Air transport SCIENCE & RESEARCH International Transportation (71) 1 | 2019 45 Take off in the city centre The (almost) forgotten town terminals City Air Terminals, Flight passengers, Check-in, Travelling Many airports are located outside the cities. The way there is left to the travellers. They lug their suitcases, squeeze into public transport, pay a lot of money for taxis or recruit relatives as shuttle drivers. Once upon a time, many metropolises had large city terminals where airlines checked in their passengers and took them directly to the airport by bus or train. Today, these terminals have disappeared from collective memory and from the cityscape. Nevertheless, it is worth taking a look back, because they could return. Thomas N. Kirstein H istoriography has forgotten the city terminals. While it does pay attention to the airports, the existence of the city terminals can at best only be guessed at from a few side sentences of a few essays and monographs. Consequently, the present text is based almost exclusively on sources from the period under study. These include transport and aviation journals 1 , newspapers as well as flight schedules, air travel brochures and the publications of air traffic organisations. 2 Check in at the city centre Commercial air transport started after the First World War. Because airline tickets cost more than first-class train or ship tickets, many passengers came from the upper class and expected a lot of service. Among other things, they wanted to take off from the city centre and not from a faraway airfield in the middle of nowhere. This was how travellers knew it from the railway, whose stations they quickly reached by foot, carriage or taxi. The shipping companies also welcomed their passengers at the inland railway stations and brought them by course wagons or boat trains directly to the pier, where the ocean liners were already waiting. So the airlines followed the habits of their customers and opened check-in points in the city centres. Checking in at the city centre became so commonplace, that many timetable brochures already showed the departure time at the city office instead of the departure time at the airport. In London, one of the most important hubs of air traffic, about three quarters of all passengers checked in at the City. 3 An English aviation expert wrote in 1935: “You start from Imperial Airways office at Victoria Station, where passengers and baggage are weighed, luggage is labelled and passports are taken away. You drive to Croydon in a comfortable coach and within five minutes of arrival at the airport of London you are sitting in the machine...” 4 In addition, travellers were already informed at the city office if their flight was delayed, cancelled or fully booked. While still in the city centre, passengers could quickly change to an alternative means of transport, go back home or to their hotel, or at minimum spend the waiting time more pleasantly. Furthermore, the airlines had to transport all passengers who showed up on time at the city office on their booked plane. If the transfer bus was stuck in a traffic jam or the airport train broke down, the aeroplane had to wait. From town office to town terminal At the beginning of air traffic small city offices were still sufficient. They were located in shops or exclusive hotels. Passengers bought their tickets here, checked in their luggage and boarded the transfer buses to the airport. In the hotel lobby, travellers could wait in comfort, dine in the restaurant or have a drink at the bar. The world’s first city office opened in 1921 on the Leidseplain in Amsterdam. The kiosk-like building belonged to KLM and stood directly in front of one of the city’s most exclusive hotels. In the first year of service, 1,700 passengers were handled. 5 (see figure 1) The number of air travellers increased rapidly, especially in Europe and North America. At the end of the interwar period, for example, around 300,000 passengers a year flew in Germany and in the USA even three million. As a consequence, the first large town terminals were built. They were equipped with spacious ticket halls, bars and restaurants, shops for travel necessities and newspapers, money exchange offices, air freight offices, telephone boxes as well as parking and manoeuvring areas for taxis and airport buses. Some even offered Figure 1: City office of KLM in Amsterdam, around 1925 Image source: KLM-MAI SCIENCE & RESEARCH Air transport International Transportation (71) 1 | 2019 46 a hairdresser, a post office or a hotel agency. Many of the terminals were located near the main railway stations, because many passengers arrived, departed or continued their journey by train. Rail and air traffic were still closely linked. The terminals were operated by the airlines or the municipality, which rented them to one or more airlines. And quite incidentally, the large buildings in the middle of the cities advertised air travel. One of the first large town terminals was the Victoria Airways Terminus in London. It opened in the summer of 1939 and belonged to the semi-state-owned Imperial Airways. The Art Déco building had four floors, topped by a seven-storey clock tower. Winged statues soared skyward above the main entrance. Bus platforms, taxi ranks and the driveway for automobiles were located inside, so that travellers remained dry even in London’s rainy weather. The spacious counter hall stretched over two floors and received expensive wall panels made of Canadian birch and Burmese teak. Directly behind the terminal, special trains departed for Gatwick airport and Southampton’s flying boat harbour. Buses shuttled to Croydon, the largest airport of London 6 (figure 2). An even larger city terminal was built in New York. Its narrow side looked directly towards the main entrance of Grand Central Station. The four-storey Art Déco building housed six major airlines, including Pan American, Eastern, United and American. In addition to the usual facilities, there was a cinema to shorten waiting times for travellers. After the Second World War passenger numbers continued to rise steadily. Larger and more economical propeller planes now carried up to 100 passengers, and many metropolises demanded new town terminals. For, as the “Aeroplane” wrote: “The … passenger is travelling from, say, London to New York, and not from some technologically equipped desert near Staines to some similar area beside Jamaica Bay, Long Island! ” 7 The architectural styles of the new city terminals were varied. The neo-baroque Aérogare in Paris demonstrated classical elegance. It originally served as the train station for the Paris World’s Fairs and still stands today on the Esplanade des Invalides, overlooking the Eiffel Tower, Invalides Cathedral and Pont Alexandre. Air France took over the building in 1946, preserving the neo-baroque façade while the wilted grandeur inside gave way to a late Art Déco. The main hall measured 96 by 24 metres. In addition, there were 12,000 square metres in the basement. The airport transfer was provided by buses. 8 The annual passenger numbers increased from 400,000 to 1.3 million in the first ten years of service. In 1959, the facility was expanded and henceforth handled up to 1,000 passengers per hour 9 (see figures 3 and 4). An example of a more modern architecture was presented by the Sabena town terminal in Brussels. The building by Maxime Brunfaut, a student of Victor Horta, opened in 1953 right next to the main railway station. The main façade corresponds to streamlined modernism and thus to an architecture influenced by Bauhaus. Inside, sweeping spiral staircases continued the streamline theme, while fine wooden panels conveyed elegance. The lower three floors offered the usual check-in and service facilities and a restaurant with a large summer terrace. An escalator led from the terminal directly to the platform Figure 2: Victoria Airways Terminus, Buckingham Palace Road, London Image source: Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin Figure 3: Narrow side of the Aérogare des Invalides in Paris Image source: Musée Air France, Paris Figure 4: Check-in hall of the Aérogare des Invalides Image source: Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin Air transport SCIENCE & RESEARCH International Transportation (71) 1 | 2019 47 from which railcar trains shuttled to Melsbroek Airport. At times, passengers were even checked in on the train. Although this procedure saved passengers time, it proved to be too circumstantial 10 (see figures 5 and-6). The largest town terminal in the world opened in 1963 in London, whose airports already counted six million of passengers per year. The West London Air Terminal stood in Kensington and was projected to handle seven million travellers a year. The building by Sir John Burnet, Tait and Partners followed the International Style, well suited for an air travel terminal. Non-specific, dematerialised glass facades and huge bright interiors heralded a globalised future. Curved driveways provided a sculptural counterpoint and connected the building to its surroundings. Kensington primarily served the European traffic, while the old Victoria Terminus focused on long-haul passengers 11 (see figure 7). An interesting mixture of town terminal and hotel opened in Copenhagen in 1960. The minimalist building by Arne Jacobsen achieved architectural fame, because it represents the perfectly executed model of international modernism consisting of a flat podium building and a skyscraper towering above it. Jacobsen countered this geometric rigidity and the coolness of the glass façades inside with organic furniture, whose armchairs even became style icons of the 20th century. 12 The owner of the building was the Scandinavian Airlines System, which made Copenhagen one of the hubs of global air traffic. Thus, the 275 guest rooms in the tower of the “SAS House” also served those passengers who wanted to take a break from their exhausting long-haul flight. Propeller planes still took around 16 hours to New York, 24 hours to the west coast of America and 32 hours to the Far East. If connecting flights were still required in Copenhagen, an overnight stay was a good option (see figure 8). In America, the town terminals of the post-war period were architecturally less sophisticated than those in the Old World. Typical were also good road connections and many parking spaces, because mass motorisation was already well advanced in the New World. Hence, many passengers drove to the town terminal by car. But the narrow inner cities were lacking parking space, and so many terminals became multi-storey car parks. Typical examples were the East and Westside Terminal in Manhattan. Both were located near the large tunnels and waterfront streets on the Hudson and the East River and offered numerous parking spaces on the roof and in the basement. 13 Town terminals were only built in the large metropolises. Elsewhere, the small city offices continued to be sufficient. Several airlines preferred to handle their customers individually anyway, instead of sharing a terminal with other airlines. In Germany, too, there were only city offices, as German air traffic was more evenly distributed among the individual airports. 14 Moreover, there was no major German airline that would have pushed the establishment of large city terminals. Lufthansa’s new start was rather modest. Also sprawling cities without a clear centre often decided against central city terminals. In particular, American metropolitan regions such as Los Angeles preferred airport buses that ran through the entire urban area on fixed routes, serving several stops in succession. The distribution of passengers to the different flights and the check-in and check-out took place then at the airport. In Los Angeles, the bus frequency even reached 10 to 15 minutes. 15 The transfer between town terminals and airports was mainly done by buses. Road transport was considered contemporary and buses modern and practical, especially since one bus per aircraft was sufficient in the era of propeller planes. Passengers could be put on buses separately after their flights and brought to the airfield immediately at departure time. To guide passengers to the right buses in the hustle and bustle of the city terminals, their directional signs already showed the destination of the respective flight. Many transfer buses were custom-made with large luggage compartments, because passengers and luggage were carried on the same bus. However, some airlines preferred commercial buses and luggage tags. BOAC and BEA even used typical London double-deckers at times. Rail connections between town terminals and airports were rare. Many city centres lacked the space for additional rail lines, and many transport planners doubted their profitability, as the number of passengers was still modest in many places. Moreover, rail supporters argued about the type of rail connection. Some wanted futuristic monorail systems, others wanted exclusive rapid train lines. 16 Such plans nearly always failed because of their high costs and retarded the inte- Figure 5: Town Terminal of Sabena in Brussels Image source: Royal Army Museum Brussels Figure 6: Interior of the Sabena terminal Image source: Royal Army Museum Brussels SCIENCE & RESEARCH Air transport International Transportation (71) 1 | 2019 48 gration of the airports into the local suburban or underground rail networks. 17 In some towns, also helicopters flew between airports and city terminals. 18 However, only New York Airways achieved any notable success. From 1952, it established a network of helicopter routes between the three airports and various points in the city. In peak years, the New York helicopters carried half a million passengers. For this, New York Airways used Boeing Vertol with 25 passenger seats from 1962 onwards 19 and later even Sikorski S 61 with 28 seats. 20 The most spectacular terminal was on the roof of the PanAm Building, 250 metres above the Manhattan street canyons. 21 Express lifts took passengers upstairs, where an elegant lounge with upholstered armchairs and wooden wall panels awaited them. But the authorities raised safety concerns and criticised the noise of the helicopters. From 1968, operations were suspended. When it started again in 1977, a disaster happened: The wheel of a helicopter ready for take-off broke, the machine tilted, and the running rotor killed four passengers. Another victim died on the road from falling debris. Thus ended the helicopter service from the roof of the Pan Am Building. 22 Public scheduled services with helicopters remained loss-making worldwide. Their operating costs were too high. 23 Even the New York Airways constantly needed government aid and subsidies from the airlines. In 1979, it too finally gave up. 24 The decline of the town terminals In the late 1950s, the town terminal system ran into serious difficulties for the first time, as the increasing passenger numbers could hardly be handled in some cities. Although more and more travellers went themselves to the airport, the number of passengers handled at the city terminals rose rapidly in line with the general increase in passenger numbers. A typical example was London. While the share of city terminal users dropped to 50 per cent by 1960. 25 their numbers rose into the millions. 26 Many city centres were too narrow for building extensions or new terminals, and the edges of the city centres lacked the direct connection to the main railway stations. 27 Another problem was the increasing number of cars jamming the city centres. Airport buses were also increasingly stuck in traffic jams while planes ready for take-off had to wait for their passengers. 28 The Aérogare in Paris already capitulated in 1961. From then on, Air France checked all Paris passengers in and out at the airport. 29 The town terminals also generated extra costs, which also had an impact on the ticket prices. Consequently, passengers who went directly to the airport paid for those who used the city terminal and were chauffeured by the airline. 30 In America, users of city terminals paid for airport transfers early on, whereas in Europe transfers remained free for a long time. Airlines that charged money for the transfer often demanded steep prices. In New York, for example, the transfer bus cost three to ten times as much as public transport. 31 In the 1960s, the city terminals became noticeably less attractive for travellers. Since the new jets halved flight times, the often longer transfer times via the city terminal became more significant. 32 In addition, the constantly growing number of private cars made a distant Figure 7: West London Airways Terminal (architectural model) Image source: TU Berlin Figure 8: SAS House in Copenhagen with transfer bus (left) Image source: SAS Figure 9: Proposal for the conversion of the Berlin ICC into a city terminal by architectural office Gisbert Dreyer, Berlin Image source: Gisbert Dreye Air transport SCIENCE & RESEARCH International Transportation (71) 1 | 2019 49 airport more easily accessible. In London or New York, over 40 per cent of passengers drove to the airport by car as early as the mid-1960s. 33 Especially travellers from outside the city centres now headed directly to the airport without taking the indirect route via the city entre. The final blow to city terminals came in the 1970s, as many transport planners finally gave up on the idea of separate transport systems between airports and city centres. Now the way was clear for the full integration of airports into the public transport network, and another reason for using a town terminal disappeared. 34 Moreover, 90 per cent of passengers meanwhile flew economy class. These Travellers often valued the cheap underground or suburban trains more than the airline buses which were now chargeable almost everywhere. Fewer and fewer travellers were using the city terminals. When London’s Heathrow Airport received its underground connection, the number of passengers checked in at the city centre halved. Even the venerable Victoria Terminus handled only still every twelfth longhaul passenger of British Airways around 1980. 35 In 1965, it had been one in three. 36 New York showed a similar development. At the West Side Air Terminal, the annual number of passengers had fallen by 60 per cent since it opened. It closed in 1972. 37 The East Side Terminal followed twelve years later. 38 The last large town terminals closed in the 1980s. They included the West London Air Terminal and the Victoria Airways Terminus. Some of the city terminals were demolished, others now serve as residential or commercial buildings. Only the Aérogare in Paris still reminds of days gone by. The Art Déco charm has long since disappeared, but some ticket counters are still open and the luminous Air France sign shines across the Esplanade des Invalides every evening. A look into the future The reasons for the disappearance of the city terminals still seem to be relevant. Furthermore, the now even stricter security checks make it more difficult to divide passenger handling between two locations, and the bottomless plunge in air fares makes the cost problem of a town terminal more congested topical than ever. On the other hand, city-centre terminals could help major airports to cope with their passenger volumes or form the main hub for the networking of several airports in a region. Certainly, many passengers would also appreciate the service of a city terminal. After all, the airports were never completely deserted even in their final days, and the number of air travellers has multiplied in the last forty years. It is also interesting to see the revival of the idea of exclusive high-speed trains between cities and airports, for example as maglev trains. These routes could well end in a classic town terminal, especially because non-stop travel to the airport solves the problem of security checks. Such ideas already exist (see figure 9). So the town terminal could see a renaissance. ■ 1 Examples of significant periodicals of the research period are: The Aeroplane, London; Flight (later Flight International), London; Interavia, Genf; Aviation (later Aviation Week), New York. 2 Source material was found in the following archives (among others): Deutsches Museum München; Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin; Royal Army Museum, Brussels; Musée Air France, Paris; SAS Archiv Kopenhagen. 3 This number dates is from 1950 and may have been even higher in the interwar period. D.J.W. Swann: Movement of Passengers and Baggage before and after Flight. In: The Journal of the Institute of Transport, September 1959, p. 173. 4 McAllery, C.M. : To Baghdad and back by Imperial Airways. In: The Aeroplane, 4 April 1934, p. 577. 5 KLM, The first 30 Years, brochure (1949). Archive Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin, III.3.02302. 6 Imperial Headquarters (1939). In: Flight, 15 Juni, p. 610 f. 7 “Staines” and “Long Island” means the airports at Heathrow and Idlewild. Town Terminals are Essential (1957). In: The Aeroplane, 25 Oktober, p. 608. 8 Tagnard, J. (1946): Flughof Paris. In: Interavia, July, p. 24f. - Air France, Réseau Aérien Mondial, Prospect (1948). Archive Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin, III.3.02168. 9 Esso Air World (1949), February, p. 30. - Ausbau des Pariser Air Terminal (1958). In: Internationales Archiv für Verkehrswesen, Nr. 19, p. 405. - Flughof Paris (1958). In: Interavia, 1958, p. 404. 10 Sabena’s New Town Terminal (1958). In: The Aeroplane, 16 April, p. 476. - Sabenas New Air Terminus in Brussels (1954). In: Shell Aviation News, Juni, p. 9. - New Townterminal (1954). In: Airports & Air Transportation, May/ June, S. 7. 11 BOAC (1963). In: Flight International, 14 November, p. 789. 12 Sheridan, M. (2001): The SAS-House and the Work of Arne Jacobsen. London. - Schofeld, I. (2012): Arne Jacobsens SAS Hotel in Kopenhagen. Saarbrücken. 13 New Passenger Terminal for New York (1951). In: Shell Aviation News, September, p. 21. - Swank Airlines Terminal. In: Aviation Week, 1951, 27 August, p. 65. - New York’s West Side Airlines Terminal (1955). In: Aviation Week, 26 September, p. 109. 14 Even Frankfurt am Main, the city offices of the various airlines were sufficient. Seiler, W. (1955): Die Luftfahrt setzt Akzente. In: Nachrichten Flughafen Rhein-Main, Issue 3, p. 16. 15 Air Commerce: Profitability through Productivity (1964). In: Flight International, 16 January, p. 85. 16 Neufville, R. de: Airport Systems Planning (1976). London 1976, p. 80 ff. 17 Neufville, S. 92. 18 On the early discussion about the use of helicopters, see among others: Cummings, R.: Operational Economics of Scheduled Helicopter Transportation (1954). In: Shell Aviation News, May, p. 7 f. - Edwards, J.: Economic Considerations of the Transport Helicopter (1954). In: Shell Aviation News, Mai, S. 9 f. 19 Kreuzer, H. (1999): Propellerverkehrsflugzeuge seit 1945. Erding, p. 165. 20 New York Airways (1980). In: Flight International, 26 July, p. 331. 21 Today Met Life Building. 22 Copter Crash on Pan American Building (1977). In: New York Daily News, 17 May, p. 1. 23 Dienel, H.: Verkehrsvisionen in den 1950er Jahren: Hubschrauber für den Personenverkehr (1997). In: Technikgeschichte, Bd. 64, Nr. 4, p. 295 - 303. - Neufville, S. 83. 24 New York Airways (1980). In: Flight International, 26 July, S. 331. - Helicopter Airlines in the United States (1977). In: Journal of Transport History, Februay. 25 Swann, p. 173. 26 Metropolitan Airports - London (1961). In: The Aeroplane, 29 June, p. 754. 27 The London Airport Route (1962). In: Flight International, 19 April, p. 610. 28 Beschleunigung der Fluggast- und Frachtabfertigung im internationalen Verkehr (1960). In: Europa-Verkehr, 31. Dezember, p. 267. 29 Metropolitan Airports (1961). In: The Aeroplane, 29 June, p. 754. 30 Neufville, p. 83 and 93. 31 Prices around 1970. They varied according to airport and starting or ending point in the city centre. Grant, A: Get me to the plane on time (1971). In: New York Magazine, 1 March, p. 63. 32 Beschleunigung der Fluggast- und Frachtabfertigung im internationalen Verkehr (1960). In: Europa-Verkehr, 31 December, p. 267. 33 Figures for the airports Heathrow, La Guardia and Kennedy. Towards a Jumbo Fumble (1967). In: Flight International, 5 October, p. 555. 34 Neufville, S. 92. 35 British Airways was formed in 1970 from BEA and BOAC. 36 BA plans Victoria terminal closure (1980). In: Flight International, 4 Oktober, p. 1310. 37 McFadden, R (1972): West Side Air Terminal to be closed this Year. In: The New York Times, 11 August, p. 1. 38 Berger, J. (1985): Airlines Terminal on East Side sold. In: The New York Times, 14 February, p. 2. Thomas N. Kirstein, Dr. History of Technology, Technische Universität Berlin (DE) thomas.kirstein@campus.tu-berlin.de