re: New Orleans airport was a great experience

quote:

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Baggage claim takes way too long still for some flights. Traffic is much worse than what it was at the old airport

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Picked up a family member whose flight arrived mid-afternoon on Saturday. Getting from the Interstate onto the airport property was no problem.

But after entering airport property, getting to the arrivals dock was a complete clusterfrick. Traffic funneling through tight turns with poorly marked lanes. Taxis, Lyft drivers, and individual drivers having to merge, cross over lanes, circle through the departure dock 3 or more times. Cell phone lot full with users held hostage to avoid an even bigger gridlock at the arrival gates. Baggage claim at least 30 minutes after deboarding.

Only NOLA could spend a billion dollars, years of "planning" and construction and have something so screwed up. And all of this has nothing to do with a Loyola flyover or Interstate exit construction. The disaster is with the design of the arrivals pickup location. And that arrivals section is surrounded by airport and parking garages, so it's either impossible or ridiculously expensive to fix.