It seems that the days of reading or grabbing a cup of coffee to pass the time at airports are long gone.
Lately, bored airport passengers have been using moving walkways or travelators as their stage to film stunts and dances. Some do it for fun, others for social media views.
Most recently, four men were filmed sitting on a travelator, pretending to be on a rowboat as they paddle in unison.
This was not the first time that a rowing stunt was pulled inside an airport. In 2019, members of a dance company were filmed at Dublin International Airport (DUB) also ‘rowing’ using the moving walkway.
One of the earliest recorded creative use of a travelator was in 2015 at Denver International Airport (DEN), when members of the State Street Ballet used the machinery to perform basic dance routines and movements.
In 2020, when air travel was still scarce due to the pandemic, a movement called #airportchallenge came about on social media platform TikTok. Passengers filmed themselves doing all sorts of stunts on escalators and travelators in an empty airport.
While these stunts may seem entertaining and fun, passengers may now need to think twice before getting creative with travelators.
In June 2023, a passenger at Bangkok’s Mueang Airport (DMK) had to have her leg amputated when it became stuck while she was using the moving walkway.
Moving walkways were designed for passengers to travel between terminals faster. In 2015, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport removed all eight moving walkways in its Concourse C (Terminal 1).
This was to encourage passengers to stop and explore more airport retail shops, something that happens less often when using moving walkways.
