Skybrary stand at ATC Amsterdam 2008

ATC Global 2008 took place on 11-13 March at Amsterdam RAI and welcomed an increase in visitor numbers from 95 different countries.

Busy afternoon in the single European sky today

Canary Wharf

A typical -in and out of London City- working day. Men in pinstripe suits gather early in the morning at Schiphol airport's D-pier. Always a gate with a terribly high number, like 46 or 48, hence a long walk from the passport checkpoint. Enter a KLM cityhopper wait half an hour, enjoy the safety procedure during taxying and then off she goes from Kaagbaan. One hour to check all the newspapers aboard. Steep landing at LCY, 5.5 degrees or more. Wait for the "Doors may be opened", say "Bye!" to the air hostesses and captain, hurry down to the DLR. Change at Canning Town to the Jubilee Line to Canary Wharf. For some of us on the plane this is a weekly trip or bi-weekly trip, go figure. For me it was a first to Canary Wharf, but probably the tenth time to LCY. It was a nice day, with an informative meeting in one of the large buildings out there.
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Schiphol D-pier revisited

Wakey wakey, rise and shine, it's Starbucks time!

Right, Monday morning I'll be at Newcastle Airport again. After customs, fetch bags, through "nothing to declare", half way the hall on the left get some cash, some yards further down check for an interesting read, opposite of the bookstore is the Starbucks for a tall cappucino and a cinnamon twirl or whatever they call that stuff that lasts for a fortnight to digest, all the way down the hall to Herz to get car keys and all the way back to the other end of the hall, exit the building, get the car and leave the airport area ASAP to head for the countryside and relax all the way down to Lake Ennerdale...

Airport Carpets

Why do airport floors have such kind of carpets, are industrial flooring factories colour blind?
Why are we getting visualy tortured while waiting, waiting, waiting...
The only two positive things I can think of are:

1. You know you are at an airport, so even when you're exhausted by the early red-eye, you won't get lost.
2. It reminds you of another thing aswell, you need to get out of this place, no matter what!