Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

give me your tired, your grumpy, your travelers

Pittsburg is kind of a nifty place.

Rather, the Pittsburgh airport is pretty nifty. But the sparkling clean facility is a wonderful ambassador for the city.

Before this trip, I’d never been to Pittsburgh, nor its airport. But mentally, I’ve tended to equate it with Houston: dark, unfriendly and generally inhospitable. (Though I can’t necessarily explain why I feel so negative toward either city.) So when I found out that my trip to Seattle would include a stopover in Pittsburgh, my reaction was something like “Meh. Layover.” And when a delay in getting to National meant that I didn’t have time to grab a decent dinner, I braced myself for a disappointing BWI-like dining experience in Pittsburgh.

So imagine my surprise to arrive in Pittsburgh and find that *gasp* it’s a pretty nice airport, featuring a friendly layout, lots of “people movers,” reasonable prices (none of the usual airport price gouging) and lots of dining options. I also liked the very open-feeling center concourse with shops, food and lots of natural light — and a slightly skewed news ticker that had a loopy retro feel. I liked it so much I very nearly pulled out my camera and started taking pictures.

Which got me thinking about how crucial an airport is to a city’s reputation. The airport is the gateway to a city, and the point where visitors might get their first (or only) impression of what that city is like. A bad airport translates into a bad travel experience translates into a bad impression of that airport — and its host city. (My past experiences at BWI have led me to think of that airport — and, to some extent, the city — as a supremely inconvenient way-station, where I really have to weigh the psychic and financial costs of dealing with the BWI experience vs. the savings afforded by a cheap plane ticket.) But an airport that’s been designed to deliver a positive travel experience can only help boost that city’s reputation — and perhaps, in the long run, result in wins for local business and tourism as well.

I don’t know if a foray into Pittsburgh proper will win me over to liking the city, but that’s a trip for another time. In the meantime, I’m liking PIT, at least.