The Airport Feature You Would Always See In The 1960s But Rarely See Today

A couple of years ago, I was wandering through the Denver International Airport several hours into a daylong layover in Concourse B, when I came across something I'd never seen before in an airport terminal: an outdoor patio. Outside, in the crisp January air, passengers crowded around fire pits with steaming cups of coffee, while down below on the tarmac, ground crew directed aircraft to their gates and maneuvered baggage into cargo holds. I took a picture of the scene, thinking I'd stumbled across something truly unique, only to discover that was not the case at all. After talking to my mother — a former flight attendant who lived through the golden age of air travel – I learned that these outdoor spaces in airports used to be quite common in the 1960s and earlier. 

They were called observation decks, and although it's rare to see them in American airports today, they were common features until the 1970s, often located outside security checkpoints. Observation decks were typically positioned next to the runways, providing a front-row seat for aviation fans or anyone curious to witness the miracle of flight firsthand. While observation decks may not be as common today, numerous airports around the world still have them, including several in the United States. 

These days, most people do what they can to avoid spending a day at the airport. But when Baby Boomers were growing up, air travel was a totally different experience, and spending a weekend afternoon "plane-watching" was considered an enjoyable pastime. Parents would regularly load the kids into the car and drive to the airport to spend the day watching planes land and take off.  Entry to observation decks was often free, though some airports charged a small fee. In the 1970s, for example, visitors to the observation deck at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport — then called Friendship Airport — paid 25 cents for admission. "Definitely miss the open-air observation decks," reminisces a commenter on FlightAware. "Nothing like jet wash and sound from a 727! Those coin-op binoculars were cool, too."

Some of the airport observation decks, patios, and outdoor terraces were massive, with green spaces, potted plants, benches, picnic tables, and even restaurants. But by the 1970s, many observation decks were removed because of security concerns and the need for more terminal space. Airports also saw an opportunity to use those areas to generate more revenue. While outdoor observation decks remained in airports abroad and in some small regional airports in the U.S., they largely vanished from most major American airports for decades. That began to shift in 2013, when Delta Air Lines opened an outdoor terrace at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. 

Today, many airports outside the U.S. still feature outdoor observation decks, including Munich Airport, Zurich Airport, and Incheon International Airport. Although they remain less common in the United States, signs point to a possible resurgence, which means more airports could add them in the future. Passengers like having somewhere to go for some fresh air while waiting for a delayed flight — especially if it means not having to leave security to do so. So which U.S. airports offer opportunities to soak in the vitamin D while breathing in the scent of jet fuel? As it turns out, quite a few.

Denver International Airport currently has three observation decks with fire pits, and JFK's Terminal 5 has a "Rooftop & Wooftop" that includes an outdoor green space for dog walking and hanging out in the sunshine. Also located at JFK is the rooftop deck at the TWA Hotel, a jet-age icon that celebrates the golden era of travel, where you can watch planes take off from inside the deck's year-round outdoor swimming pool. San Francisco International Airport has the SFO SkyTerrace, which offers 180-degree views of the airport runways, while Raleigh-Durham International Airport has an outdoor Observation Park, near the airport's air traffic control tower, featuring a grassy lawn with a playground and picnic area. The park also pipes in real communication chatter between the pilots and air traffic control over outdoor speakers. Outdoor patio areas have also opened at airports in Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Austin, Kahului, Los Angeles, and Albuquerque. 

While observation decks may be making a comeback, smoking on them is not. Smoking on airplanes — and in most airport terminals – remains, at least for now, a relic of the past, like these things that were allowed when flying that you could never get away with today.