World's busiest airport christens fifth runway

Georgia

Officials christened a fifth runway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, saying the strip will help cut airport delays and increase passenger capacity.

Airport fire trucks symbolically doused the runway with fountains of water, and a few hundred dignitaries boarded two jets for ceremonial flights from the runway last week. It will open for commercial flights on May 27.

Hartsfield-Jackson is the world's busiest airport in terms of passengers and operations, and officials say it also has the most delays.

The runway will increase Hartsfield-Jackson's capacity by 300,000 passengers a year — a third more than the 970,000 who now fly through the airport each year.

The addition is expected to cut delays by five minutes. Currently, about a quarter of the airport's flights have delays that average 17 minutes, airport officials said. Airport officials previously said the new runway will save airlines about $5 million total each week in delay-related costs.

Air travel

What's in a name? Lots of security problems

Eric Wolf, of Falls Church, Va., has no idea what another Eric Wolf did to land himself on a terrorism watch list. But the unassailable Eric Wolf is tired of being confused with the suspect Eric Wolf.

The good Wolf said that the name-sharing means he's unable to print an airline boarding pass from home or a kiosk and instead must go to a ticket counter and wait while an agent calls around and is assured that he's not the bad Wolf.

It's a problem for an untold number of good citizens who share a similar or identical name with a suspect person. Joe Kiel, of Annandale, Va., says his 3-year-old grandson was refused boarding because he was on a "Do Not Fly" list. Said Kiel: "Even though it was obvious to the ticket agent that [my grandson] might be a terror but surely not a terrorist, she claimed there was nothing she could do until she contacted [the Transportation Security Administration] and got permission to allow him to board."

The solution: Submit copies of three types of identification and a short form (available at www.tsa.gov or 866-289-9673) to the TSA. Within several weeks, if you check out, you'll receive a letter that you've been put on a cleared list.

At that point you may or may not be able to print your own boarding pass, but for sure, says TSA spokeswoman Amy Kudwa, any wait at the ticket counter should be brief.

Coeur d'Alene Resort marks 20th anniversary

Idaho's Coeur d'Alene Resort is celebrating its 20-year anniversary, overcoming doubters who two decades ago considered the area too remote for such a playground.

"The phone started ringing because a lot of people wanted to go to a world-class resort in the middle of nowhere," said Duane Hagadone, 73, a newspaper magnate and hotelier who built the resort at a cost of $60 million in 1986. It has since attracted 3.7 million visitors and served 18 million meals in its restaurants.

Along the way it helped transform Coeur d'Alene from a faltering mill town into a nationally known destination with a booming real-estate economy.

The resort recently underwent a $20 million renovation that doubled the size of the health spa, which in 2004 brought in more money than the golf course did. The spa will offer anti-aging treatments such as Botox and neck contours.

Yellowstone volunteer program an award winner

An innovative volunteer program in Yellowstone National Park was one of four winners of national preservation awards.

Tauck World Discovery, a tour operator based in Norwalk, Conn., offers a program in which visitors to Yellowstone can contribute a day's work on preservation projects. Tauck and the other winners were recognized with Preserve America Presidential Awards, presented at the White House earlier this month.

Other awards went to:

• A project in Tallahassee, Fla., to rebuild the Mission San Luis, a 17th-century Spanish mission.

• Hampton Hotels' "Save-A-Landmark" program, which supplies funding and volunteer work to preserve landmarks ranging from a one-room school in Michigan to the world's tallest Santa Claus in North Pole, Alaska.

• The Maryland Heritage Areas Program, which encourages the linking of preservation efforts and tourism. Projects include promoting Civil War history.

Details: www.preserveamerica.gov

New home for Broadway discount ticket booth

City officials have broken ground for a new booth for TKTS, a local institution that sells half-price, same-day tickets to Broadway and Off Broadway shows.

The discount ticket operation in the heart of the theater district at Broadway and 47th Street has been a mainstay of theater lovers for more than 30 years. During the renovation, there will be a temporary TKTS booth on West 46th Street outside the New York Marriott Marquis hotel.

The new booth will be built under a big red staircase to nowhere in Times Square. City officials hope to complete the project by the end of the year.

Seattle Times staff and news services