The Airport is the New Third Place

Last week, I sent a tweet that went went viral, racking up over 20 million views. It was probably because it was a common observation. Every time I pass through the airport, I notice these super high-end luxury stores are always empty. Are these stores making money on sales? Or is their main purpose to advertise their brand to international travelers?

In this newsletter I’m going to discuss the airport. All of us are spending more time in them. The airport is embedding itself into modern life. Travel isn't just a minor thing anymore; it's become a major component of middle class existence. And the Airport is where we are spending a lot of our time.

Flying is no longer the exclusive domain of the wealthy. Today, a cross-section of society occupies the skies. If one considers airline passengers as a proxy for airport traffic, it becomes evident that the rich constitute a minuscule portion of the customer base. The truly wealthy have migrated to private jets. They aren’t sitting at the airport like rest of us are.

We're also witnessing a shift in the tourism landscape, with emerging micro-personas like solo travelers, experience seekers, and social media influencers redefining the way we travel. Travel vlogs are some of the most popular content on Youtube.

The Airport is Evolving

The Airport is evolving with this new demand. For decades, airport used to resemble a train station. A few chairs and seats for people to wait until their flight. Simple and efficient.

Now the airport is a luxury mall. You can spend an entire day at the Singapore airport and feel like you are at a resort. But this is just the beginning. The airport is most likely going to evolve from a luxury mall to something else. Some say a mini-city but others say an entire Artificial Intelligence and robot enabled space station. Layovers won’t be seen as nightmares anymore but maybe as part of the vacation itself.

In This Newsletter

1) 8 Observations About the Airport

• The Airport Economy is Bizarre

• The Airport Resembles Living in an Authoritarian State

• Modern Airports Are An Impressive Human Achievement

• Airports Still Struggle With Clear and Intuitive Signage

• Why Do Women Travel More Than Men?

• Refinement Culture is Good For Airport Design

• Why is Air Travel More Fatiguing Than Trains or Car Travel?

• Air Travel Means Every Summer Will Be A Virus Season From Now On

Ten Observations About the Airport

1) The Airport Economy is Bizarre

Airports are economic zones. But they’re not normal.

For one thing, travelers are captive. They can’t leave. So you get price gouging like the $15 Turkey Sandwich.

Another odd thing is that Airports also are places where you buy a ticket and you may not board a plane. You’ll be thrown into an auction, suddenly. Airlines often overbook flights to ensure they fly full, knowing some passengers will miss the flight. When too many people show up, the airline asks for volunteers to take a later flight, offering compensation. No other business does this.

If not enough volunteers come forward, they have to involuntarily deny boarding to some passengers. The process usually involves a reverse auction at the gate, where the airline offers vouchers or gift cards, gradually increasing the amount until they get the necessary volunteers. Gate agents have the authority to offer more compensation than most passengers realize, making quick negotiations potentially very lucrative.

The common wisdom is that you need to be at the airport early. But that’s not really true.

Here are your options to get to the airport 45 minutes or an hour to your flight:

1) Purchase a first class ticket

2) Commit to 75k miles annually

3) Use skycap service, a $10 "secret agreement" that can cut wait time by a third or more. At the last airport I checked, there were 200 people in the regular line, 5 in the premium line, and 1 in the skycap line.

4) Clear membership costs $189 per year, while Global Entry is similar but renewed every five years. With either, 1.5 hours is usually sufficient; with both, an hour is plenty, assuming no checked bags.

5) Don't check luggage and use PreCheck makes it feasible to show up at the curb an hour before departure at 99% of airports. For 99.9%, allow 1 hour and 15 minutes.

2) Airports Are Like Living in an Authoritarian State

The airport is the closest experience to living in an authoritarian state that most of us will ever encounter, especially if we live in democracies with civil rights. Picture a police state, like Dubai but even worse, and filled with luxury stores, great restaurants, and a pleasant atmosphere.

Cameras and uniformed security personnel are everywhere, scanning the crowd, enforcing a strict sense of order. Yet, just beyond them are gleaming high-end boutiques display the latest fashions, and gourmet restaurants. The tension is there; every movement is monitored, every bag scrutinized, yet there’s an underlying current of comfort and indulgence. In the US it’s an interesting feeling because the US tolerates a lot more crime and disorder than other countries.

Sometimes there are loopholes in the law that you weren’t aware of that only exist at the airport.

A few months ago, flying into JFK from Warsaw, I was stopped by a Customs and Border Protection agent. After clearing security and customs, I was on my way to pick up my luggage when the agent asked me to follow him into a back room. As a U.S. citizen, I thought my Fourth Amendment rights would protect me, but things were more complicated. In a small office, two agents questioned me about my trip. They asked if I had been to Ukraine to fight in the war or to Syria from Istanbul. They searched my bag, scrutinized my laptop, and demanded my social media accounts. The invasive interrogation shocked me, revealing a loophole: at the border. U.S. citizens can be searched and questioned extensively without the usual constitutional protections, a little-known exception to the Fourth Amendment. It’s a loophole.

3) Why is Air Travel More Fatiguing Than Trains or Car Travel?

Traveling by air is the fastest and most efficient way to get from point A to point B. But there is a cost. Have you noticed Air travel just wears you down more than other forms of travel? This isn’t necessarily the same type of tired you have after a car trip or a train ride. There’s even a sense of grossness after you land. You just feel like you need a shower.

Airports need to be places where you can feel better. Think of a health spa. Airports should introduce showers, zones for purified air, sleep pods, and exercise equipment that allows you shake off the dirty feeling of flying.

There are legitimate reasons why the air travel makes us tired

1) Jet Lag: You board a flight, cross a few time zones, and suddenly your body’s internal clock goes haywire. You land, but your body’s still somewhere over the Atlantic, completely out of sync with the local time. The result? You can’t sleep when you should, you’re tired when you shouldn’t be, and everything feels like a haze. Daytime drowsiness takes over, and you're left navigating the world like a zombie, fighting through a fog of fatigue that just won’t lift.

2) Cabin Pressure: Up in the air, planes are pressurized to keep us breathing, but it's nowhere near what you'd get at sea level. This drop in pressure brings on hypoxia—your body’s starving for oxygen. You start to feel tired, maybe a little dizzy, like you're not all there. It’s like someone’s slowly turning down the oxygen dial, and your brain’s the first to notice. You get sluggish, everything feels off, and your thoughts become a jumble.

3) Air Quality: You're breathing in this recycled air that’s drier than the desert. It's like being trapped in a tin can with the air conditioning on overdrive. After hours of inhaling that crap, your respiratory system is shot. Your throat feels scratchy, your nose is irritated, and you’re just plain tired.

4) Proximity to People: Proximity to people on a plane is its own brand of hell. You’re crammed shoulder to shoulder, seats getting smaller while people keep getting bigger. Stuck next to strangers for hours, every inch of personal space obliterated. It’s like a pressure cooker for discomfort, magnifying every little annoyance until it drives you crazy. The constant friction, the lack of privacy—it all wears you down, making you feel worse with every passing mile.

4) Why Do Women Travel More Than Men?

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