Bikes Ahoy!

Today is Bike to Work Day 2008, and Airport Authority employees responded in greater numbers than ever before, as evidenced by this photo montage of bikes parked at the West Wing next to the Commuter Terminal (where many Airport Authority employees work) and the former Teledyne Ryan -- or TDY -- property (where the Airport Authority's Environmental Department is located). Our thanks to Marion in the Environmental Department for providing such a cool photo. If one of the bikes above belongs to YOU, you're invited to submit a comment below and let the Ambassablog's readers know what your bike ride to and from work was like today.

Canine Comforts

From today's San Diego Union-Tribune:

For more on this story, click here.

Now BOARDing!

Driving around town the last several weeks you may have seen the Airport Authority’s billboards promoting San Diego International Airport’s economic benefit to the region. As was covered in last year’s Goodwill Ambassador Program session, the airport contributes nearly $10 billion to the local economy every year. Seeing the billboards is always like a little surprise- on Hwy 94, I-5 South, El Cajon Blvd, etc.

Once I opened my eyes I started to see the billboards everywhere. And not just the Authority’s, but from our airline partners, as well:

Alaska Airlines: The West Most Schedule. The advertising focuses on the frequent service to the Pacific Northwest (Seattle 7x daily and Portland 4x daily… By the way- Alaska also serves Los Cabos once daily from SDIA).

ExpressJet: The simple design promotes their service to Omaha and Oklahoma City (In all, ExpressJet serves 10 nonstop destinations from San Diego).

Virgin America: Promoting a new style of air travel, focusing on the passenger experience. Remember my post on the Virgin America inaugural flight from SFO to SAN? Since then, Virgin America has ramped up its classy, hip service to five daily flights between San Diego and San Francisco.

The reach of the airport goes well beyond our 661 acres. When driving around the region, just look up: you can see the impact of the Airport Authority everywhere.

A two-hour tour ...

Free behind-the-scenes tours of San Diego International Airport offered by the Airport Authority have educated and entertained nearly 1,000 visitors since they started up last November. To those in the know, they are referred to as the Terminals to Tarmac Tours. It's easy to sign up for one: just click here.

And now, thanks to one tour-taker with an excellent photographic eye, you can see some of the many highlights of the tour over at www.airliners.net. Here's just one of his shots to whet your appetite.

Children are the future (part 1)

[NOTE: Sharing your workplace for a day with the employees and leaders of tomorrow - like Gold Team members (above), from left, Jasmin, Arielle, Jack, Sean and Joshua, above, in front of Les Perhac's dramatic sculpture of loons In Search of Wilderness at Terminal 2 West - is no small task. But few tasks are more rewarding. Here is my first-hand account of the Airport Authority's Take Your Child To Work Day held Thursday, April 24, 2008. I wrote it just after everything finally wound down that day!]

WOW! What can I say ... it was my privilege to spend the day implementing the program that the Airport Authority's Careers In Aviation Team worked so hard to develop for our kids who came and spent the day at San Diego International Airport for our annual “Take Your Child To Work Day”! My day began sometime around 6:30 a.m.; it’s now 4:30 p.m. and I’m finally at my desk to write this.

I can’t begin to take you through the range of emotions I've been feeling! For those of you who can relate: It’s been kind of like an “E” ticket ride at Disneyland! By the way ... do they still have "E" ticket rides at Disneyland? I think that's something they only used to have ... he he!

For Goodwill Ambassadors of the Airport Authority, our greatest sense of achievement is when we are able to share our knowledge with others who aren’t part of the aviation industry. Today I know we reached that goal!

In a previous post - The next generation of Goodwill Ambassadors - I shared some of the intimidation I was feeling about working with the older kids. Last night, as I was at my computer typing up the list of clues for their Scavenger Hunt, I was dreading coming in today. Well, I was helped by an awesome team who I’d like to thank for sharing their talents, gifts and knowledge with the kids: both Jeffs, Alicia, Sandra, Carol, Kevin, Ryan, Michelle, Lisa, Kim, Ed, Jon, Dat and Peggy. I wouldn’t have made it through this day if it hadn’t been for all of you!

Our goal was to create a program where the kids would not only have fun, but also learn something about what it takes to make an airport work on a daily basis. So we came up with a Scavenger Hunt that really put the kids to work.

So here are just some of my favorite pictures from the photo journals the teams put together today. Like (above) Blue Team leader Lisa of Airside Operations with team members, from left, Nick, David, Tiffany, Chanel, Nick and Matthew.

And here's a priceless shot (below) of Red Team members, from left, Evan, Courtney, team Leader Jeff of Human Resources, Colleen and Brett (in front) bringing art to life with a reenactment of Gary Hughes' popular sculpture At the Gate in the lower level of Terminal 2 West.

Well, how convincing do you think they were?

You also need to check out the web page the teams built, with Jon of Marketing and Communications and Dat of Information Technology as their teachers; it is so much more than I had expected.

There will definitely be another post on what we did today, as I can’t even begin to put it all in one post! We’ll see you back here soon with more of the kids' photo journals and perspectives from both the kids and their team leaders.