After an extensive study of three separate locations in Virginia, Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower agreed to the Chantilly site and later chose to rename the world's first jet airport after his former secretary of state, John Foster Dulles. Renowned architect Eero Saarinen designed the magnificent building that serves as a gateway in and out of the United States. Today, the once peaceful farming area and small villages have turned into a fast-paced business world filled with thousands of new homes and residents. ... Read more