A Love Letter to the Airport

You know, growing up in the great American West, if there was someplace we needed to be, we drove there. Groceries? Drive 20 minutes into town. A movie? Drive an hour into one of the bigger towns. Vacation? Drive four to 12 hours to the destination, depending on what family lived along the way. The thought of actually flying somewhere was the stuff of fantasy, the sort of thing you saw on television. Well, since those days (longer ago than I care to admit), I’ve logged more hours on airplanes than I can count. Between going off to college and time in the military and travel for work and even (believe it or not) a vacation or two, I’ve had a chance to see a fair share of commercial airports across the country. And my point being, I wouldn’t trade the Reno-Tahoe International Airport for any single one of the others. Photo at left: Pixabay, Robythai543.

I mean, just look at it. The parking is simple. You park inside or outside and walk across the street to the terminal. No shuttles, no hiking for miles. The ticket counters are on the right, the security checkpoint is in the center and the baggage claim is on the left. Now, as far as from the security point and on through to the concourse gates, I have to say that I kind of preferred the layout and atmosphere before they did all the new renovations over the past few years, but I can live with it. All of this, plus the fact that you can get to or from the airport in about 15 minutes from just about anyplace in town, just compare that to San Francisco or Salt Lake City. (And Denver? Forget about it; the airport's like another day's travel by car into the city.) And at pretty much any of the facilities I can think of on the eastern half of the country, you've also got the horrendous traffic to deal with to and from the airport itself. Photo at right: Wikimedia Commons, Ken Lund.

Even though I rarely lack conviction in my opinions, it’s always nice to be able to point to third-party validation. This time it comes in the form of an online publication called The Discoverer Blog. Earlier this year, they picked Reno-Tahoe International as one of the nation’s Best Small Airports, noting that it is the best way to fly to get to Tahoe (instead of flying into San Francisco and driving up) and that it “has all the trappings of a big city airport – including slot machines – without the hassle.”

As of earlier this month, Reno-Tahoe International announced a batch of new seasonal and year-round flights at the airport. The airline JSX is adding four weekly flights to the L.A. area, mid-December will see United add daily non-stop service to Houston, Southwest is resuming seasonal daily non-stop service to Dallas from January to April and in February, Allegiant will add two flights a week to Orange County in California. These flights are all in addition to ones added over the past year since the summer that included Delta’s service to L.A. and Atlanta, Alaska Air’s service to L.A. and Palm Springs, and flights to Burbank by JSX.

For those of us who might still be skittish about flying in the current state of health and safety protocols, one of my recent writing assignments was an interview with a travel agent, and I’ll pass along to you what she shared with me. She said that she personally has never seen the airplanes be cleaner and that the studies she’s seen indicate that due to the air filtration systems, being on a plane is about the safest place that you can be indoors. And before you get the impression that I’m sitting here telling everyone to go get on a plane, she also said that flying at this time all comes down to someone’s own personal comfort level. As far as the Reno airport’s efforts to make customers more comfortable, they note that they have placed some 1,000 guidance stickers throughout the facility to help enforce social distancing, that they have installed plexiglass shielding at all of the ticket counters and that everyone in the terminal is required to wear a face covering. They also point to in-depth cleaning performed onsite throughout the day and their We Move You, Safely campaign designed to support and implement the State of Nevada health and safety directives. Photo at left: Facebook, Reno-Tahoe International Airport. 

So maybe you’re flying later this month for the holidays. Or maybe you’ve decided to hold off until the dust settles from the current situation. The point is that for those of us who use Reno-Tahoe International, when you do need or want to fly someplace, you’d be hard-pressed to find a less-stressful airport from which to do it.