New Airline Terminals

The new JetBlue terminal at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport.

Image: Mark Lennihan/Associated Press

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Want to scare the living daylights out of a business traveler? Just give him or her an itinerary that includes a city with a newly opened airport terminal.

This spring's disastrous opening of the 30-years-in-the-planning Terminal 5 at London's Heathrow Airport wasn't exceptional. It was the way of the airport world. In the last 15 years, travelers have taken it on the metaphoric chin when new aerodromes opened in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Athens, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Denver International, the last from-the-ground-up airport built in the United States (it opened in 1995), suffered through years of baggage troubles until a costly, high-tech luggage-handling system was abandoned. And 13 years later, the iconic fabric roof may still leak on passengers during a hard rain.

So you can imagine why I suggest you curb your enthusiasm over the news that four U.S. airports will open major new facilities before Election Day. Starting tomorrow, when a much-needed terminal opens in Detroit, business travelers will have to endure the debut of important buildings at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport and Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina. In Indianapolis, the entire airport is being moved down the runways and into a new terminal.

The rapid-fire openings are an accident of timing, and the remarkably similar design conceits—arched roofs meant to evoke wings and flight, and towering glass walls to let in natural light—reflect the current thinking in airport-terminal architecture. But what may go wrong at each of these airports is likely to be unique. After all, no one predicted the baggage chaos in London, the runway meltdown in Bangkok, or the initial lack of transportation options in Hong Kong and Athens. We'll know how well each facility works only after we use them.

Meanwhile, a brief preview of what's coming in the next six weeks.

North Terminal at Detroit Metro Airport The grungy, dilapidated terminals in Detroit are being serially replaced. The $1.2 billion McNamara Terminal opened in 2002 and eventually shook off its opening snafus—malfunctioning trams and atrocious housekeeping—to become a relatively efficient and passenger-friendly hub for Northwest Airlines and its SkyTeam Alliance Partners. Tomorrow brings the $430 million North Terminal, designed to house most of the other carriers serving Detroit. It'll be cozy compared with the mile-long concourse and 97 gates of the McNamara building, but the North Terminal won't be small: 824,000 square feet of space and a half-mile walk between the furthest of the 24 jet gates.

Best features: Restrooms immediately after security checkpoints; a nice fountain; a copious amount of power receptacles at key passenger points; and even strategically located workstations with stools.

Bad news: As the airline industry shrinks, six of the new gates aren't leased.

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