Doesn't surprise me at all. Been saying for years that other airports need to use IAH as their model. One thing not mentioned is that IAH always seems to have security lines under control, even when extremely busy. Other large airports can be nightmares. HOU isn't bad at all either. Houstonians should be proud of how the city operates both airports.
Only problem with IAH is the wait time for your baggage. I fly quite often and you can easily wait 1/2 hour (after getting to baggage claim) for your bags which is a long time for small domestic flights.
just thinking aloud, it should be a model for a population base that approximates houston. don't think that model would improve much for NYC or LA, both serve population bases > 20 million,
and this is an airport that has been under constant revamping and construction in major parts of the airport. in the last five or ten years there have been entire terminals built, just think of what IAH is going to be like once all the expansion is completed...
I have never been subject to a "random" check in my life except in Houston. And I don't even look harmful. Maybe it actually was one of those times that it was "random." I also noticed a stack of paper with recipients of previous "random" checks and it was all filled with "ahmed's," and a lot of "bin" and "ibn's."
Exactly this. I spend a lot of time flying between DIA (Denver) and IAH (Houston) and the difference could not be more extreme. Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that there was a thread with people b****ing about how bad IAH was? It is far and away the best airport in the US imo.
I've been in several random searches, yet none of them in Houston. I think this is more a matter of sample size than anything else. My name doesn't really set anything off. But I am a fairly young Asian male who sometimes forget to shave. So I do tend to get profiled more than your typical passenger.
I went through IAH for an international trip for the first time last weekend and I was pleasantly surprised how efficient the staff was there.
if you land in terminal C and domestic E, the wait time is usually taken up with the walk...no journey to the baggage claim, which seems like 20 miles, again depending on which gate you land but yeah term E and C look very modern
While IAH has a great on time record and good dining options, it loses major points due to its distance from the city center. Not only that, but there's no mass transit that services the airport either.
airports seem about all the same to me. some are nicer then others, but its still about all the same.
