Travel

Five Stress-Free European Entry Airports

By David Landsel, Airfarewatchdog.com

posted: 23 May 2008 03:32 pm ET

: Not only is Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport a stress-free 'Silent Airport,' with no PA announcements, but it also has excellent light-rail service to the center of the city and train service across the Skagerrak to Sweden. Credit: Arne V. Petersen, Copenhagen Airports A/S
: Rather than having to fly to confusing and crowded Charles de Gaulle, passengers flying to Paris from New York now can fly to Orly Airport, easier to navigate and a convenient journey to and from the city. Thanks to the new air agreement between the U.S. and the European Union, British Airways-backed Open Skies is launching service from New York JFK to Orly on June 19, 2008. Credit: Open Skies

If you thought Chicago's O'Hare or Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson had the lock on making your blood pressure rise off the charts, then you obviously haven't dealt with London-Heathrow's Terminal 4 lately.

Cramped ticketing areas. Security lines that feel almost Ellis Island-esque in proportion and futility; marathon-like sprints between gates; thousands of places to sit, but all of them taken. Sure, there's a shopping area bigger than many people's hometown malls. But what's the use when you've got no time? Oh, and here's the fun part: Plans for the airport to be able to breathe a little easier have not come to fruition with the advent of the troubled new Terminal 5.

There are other ways to go, luckily. Need to get to London? Fly American's convenient, twice-daily service to London Stansted Airport, across town. Or don't even go into town: Stansted has got flights all over the continent, and at the same time it's about the same size as New York's LaGuardia Airport — but Stansted has a far more sensible layout and more convenient transport links.

Take a look at this airport and four more stress-free gateways to the Old World that Airfarewatchdog.com has found. Be warned: Once you ditch the big guys, you'll have a hard time going back.

Best gateway to Italy: Pisa

It's known formally as Galileo Galilei; you'll come to know it as the best way to get to Florence, the Tuscany of picture books or the resorts of the Italian Riviera — which are all just a short distance away. Pisa's airport has just a handful of gates, no serious crowding and an easy-to-grasp layout, not to mention a train station attached to the terminal: You'll have this one figured out in about 15 minutes. It's no gleaming jewel, but it is convenient — on a recent visit, transit time from my seat on the plane to Pisa's Centrale station was about 20 minutes, so fast my head was spinning when I arrived at my destination.

Get there: Delta flies nonstop daily from New York JFK
Best way out: Trains leave regularly for Pisa-Centrale, 4-5 minutes away, where you can reach Florence (1 hour), Santa Margherita Ligure/Portofino (2 hours) and Rome (3 hours 15 minutes) with a one-seat ride. Check schedules at trenitalia.it: Some trains, particularly from Florence, run directly into the airport.
Info: www.pisa-airport.com

Best gateway to the UK: London Stansted

Designed by Sir Norman Foster in a sensible and straightforward manner, and with a train station downstairs from the arrivals hall, London Stansted Airport only has two drawbacks. One: It's so easy to like that everyone's using it. Two: Some people find the 45-minute train ride on the Stansted Express a little too much, considering Heathrow's express trains deliver you to town in just 20 minutes or so. What they are forgetting is how much time arriving passengers at Heathrow spend walking from their remote gate to customs, waiting in customs, waiting for luggage, walking through arrivals to the tunnels to the train station. (It's a lot of walking.)

At Stansted, you arrive, you hop on a tram and are delivered to customs in a couple of minutes, where yours is usually the only international flight arriving, meaning a speedy trip through the red tape. If you have no checked luggage, you can be on the train platform within minutes of landing. Or, if you're headed to the continent, choose from a vast array of low-fare airlines departing from the other side of the terminal. A couple more hours, and you could be anywhere from Bucharest (Blue Air Transport) to Bydgoszcz, Poland (Ryanair).

Get there: American Airlines operates two daily flights from JFK
Best way out: The Stansted Express train (stanstedexpress.com) offers frequent service to Liverpool Street Station in the heart of the City of London financial district in approximately 45 minutes. Frequent and very affordable bus service is available to London and the region from Stansted's terminal-adjacent bus station.
Info: stanstedairport.com

The no-stress major hub: Amsterdam Schiphol

Arriving here can be as disorienting as at any major airport, but unlike, say, Paris Charles de Gaulle, getting your bearings at Schiphol takes only a minute. No matter where you arrive, you are deposited in the same main hall, where you'll find train-ticket machines, directions to the trains and a host of other services. The airport is famous for its bells and whistles — a small branch of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum and a spa, for instance — so it’s easy to get distracted.

Get there: Daily service on Northwest/KLM from Chicago, Newark, JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Minneapolis, Detroit and Boston; Delta from JFK, Cincinnati and Atlanta; US Airways from Philadelphia; Continental from Newark and Houston; and direct service from Los Angeles and Denver on United, via Chicago or Washington.
Best way out: Amsterdam's Centraal station is 15 minutes via train, all other destinations within the country are generally less than 2 hours 30 minutes away — sometimes nonstop, or with one convenient change. Timetables and fares at www.ns.nl. From Amsterdam Central, catch the high-speed Thalys service with swift service to Brussels (2 hours 40 minutes) and beyond (thalys.com).
Info: www.schiphol.nl

Quiet and convenient: Copenhagen Kastrup

Let's hear it — or, in this case, not hear it — for peace and quiet! Anyone who spends lots of time in airports knows that noise is a major contributor to rising stress levels. Copenhagen calls itself a "Silent Airport," meaning no announcements, just ample monitors for you to, er, monitor.

Also: You know how you see these big, taxpayer-funded "intermodal transit hubs" that cities in the United States like to build, and which often consist of nothing but a garish, monstrous parking garage, a bus stop and — if you're lucky — infrequent, slow-moving train service? Disappointing! There's none of that at Copenhagen's convenient airport. International passengers walk out of arrivals straight to a metro station for sleek light-rail service into town and a train station, for service that bypasses Copenhagen altogether. The train whisks you over to Malmö and Götebörg in Sweden, where you can change for more destinations.

Airfarewatchdog.com recently found peak summer fares to Copenhagen for as little as $650 round-trip, including taxes and fuel surcharges.

Get there: SAS partners with United to offer daily nonstops from Newark, Washington, Chicago and Seattle. Delta flies daily from Atlanta and Continental flies daily from Newark.
Best way out: Metro to Copenhagen's Norreport station, 15 minutes (www.m.dk); train to Malmö, 20 minutes (www.sj.se)
Info: www.cph.de

The Charles de Gaulle alternative: Paris Orly

There are other ways to get to France, but most people end up suffering through Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, a brutalist, identikit complex that gives you constant déja vu as you wander around, wondering, wasn't I just here? (No — it just looks like where you came from.)

Orly isn't pretty — oh, heck, it's a relic — and it's not quiet, but considering the alternative, it's a godsend. In January 2007, an all-business class service, L'Avion, launched service to Orly from Newark, meaning those who could pay the (admittedly good-value) fares no longer had to contend with CDG. This summer, however, with the beginning of the European Union-U.S. Open Skies agreement, which loosens restrictions on who may fly where across the Atlantic, Paris' diminutive Orly airport will receive new service from New York.

First to launch, on June 19, will be the new British Airways-backed Open Skies airline, which will feature three-class service. Delta was planning to start service from New York in June, but has tabled it for now and now expects to begin service at a later date.

Get there: L'Avion daily nonstops from Newark (lavion.com); Open Skies from JFK beginning on June 19 (flyopenskies.com); Delta from JFK, start date unannounced.
Best way out: The swift, automated, in-terminal Orlyval tram connects passengers to the RER 'B' train line, with fast service to Paris' Left Bank, Right Bank (30 minutes to Chatelet-Les Halles), Gare du Nord (connect to Eurostar) and Charles De Gaulle airport (www.ratp.info).
Info: www.aeroportsdeparis.fr