I love working here!

I was over at Spanish Landing during my lunch break the other day and witnessed a charming interaction. (How lucky are we to work right across the street from such a lovely park, right on San Diego Bay?!)

While I was eating my lunch, I couldn’t help but overhear an excited family next to me. They had just dropped dad off at the airport and were anxiously awaiting his plane’s takeoff so they could wave goodbye. Isn’t that sweet? You don’t see as much of that as you used to, now that flying has become such a routine part of most of our lives.

It was rewarding to hear the family’s awe and wonder as they watched the enormous machines take flight. I think we take for granted sometimes just how awesome aviation is.

Not to mention how many lives we touch. Whether it’s dad going off on a business trip or a friend visiting San Diego for vacation, everything we do here at the airport is making a difference in people’s lives. What a great incentive to give our best every day!

Video report: Zoom Airlines arrives in San Diego from London

Here's a special video report from Ambassablogger Mary of the maiden flight of Zoom Airlines to San Diego from London last Friday. Thanks to another Mary (in Customer Service) for shooting the video of this Mary!


[Home Treat Alert! The multimedia feature above may not be accessible at work. But you can log on at home and check it out there!]

The thrill of elevation

I just got back from my first trip since becoming an Ambassablogger! I was so excited to travel through the Airport again and see it from the passenger perspective. My destination? Denver, the Mile High City!

It’s so fascinating to sit in the waiting area by the gate and watch everything going on. Inside the terminal here at San Diego International Airport, there were kids running around, exploring the area. There were families sharing a quick bite to eat before their journey. There was an enormous amount of cell phone chatter. There were folks trying to figure out the new Southwest Airlines boarding procedures. And my favorite sight was a father pointing out the airplanes on the airfield to his son of about five years, who was utterly fascinated.

There are numerous activities that occur on our airfield at any given time. Here’s a snapshot I took of my departing plane at Gate 8, with a taxiing airplane going by, an airplane taking off in the background and all kinds of ground crews prepping our plane for its flight.

We had a nice flight to Denver with only a little turbulence. That turbulence still makes my stomach turn sometimes! It’s always a nice feeling to land safely. I couldn’t believe how much open space and land surrounds Denver International Airport (pictured here). It’s quite a contrast to our airport, which is bounded on all sides by San Diego Bay, Interstate 5, the hills of Point Loma and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. Not to mention all the homes and businesses that surround us!

While I was in Denver, I went to the top of Pike’s Peak, the most-visited mountain in our nation. Pike’s Peak is 14,110 feet above sea level. My friend Stacy was impressed that we were higher than the clouds. It got me thinking about just how high we were compared to how high airplanes fly. According to the American Airlines Web site, the typical cruising altitude for one of their commercial Boeing 777 flights is 37,000 feet. In contrast, by checking out the website for local City of San Diego airport Montgomery Field, I found that Federal Air Regulations state airplanes must maintain a cruising altitude of at least 1,000 feet over residential areas.

I guess we were somewhere in between, but it sure makes you think about all of the air space out there that we take for granted. It also gets one of my favorite songs stuck in my head – Elevation by U2: “… you make me feel like I can fly … so high .. elevation!”

Going green with the blue bins

While talking with Airport Authority colleagues the other day, I found that some folks are confused about exactly what types of waste can go in the blue recycling bins located at every workstation. I thought I would look up the information and post it on the Ambassablog. After all, as Goodwill Ambassadors, we should know about the great recycling program we have here at San Diego International Airport and take advantage of it, in the spirit of sustainability, to be good stewards of our resources. Besides, we should be proud of our award-winning recycling program!

(Speaking of recycling, it’s just one component of the Airport Authority’s sustainability efforts I mentioned in my previous Earth Day blog post.)

We all have access to the blue recycling bins, whether we’re in the Authority offices or out in the airport terminals. According to Amiel in Landside Operations, there are about 75 recycling bins available throughout the airport (pictured here) for our 18.3 million annual passengers, their meeters and greeters, and the thousands of people who work at the airport. That’s in addition to the smaller blue recycling bins (pictured at top) in all Airport Authority office spaces.

Our recycling program is a “single-stream” program, which means that all recyclable materials can go in the same blue containers. So, what materials are eligible? Here’s an overview:

• Paper (including phone books, magazines, newspapers, etc.)
• Glass, aluminum and steel food and beverage containers
• Plastic bottles and jars – only if they have a #1 or #2 recycling symbol on the bottom. This number often appears inside a triangle.

This and more good information about the recycling program can be found in the handy Recycling Guide on the airport’s Web page. A list of some non-recyclable items is also conveniently listed in the guide. If you’re even more interested in going green, refer to the Recycling Guide for some useful “precycling” and re-use tips.

And, listen up Airport Authority employees: you can look forward to getting more sustainability tips at the Airport Authority’s upcoming internal Division Open House on June 12. But here’s an easy one to keep in mind right now: whether you’re an employee who works here every day, or a less-frequent visitor to San Diego International Airport, be sure to utilize those blue recycling bins!

Earth Day every day

Happy Earth Day! I hope everyone takes the time today to think about taking care of our planet's resources and preserving them for future generations.

I’m glad that, here at San Diego International Airport, there are numerous efforts going on to make sure we are good stewards of our natural resources and the environment. We have an award-winning recycling program, a diligent Environmental Affairs Department, a celebrated California Least Tern (pictured) protection program, and a new Sustainability Policy approved by the Airport Authority Board in January – just to name a few of them!

If you’re not familiar with the term sustainability, I think you’re going to be hearing a lot more about it! It’s a worldwide initiative that centers on people and businesses making prudent decisions to make their resources last longer. You can read more about the term and its origins here.

The Airport Authority’s Sustainability Policy focuses on four elements:
- Economic Viability
- Operational Excellence
- Natural Resource Preservation and Conservation
- Social Responsibility

Those sound like very worthwhile and sensible principles to me! We're fortunate to work for an organization that places value on being socially responsible. And, as Goodwill Ambassadors, we should be proud to talk to people in our community about the role the airport is playing as a responsible guardian of the region’s resources.

Airport Authority employees will have a chance to become more familiar with these initiatives at the upcoming employee Division Open House in June. This year’s theme is - you guessed it – Sustainability! So, keep recycling, keep thinking green and keep alert for ways that you can play an important role in the airport's sustainability initiatives.

With the help of all employees, I bet we can find ways to make every day Earth Day around here!

A message to government communicators in Washington, D.C.

Hello delegates to the Social Media for Government Conference in Alexandria, Virginia! Springtime in the Washington, D.C. area must be nice, if this lovely picture posted in an earlier Ambassablog posting about your conference is any indication. But, hey, here in sunny San Diego we're not complaining either:
We've arranged for this special posting just for you, from one of the original employee bloggers at the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. I'm Mary, an executive assistant in the Administration Division. I've been posting on the Ambassablog since its start in January, 2008. It's great to be able to share a message about our employee blog with government communicators from around the country.

It’s been a really fun experience to be a first-time employee blogger for the Goodwill Ambassablog. First of all, it’s been really great to have an outlet for the enthusiasm I have for working here at San Diego International Airport. I appreciate getting to express the pride I feel, such as when I got to use this blog tell my peers how I thought they came together as an amazing team in the aftermath of the San Diego firestorms last October.

The Goodwill Ambassablog also helps me keep my contacts in the community informed in a really fun and interesting way. Instead of me trying to remember factoids or describe a picture or a recall an exact Website link, all I have to do is direct them to http://www.ambassablog.com/. It’s so easy for our blog's viewers to have great content available in an interactive way right at their fingertips.

A special moment for me happened recently when my relatives came over on Easter. As each one entered my home, they gave me kudos and comments about how much they’re enjoying reading our employee blog. And it’s not just my postings they’re interested in, but the whole site, with its attention-grabbing visuals and varied content.

I would definitely recommend employee blogging to other companies, both for its internal community-building benefits and for what it does for external audiences, as well. If some of you already have employee blogs at your organizations -- or when you decide to get one started -- we'd love to see it! You can place a link to it by adding a comment to this posting. We might even feature it in our Brother Blogs section.

I feel like our employee blog is still young, but we’ve seen so many great things come out of it already. And I think it has the potential to keep growing into much, much more! Have a great time at your conference!

O, those Goodwill Ambassador session memories!

I just want to take a few moments to talk about how great the Goodwill Ambassador Program sessions were last year. Each one was very interesting and informative. It’s nice to get together with fellow Airport Authority employees who are interested in being knowledgeable Goodwill Ambassadors and representing the airport well in our community. And, of course, it’s fun!

My favorite part at the first session -- on our airport’s history -- was Joe and his stellar impersonation of Charles Lindbergh. Joe sure committed to the role – what a great actor we have in our midst! To see his starring role, check out the Goodwill Ambassa-Show video presented in a very early post on the Ambassablog. Remember (Airport Authority employees only), the video is a Home Treat, so you'll want to watch it from your computer at home:



At the second Goodwill Ambassador session -- which covered the airport as it is today -- my competitive nature came out as I enthusiastically cheered for my team to win the In The Know, 4-In-A-Row game. It got a bit contentious for a while there, as the teams tried to accuse each other of bending the rules ... what a riot it was! It was fun to memorize facts and figures about the airport in preparation for that fun game.

And my all-time favorite Goodwill Ambassador moment from last year was Professor Anton (below) visiting us from the future in the session about the future of the airport. I certainly hope we get to hear more predictions about the future from our eccentric friend, Professor Anton!


You can see some great graphics for each session, created by the talented Sharon and Jon in the Marketing & Communications Division, by going to the Ambassa-Past section of the Ambassablog, located toward the bottom of the left sidebar.

What were your favorite moments from the 2007 Goodwill Ambassador sessions? I’m looking forward to seeing you at the first 2008 sessions next week!

18.3 million – Now there’s a number to know!

Did you see the news release that came out in January announcing the 2007 passenger numbers for San Diego International Airport? We served 18.3 million passengers – wow! (You can see just some of them in the airport's Terminal 2 West, above). That’s an all-time high for our airport. And it’s the fourth year in a row that we’ve broken our passenger volume record.

First of all, the sheer number of people who come through the airport every year is amazing. That is a lot of customers to serve! It’s even more than the number of people who visit Disneyland in Anaheim each year! (The Magic Kingdom gets about 16 million visitors a year.)

The continually growing number of passengers we serve makes me think about our region’s air transportation needs. There’s obviously no perfect new site for a major airport in San Diego. And there’s no way to morph Lindbergh Field into an ideal solution that meets all of the region’s needs. So our planning team and our Board are working hard to come up with the best answers possible.

And I have to mention that I think the name for the planning efforts – SANPlan –is just great. Very catchy. Have you been to the SANPlan.com website lately? The planning timeline page there has a succinct overview of key points that all Goodwill Ambassadors should know.

The plans for near-term improvements to San Diego International Airport haven’t been finalized quite yet, and any construction won’t start until at least next year. Yet, all the while, our passenger numbers are growing even faster than the experts predicted.

So what can a Goodwill Ambassador do about that?

I think it’s our duty as Goodwill Ambassadors to get the word out to our friends, families and community contacts about these important facts:

• Let people know that the airport is busier than ever, and that they should plan accordingly.
  
  
• Inform them about the SANPlan improvements that are being discussed.
  
  
• Tell them about our community meetings and theTerminals to Tarmac public tours that we offer.
  
  
• And, as I said in one of my recent Goodwill Ambassablog posts, "Cell phone coolness at the airport," we can make sure people know about the Cell Phone Waiting Lot to make their passenger pickups easier.

Personally, I think my biggest challenge as an airport employee will be trying to be a patient driver as North Harbor Drive backs up with more and more airport traffic. But, as a Goodwill Ambassador, I vow to try to remain calm, drive safely – and allow for a few extra minutes in my commute every day!

Hablamos español ahora

NOTE: Today's Goodwill Ambassablog posting is the first-ever in two languages ... and the first joint posting by all three Goodwill Ambassabloggers. They teamed up to submit a special posting in Spanish, showing off the language skills they are learning in a Spanish class offered by the Airport Authority to its employees. Below is their posting, first in Spanish, followed by its English translation.

In Spanish:

¿Puedes leer este blog?

Nosotros (los Ambassabloggers Dennise, Mary y Ryan (aka ‘Pedro’) estamos tomamos una clase de español que está ofriendo la Autoridad. Creemos que es una buena idea escribir un blog en español. ¡Qué divertido!

Nuestra profesora se llama Nora. Ella es muy inteligente, amable y divertida. (Mira la photo aquí.)

El español es muy importante en San Diego y en nuestro aeropuerto. Hay muchas personas que hablan español en el aeropuerto todos los dias. Escuchamos español en las terminales frecuentemente. A veces los pasajeros quieren direcciones; a veces ellos quieren algo de comer y beber. Ahora nosotros podemos ayudarles más.

¿Recuerdas el blog del Ambassablogger ‘Pedro’ con las fotos del Aeropuerto Internacional de Tijuana? Es claro que el español es muy importante para la Autoridad.

¡Adios por ahora, y hasta la vista, amigos!


English translation:

Can you read this blog?

We (the Ambassabloggers Dennise, Mary and Ryan (aka ‘Pedro’) are taking a Spanish class offered by the Authority now. We think it’s a good idea to write a blog posting in Spanish. How fun!

Our professor is named Nora. She is very intelligent, friendly and fun. Look at the photo here.

Spanish is very important in San Diego and in our airport. There are many people who speak Spanish in the airport every day. We hear Spanish in the terminals frequently. Sometimes the passengers want directions; sometimes they want something to eat and drink. Now we can help the passengers more.

Remember the blog posting by Ambassablogger ‘Pedro’ with the photos of Tijuana International Airport? It’s clear that Spanish is very important to the Authority.

Farewell for now; we’ll see you around, friends!

A fun little challenge

Hey team! When browsing the Airport's Web site at www.san.org, I usually find lots of useful information to choose from for sharing with my family, friends and community contacts in my role as a Goodwill Ambassador. There is even plenty there to spark the interest of youngsters who may be interested in learning more about aviation and SDIA, thanks the to the Web site's special Just for Kids section.

That's where you'll find, among other fun things, some games to play, like the Airport Match Game.

Here's a challenge for you: Can you beat my low score on the Airport Match Game? See if you can beat me! My best time is 12 seconds (proof is in the picture). If you get a better score, you can let me know what it is by clicking on the 'comments' link below. Good luck!

So many aviation enthusiasts!

I read in Dennise’s post - (Somewhere under the rainbow) - about how her dad got her to love airplanes. Marla shared in her comment on Dennise's post that her dad sparked an aviation interest in her too.

Well, it’s my turn to recognize my dad (pictured with me here)! He’s a private pilot and lifelong aviation enthusiast. He took me to countless air shows and aviation museums when I was a kid. Some were amazing memories – like when I got to meet the Blue Angels and get a pilot’s autograph. And some were a little more of a stretch – like when he took me to an airplane museum for my birthday one year. Not to mention the interesting times we had up in the air, when he would fly me around in the skies over San Diego ... Have you ever seen a balloon float into the sky, just inches away from your window in a small plane? It’s very alarming!

I was so proud to tell my dad when I got a job at San Diego International Airport. I think he must chuckle at me sometimes, as he sees how my aviation interest has grown since working here. I practice my Goodwill Ambassador knowledge and trivia on him all the time. And he’s certainly a loyal reader of this blog (Hi Dad!).

One of my fondest memories in the last few years was taking my dad to the Miramar Air Show in 2004. We took these pictures of the Blue Angels (my favorite!) while we were there.

So I’m curious to know how many more of my fellow employees have aviation ties or stories? I know we have at least a few employees with pilot’s licenses. What are the stories out there? Let me know, or share something by posting a comment right here!

Cell phone coolness at the airport

Hey Goodwill Ambassadors and other Airport Authority employees, have you mentioned this to your network of family, friends and community contacts?

As Goodwill Ambassadors, it’s our job to let our contacts know about the cool things going on here at San Diego International Airport. One of the things my friends and family ask me about often is our Cell Phone Waiting Lot. I get so many compliments about that lot. In the era of cell phones, people really appreciate not having to loop around the airport roadways while waiting to pick up their passengers anymore.

Do you know about the amenities offered at the Cell Phone Waiting Lot while people wait for their arriving passengers? The Airport Authority recently added electronic flight information display monitors right there in the lot. These let drivers check on flights and any delays they might be experiencing. This can be especially helpful for those few people out there who still don’t own cell phones and can’t rely on a call from their arriving passenger. (Yes, I have two people in my family who refuse to get cell phones!)

There are also new snack and drink vending machines in the Cell Phone Waiting Lot. This is in addition to the portable restrooms that were already available there. What a convenient set-up to offer the public!

This is definitely something I’m talking to my friends and associates about. Please feel free to click “comments” below and share some of the airport features or hot issues you discuss in your own personal network as a Goodwill Ambassador.

A Pretty Amazing Team

Didn’t you feel a strong sense of pride working at San Diego International Airport during the recent wildfires? It’s so fulfilling to be able to work at a place that’s an essential part of this community, connecting us to the world and, in the case of the fires, enabling emergency volunteers to fly into our city. Aside from being thankful for our airport, I continue to be thankful for my Airport Authority teammates. It's a pretty amazing team!

To be here that week of the fires…hearing the concern everyone showed for each other…witnessing the offers to assist in any way needed…seeing the reduced staff come together and take on new tasks to get things done…you all are just fantastic!

And I can’t help but wonder if there’s a new airport site solution now. As a Goodwill Ambassador, I’m asked a lot of questions about the airport by my family, friends, etc. And a colleague in my community network recently posed this creative question to me: Wouldn’t a new airport along the eastern part of our county, sitting on plenty of pavement, be a perfect buffer against future wildfires? What do you think?