Could This Be the Airport Terminal of the Future?
By: Source: AARP Bulletin Today Date Posted: 2005-03-08 19:19:56
Older travelers may find lots to like in the nation’s newest airport terminal, which opens next month in Fort Myers, Fla. The $438 million complex at Southwest Florida International Airport has hospital-size elevators, more restrooms, many more seats in waiting areas, shorter walks from ticket counters to gates and fewer moving sidewalks (which, surveys show, make many older travelers uneasy).
The new terminal, which is twice the size of the one it replaces, may be the first anywhere specifically designed to anticipate the boomer retirement wave. Thanks to a floor plan that uses "intuitive wayfinding" logic, signs confirm that you’re headed in the right direction rather than present a list of possibly confusing choices. And electronic displays convey the same messages as the public address system, for the benefit of those with hearing loss.
Then there are such details as the shelflike ledges that run underneath ticket counters, so that travelers in wheelchairs have a comfortable place to write or put travel documents.
"We’ve definitely been tuned in to the demographics of the community," says Steve Callaway of Tampa-based DMJM Aviation Inc., which supervised the design and construction of the project. "I’d like to think that these features make it more comfortable for everybody."
preview