Living a Dream: Death and Decay in the Midwest

In the summer of 2001, I visited the US Air Force Academy for a baseball camp It wasn't the first time flying alone but surely it was the most memorable for a variety of reasons. One such reason dealt with the trip to Colorado Springs. I was dropped off at Akron/Canton Regional Airport a short 10 minutes from my home. I walked into the old 1970s style, dingy brick building to board my flight to Cleveland. As long as I could remember, jet service at Akron/Canton was sparse and today would be no different. The single-story terminal was devoid of jetbridges and any boarding was done by walking onto the ramp and climbing the stairs to the tiny prop airplanes. My dad called them mosquitos in reference to their sound, relative size and annoyance as they flew low over our house day after day.

The sun had just begun to rise in its attempt to burn off the low hanging clouds found over northeast Ohio on most late spring days. By the time I deplaned in Cleveland, it was sunny and clear. I walked on the ramp again into the newly constructed D-Concourse and was met with shadowy cinderblock hallways that lead to the main terminal. When I finally made it to the top of the stairs to the second story of the main terminal, I was struck by fascination. The rising sun shined brightly in my face through the massive wall of windows on the opposite side of the terminal. Unlike most of the older airports I'd been to this was unlike anything I'd ever seen. Glass stretched from the floor to the opening of the rectangular cornicopia as far as you could see in any direction. I walked along the invisible wall to the escalator to take me to the spectacular underground walkway and before I descended, I noticed the destinations: Myrtle Beach, Charleston, New Orleans. It seemed like every airplane leaving this part of the airport was going to some vacation destination. This must be the vacation terminal, my under-developed mind mused.

In June, with the announcement that United was dehubbing, the $110 Million terminal closed forever. It is the first airport to ever have been dehubbed by the same company twice.

For most, spending any time in an airport is a miserable experience. It is a reminder of missed connections, angry crowds and an inherent feeling of being at the whim of some faceless company. To them, all airports are the same whether they are large or small and are merely places to anxiously await your next flight.

People often think I'm weird when I tell them I love airports and always have. Some sarcastically joke that it's a good thing I became a pilot. "Well, you'll be spending a lot of time in them" they tease. I love seeing how unique and different each airport is and how they've reacted to the changing airline industry. Some create finger-like terminals that stretch in every direction (Old Detroit Metro, Memphis, Cleveland, St Louis). Others built underground or above ground trains to house a completely remote "airside" terminal (Pittsburgh, Tampa, Cincinnati, Orlando) and others have moved the entire airport away from the city like in Denver or have constructed whole new terminals at a different location on the airport grounds (New Detroit Metro, Hartford, Raleigh-Durham).

While the new architecture is fascinating, so is the unchanged look of the smaller airports in the south. Greenville-Spartanburg in South Carolina, built in the 1960s, has changed very little. It's massive concrete walls and thirty-foot ceilings is a throw-back to the golden days of air travel. They are massive, maze-like cathedrals of aviation. It seems to take longer to get to your gate there than in a place like Chicago.

Unfortunately, the 2000s were not kind to the once booming airline industry and especially unkind to the areas hit the hardest by recession and a post-industrial economy, also known as the "Rust Belt." USAir, hubbed and headquartered in Pittsburgh, expanded rapidly. In the early-90s, Pittsburgh partnered with now USAirways and built a multi-billion dollar terminal featuring the first "Airmall" with over 100 shoppes at the center of the terminal complex. It was designed to be a global gateway for the booming hometown airline. Not more than a decade later, the airline declared bankruptcy and moved its hub operations to Philadelphia. The bills for the new terminal were overwhelming and its contract with the city was terminated by the bankruptcy court. While other operators like Southwest have moved in and added flights, the airport has not recovered. Whole sections of the once bustling airside terminal have been closed off. Many of the 100 shoppes have been boarded up and the terminal, on most days, is a ghost town.

Greater Pittsburgh International Airport

The longest parts of the bottom two terminals have been boarded up

Cincinnati has experienced a similar fate. With Delta Airlines booming, Cincinnati was Delta's 2nd largest hub prior to its merger with Northwest Airlines. The airport built a new remote terminal with three remote concourses to house the massive Delta operation to include a remote concourse that housed the now defunct regional airline, Comair. Following the merger, Detroit was picked to survive and Cincy was placed on the chopping block. Now, terminals 1 and 2 as well as the remote concourse C of terminal 3 that housed the regional jet operation have been boarded up and remain completely vacant. While Delta does maintain a small hub, the operation has gone from over 600 flights per day to less than 140. I flew through many of these hub airports when going back and forth from school in Colorado.

Terminals 1, 2 and Concourse C are closed permanently and remain vacant and deteriorating

When I have to wait in places like Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, instead of hiding in a corner like most pilots, I explore. I walk to areas that once housed busy gates and to newly constructed false-walls that, behind them, house thousands of square-feet of unused terminal.

My last story is from my new hometown airport of St Louis-Lambert. As a reserve pilot, I often had to spend 10 hours a day sitting in the bowels of the airport on "airport reserve." Should a need for a pilot come up, I'm there to the rescue in a matter of minutes. As that need is rare, instead of hiding in the concrete dungeon that is our crew room, I get out and explore. In the 90s, St Louis was a massive and important airport. It housed the operations of Trans World Airlines, one of the largest and most successful airlines of the 20th century. In 1985, St Louis built a brand new terminal for Ozark Airlines. A year later, the two companies merged making St Louis the largest hub in the TWA system. Due to mismanagement, however, American Airlines performed a hostile takeover of TWA in the early 2000s, liquidating much of its assets, and reducing St Louis traffic by more than three quarters. The D-Concourse, built for Ozark Airlines, is now completely closed to passengers but open to crew and employees. I often take time during my 10-hours of airport appreciation to explore the ghost airport.

All of Concourse D, the entire arm, is closed.

Long-removed advertisements on carpeted walls

All the extra chairs hide out here. The terminal was reopened for a year after the C Concourse was nearly destroyed by a tornado in 2008...hence the LCD departures and arrivals board.