Any place today where you can board an airplane the old way?

[blueaircraft]

The old way, as in you wave from the stairway to your family and there is no pesky TSA to question or "rub you down." No jet bridges, although I do not have a problem with that. Even non-air conditioned airports seem to be a thing of the past. Are there any areas in the world where these fabled old-world airports still exist? Backwater dictatorships and sixth-world countries aside 


Andrew

[mdeval]

Kona, Hawaii is one.

Mike

[Tom/CalClassic]

Kona does have airstairs, but it also has TSA. There is nowhere in the USA that doesn't have that, except for small airports using air taxi service.

[cobar]

Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport, Suriname, South America. Kamuzu International Airport, Lilongwe, Malawi, Africa.

[Deleted]

Swiss St.Gall Altenrhein with several daily flights to Vienna and seasonal charters to European holiday destinations. The later are also deserved from Berne Belp.

Bernard

[blueaircraft]

interesting places! I can attest that Suriname does retain some aspects of "old-world" travel. Austria too (a certain part of Austria at least), although I can't remember the exact details as it's been quite a while.

[johnhinson]

Ascension Island, although the last I heard flights were temporarily diverted elsewhere owing to the runway condition. Young lady at top of stairs: "Welcome to Air Tanker" (an in-flight refuelling firm had the contract, I wondered if my feet would be sloshing around in fuel) and hearty military-sized meals served on board.

There is no problem with security (I'm assuming that's what "TSA" is?) as you are already on an airbase. Just don't drive across the runway if the traffic lights are red . . .

John

[Tom/CalClassic]

TSA is the US Transportation Safety Administration, responsible of airport security.

[capflyer]

You'll have to go outside the US to find no TSA. Unfortunately, if it's schedule airline service, then you have TSA. There are the "public charters" that allow some bypassing of this, although the destinations are quite limited.

Here's the 2021 list of Public Charters to give you an idea of where they operate. Look for the ones like JetSuite X/JSX/Delux Public Charters, Taos Air, and Contour Air, who have more than a hundred or so flights.
www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2022-02/Charters%202021%20as%20of%20February%2016%2C%202022.pdf

[jsaus]

Unless it’s changed, but in Australia, you can pass through the security checkpoint and head on to the gates to greet or say good bye to family / friends.
And depending on the airport, it’s not all air bridges etc. Plenty of times I’ve boarded using air stairs.

Backwater dictatorships and sixth-world countries aside

Australia!

[blueaircraft]

Some areas of Australia does have that old-world outdoor feeling... but I've never been to the Outback and Australia herself so I cannot say for sure

Cheers
Andrew

[jsaus]

Jul 29, 2022 14:33:48 GMT -5 blueaircraft said:

Some areas of Australia does have that old-world outdoor feeling... but I've never been to the Outback and Australia herself so I cannot say for sure

Cheers
Andrew

Don't need to go to the outback to have the 'old-world' (third world) feeling in Australia!  

There's plenty of major airports that we have that are like going back in time.     

[jwh]

Newcastle north of Sydney is one that comes to mind. Modern terminal compared to twenty five years or so ago but you still walk out across the apron to board your aircraft.

Quite a few of the Queensland coastal airports still have that feel, which I much prefer to walking down a tube to board the aircraft.

John

[darrenvox]

there might be some airports listed above that offer the stairs instead of the jet stairs things bit nowhere is there a non-tsa or security checkpoint because of security reasons

[blueaircraft]

Hmm, one day I may be going to the land down under!

Andrew