Stranger in a strange airportFind your way through concourses the cyber-way before braving the real thingApril 2, 1998Web posted at: 11:13 a.m. EST (1613 GMT) (CNN) -- You've landed at a strange airport, with minutes to go before your connecting flight. Just where IS terminal 5? Concourse B? How do you get there? Your airline likely has friendly agents stationed nearby to guide wayward travelers, but you could arrive at that new airport forearmed with a little knowledge -- courtesy of the Internet. Nearly all major and many smaller airports have Web pages, either official or unofficial, with information ranging from airport maps and nearby hotel listings to local attractions and regional maps. British airport manager BAA's Web site includes extensive information on all eight airports it operates -- including Heathrow, Gatwick, and its one U.S. offering, Indianapolis International. The site give a rundown of airport shopping, ground transportation and airlines serving the airport, along with parking, directions, and, for some of its properties, flight arrival information. Tokyo's Narita International goes a step further and provides both arrival and departure information, along with a detailed section on procedures for passing through customs, checking in for departure, and leaving the airport. The homepage for Chicago's O'Hare International provides the usual information, plus a sizeable section on the airport's history, its future plans, and its status as the world's busiest airport.
Even smaller airports like Knoxville, Tennessee's McGhee Tyson are building Web sites. Narita and BAA aren't the only ones offering real-time flight information -- you can check your flight before you leave for a number of airports. Philadelphia International and Hartsfield Atlanta boast easy-to-read departure and arrival information, sorted by airline, time, or city. Be forewarned however -- with all that data, the pages are often slow to load. Finding airport homepages is not a problem: the ever-useful search engine is a good place to start, and several sites provide lists of airport homepages. The Federal Aviation Administration has links for airlines as well as airports, along with safety information and other government links. The Aviation Home Page provides information on a variety of aviation industry issues -- and has links to sites with more. Airport directoriesSeveral other sites put together their own airport information pages -- a monumental task, considering the number of airports in the world. QuickAID is going all out in the airport information arena, with Internet access sites and kiosks in a growing number of airports. Its Web site features detailed information on 30 North American airports, most divided into sections on ground transportation, hotel information, airlines, maps and airport businesses and services.
The site's ground transportation sections are extensive, with lists of nearby cities, suggestions on how to get there and approximate cost. The hotels section links back to the ground transportation information as well, providing suggestions on how to reach your hotel once you've landed. The site also provides links to the homepages of dozens of other airports. TheTrip.com is a full-service travel site, complete with city information guides and tracking of in-progress flights. Its airport information section comes in four parts, covering 40 major airports. The terminal-view section lists services, airlines and businesses in each of the selected airport terminals, and the business-view section lists the same information alphabetically by name. Both are coded to the airport-map section. The site also includes regional maps of the area surrounding the airport, and a section on general "airport strategies," designed to get the traveler through the air travel process quickly and smoothly. Like QuickAID, the site is simple and easy to use. Airports International contains links to more than 400 international airports, with additional content such as car rental information, area maps, weather and local attractions and services. Most pages include a link to the selected airports page at AirNav.com, which provides extensive aeronautical information and navigational aids. So, next time you're flying to a new locale, don't panic. Look it up online before you leave, and save yourself some of the stress of being a stranger in a strange airport. 
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