The long connector between Denver’s main terminal and Concourse A. (Image: Jim Glab)
Sure, you could take the moving walkway or people-mover or even hitch a ride on one of those little golf carts — but some big airports allow passengers to get in a pretty good workout if they walk all the way to the gate.
USA Today looked into the maximum walking distances inside some major U.S. airports, and the results can be exhilarating (if you’re in shape) or daunting (if you’re not).
For instance, the newspaper found that a passenger at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson who hoofs it from the front of the domestic terminal to a gate in the international terminal will log more than two miles, but there’s a train for that.
The walk from the end of Concourse E to immigration at Concourse F at ATL is a long haul (Map: Delta)
What’s really irritating at ATL is arriving at International Concourse E, then having to walk through the sterile concourse, then through a tunnel under the tarmac to immigration and customs facilities located in terminal F. Not fun after 10 hours in the air, whether you are fit or not. The situation is so bad that the airport has employed cheerleaders along the route telling passengers how much longer they must walk. (I noticed this after a 14.5 hour Korean Air A380 flight from Seoul to Atlanta last fall. Here’s my Trip Report on that. )
The longest hike at San Francisco International would be from Gate 55 in Terminal 2 to Gate 101 in the International Terminal, the newspaper said, which is a little over three-quarters of a mile. And at Denver International, a walk within a single concourse — the B concourse — from one end to the other is 3,300 feet, or more than six-tenths of a mile.
If you’ve got time to kill at Chicago O’Hare, walk from Terminal 1’s Concourse C through the tunnel and out to the end of the L Concourse in Terminal 3, and then back again, and your FitBit or iPhone will tally more than two miles.
Readers: What’s the farthest you’ve ever walked in an airport, domestic or foreign? Which one was it?
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FRA is quite a large airport, I’ve done well over a mile there between flights. The last time I connected in FRA coming from FCO; it was an up & down adventure to get from the Inter-Europe terminals to the Int’l Terminal – bus from plane to terminal, up stairs, down a hallway, down stairs, in a tunnel, up stairs, down a hall to passport control, and finally into the opposite end of the terminal that I needed to be in! Munich also seemed large, but not very crowded, so it was a pleasant walk!
The longest walk I remember was in Shanghai. We had to go from the landing gate to baggage claim and it took forever and this was after a flight from SFO to PEK and then connecting to shanghai. It is a huge airport (like several other Chinese airports) and we were guided by an airport person who kept trying to get us to go as quickly as we could. It took my wife about 5 minutes to catch up!
Walking the Detroit Concourse A is one mile end to end. Before a trip to Asia and I have the layover time, I like to walk about 3-4 miles, head up to the Sky Club , take a shower and then get on my plane. Perfect way to start a long flight to Asia. Good night!
San Francisco has been a complete circle for about 14 years, and so after a long flight, one could go one way or another, and the distances are not too far. Only in United’s area of Terminal 3 does one go a distance, but there are those moving walk ways. Plus, SFO has a Air Train that loops in both directions and twice at the International Terminal. LAX provides shuttles I believe between the individual terminals. Also close in like SFO. California doesn’t have anymore room anyway, thus the jammed in affect.
Hey Jeff: Yes, we posted this last week– KAL is running A380 ICN-ATL 3x per week and 777 4x per week “temporarily” and should be back to 7x in the fall according to our source. –chris
T5 at JFK from a far gate (eg 15) to the Air Train is a real hike. I do it every week and it is a good little workout. Moving walkways help somewhat but people don’t understand the concept of “stand right, walk left”.
I transited through FRA once, ten years ago, connecting from an ORD-FRA flight to/from FRA-FCO (Rome, Italy). My brother, who had flown through their regularly, had warned me to watch out for the bicycles. As I was recalling that thought, I was nearly run down by one. I had to chuckle.
Before terminal 2 opened, the walk from the B annex gates to T1 immigration at Heathrow took forever. It’s better now that those gates are connected to T2 instead but it’s still pretty far.
The farthest I’ve ever run for a connection was from one end of the B concourse to the other end of the C concourse at Dulles. As far as theoretical distance between gates goes, I’m sure Amsterdam could give other airports a run for its money, with its seven concourses and its huge D pier. It takes 20 minutes just to walk to the farthest of the D gates from check-in, never mind from, say, the end of the G gates.
Don’t even get me started on the E concourse at ATL with an international arrival. The only gate for the A380 is E1&3 (by the way Chris did you ever find out if there was an equipment swap to the 777 for the ICN-ATL-ICN route). It seems like all
Of my international arrivals hit E.
It’s gotta be at least a mile from the front of HKG airport to the end of the rear concourse (either end of the “Y”. And for the shortest walk, I nominate Kansas City (MCI) with its narrow circular terminals; it’s barely more than 100 feet from any given gate doorway to the curbside (although a side trip to the restroom or baggage claim could make it considerably longer).
Maybe the airlines could hire those cheerleaders to tell passengers on delayed flights how much longer they have to wait. That would have made several of my recent trips more pleasant.
Farthest I’ve ever walked is in the Frankfurt airport. I have a routine where I arrive in the morning from an overnight flight, walk out to the Lufthansa Welcome Lounge for a shower (they are exquisite), then walk to an ATM near the train station to get euros, then walk back through security to the gate of my connecting flight. If I rush, I can do it all in 90 minutes. The Frankfurt airport is much bigger than you’d think. The maps lead you to think that airport isn’t that big, but once you enter you are overwhelmed by the sheer distance between gates. The concourses stretch forever and just fade out in the distance. And when you get through security, you must walk through a huge gift shop to reach your gates.
On the other hand, Berlin’s Tegel airport has the shortest walks of any airport I’ve seen. You walk off the jetway and hit the baggage claim immediately, and then you walk out a door and it’s only a few steps to an airport exit and the roadside curb. I laughed out loud the first time I saw it. I’ve never understood why more airports couldn’t follow the Tegel design. And they’re going to shut Tegel down, sadly, if they can ever get their act together with the new Berlin Brandenburg airport.