Southwest Airlines is the one where the cabin crew do the funny announcements. Spirit is the one where you have to jump out of the rear doors if you haven't bought the 'use-the-jetbridge' upgrade before boarding the plane.
WHOA, WHOA!!! It's SPIRIT AIRLINES here in the 'States. Southwest is EASILY the best airline here since it's not QUITE a legacy carrier like Delta, American & United, but it's measures above Spirit, Frontier & Allegiant.
Is it related to the Spirit Airlines that operated in Asia? There is a running joke here in Asia about it, they say with Spirit Airline (Asia) "You fly Asian, you land Spirit."
Frontier is bad too. I had a 9 hour delay. The pilot coming off the plane before the delay was a total jerk, watched him yell and intimidate an elderly person.
Spirit Airlines Bill: Breathing - 1.00 Talking - 5.00 Standing - 10.00 Existing - 2.00 Lollygagging - 2.00 Chewing - 1.00 It was Spirit you were thinking of, not Southwest. But alas, all American and other global airlines are dumpster fires when compared to our glorious five-star Air Koryo
"That actually makes me think, Grand Central Station is really big" Sounds like a Megaprojects vid on that iconic terminal is in order! By the way, we call it Grand Central Terminal.
I’m writing an alternate history of World War II in which Grand Central Station is called Grand Central Terminal. The twist is, it actually _is_ Grand Central Terminal; a station is a stop along the way on a railroad line, a terminal is where the line begins or ends.
@@richardyoung5853 nope, the post office is just called Grand Central Post Office. That was the name used ever since the days the building was solely used for that (originally constructed from 1906 to 1909). Only Google calls it Station, and Google can be pretty wrong at times. Either way, Simon was talking about the TRAIN TERMINAL, not the post office. And while often called Grand Central Station...its actual name is Grand Central Terminal
Damn! I was a Marine stationed in Japan until 2022. Some of my favorite memories were road-tripping from Hiroshima/Iwakuni to KSI/Osaka to pick up other service members. I was mind-blown the first time I drove on the airport and realized it was an island of its own. Beautiful drive. Side note; It was also very creepy during COVID as most shops looked abandoned inside. One of the creepiest/most depressing things I saw quite honestly....
Kansai International Airport - one of only places in the world, where the pilots aren't the only ones concerned about hearing a Sink-Rate warning. Kansai International Airport - even the ATC tower is haunted at night by the "Terrain-Terrain" warning. Kansai International Airport - the only airport in the world that needs TCAS warning system for itself. These are some very niche Avgeek jokes, if anyone gets it too, please like the comment, even if it takes years to come.
Definitely frontier, but frontier doesn't fee you to death, I mean, sorta, not as bad as Ryan Air, but Jesus christ the flights were often 3 times the price of southwest and meals and drinks cost the same, and the peanuts were worse, literally the same experience. Though I never flew on spirit for reasons, lol
RyanAir isn’t entirely shit. My wife and I flew them from Berlin to Naples when we eloped to Italy. My wife had to carry along her wedding dress, and when we got onto the plane the stewardess said we’d have to stow it overhead (likely ruining it). The captain overheard on her way to the cockpit and offered to stow it in her locker. The dress made it unscathed all the way from Seattle Washington to Positano Italy, thanks in part to one of RyanAir’s awesome pilots!
If the owner of Ryan air o Leary heard that the cabin crew and pilots had given preferential treatment to a passenger he probably would have sacked them all.He is A total piece of nasty sh*t he even revoked the free air travel pass he gave free to his millionth customers and personally harrest her constantly going out of his way to make her life a living hell and groping her and got pissed when she wouldent sleep with him .nothing is to low for that nasty man
"The island is sinking faster than we thought, it's the weight, it's too much!!" "I know, let's slow it down by adding more weight!!!" "Er, riiiiiight, okay then......." :P
Well, *compaction* is helpful for this, most of the 'sinking' will have been the material settling into itself, so the denser it becomes, the less room for the material to moosh down there is. I don't know what the ocean floor is doing but sea level rise can be an issue, too.
@@OllamhDrab yeah the author is very unkind towards that project and doesnt even mention that possibility, like their was actually a video on this entire thing on youtube that detailed the entire construction with all the problems, the management, the issues and why they did the expansion, and its because it was at max capacity and still not breaking even as they just needed more traffic like its not false information, but its definitely information with a negative slant, and I only clicked on it as I thought something had happened recently, instead it was just basic what if speculation with his final conclusion, like they hadnt thought of that despite this island being around, well damn near as long as I've been alive. like give them a break, they actually have a plan and can make it work, as they have for the past 30 years.
I was lucky enough to fly into and out of Kansai INT before the pandemic. It is indeed a beautiful airport. I was coming in on finals, having flown through the night from Finland, the aircraft flew a starboard banked approach. Looking out of the left window, as I was, all I could see was water and it was getting closer than I would have otherwise liked. I don't think I saw "land" until we crossed the threshold. I've never been more relieved. It was the start of one of the most amazing weeks of my life. The video brought it all back. Thank you.
Flown into this airport a couple of times. It’s fantastic and has a great observation deck near the edge of one of the runways. I spoke with some pilots and they love flying there, equating it to landing on a giant aircraft carrier.
Ryan Air and SouthWest aren’t the same thing… SouthWest doesn’t assign seats or give much food or drink but fly out of a regular airport. Ryan Air will tell you that Stanstead is in London…
I wonder though how far the furthest US airports are from the city they are named for. I suspect distances are larger there in general compared to densely populated Europe.
The first one, sank into the swamp. The second one, sank into the swamp. The third burned down, fell over, and sank into the swamp. BUT THE FOURTH! The fourth stayed!
When I lived in Japan one of my clients was the marine biologist worked at Kansai Airport. He said the fisherman get a huge payout every year and the island actually made fishing much much better so they are making out like bandits.
I'm sure it's a pain in the arse to give units of measure in metric and imperial but I greatly appreciate it Simon. My brain doesn't work in metric. Keep up the good work sir!
Then stop using the outdated system and get with the rest of the world. The metric system is far superior to imperial on so many levels, and it's only you yanks and 2 other third world countries who are still using it.. Hearing both units is distracting and unnecessary. I really wish he'd stop doing it.
@@Chris-hx3om ... Whenever you're the 3rd most populated, richest and still proud to be doing things our way kind of country like the US is I guess we just think you guys can change for us(PS metric is far superior... No fractions and based on 10s just makes sense)
@@WKRP187 What give a country of just 332Million the right to tell the other 7.6 BILLION people what to do? Typical US arrogance! You people make me sick!
"Long before Dubai was creating its first artificial island" ... the Dutch had increased their land area by 30%. In *1597* the first serious polder was created, *67.56* square kilometers in size... That is 6 times the size of Kansai. Granted, the Zijpe is not an island, but it would definitely be sea bed if not for the Dutch. The Dutch created the largest artificial island in the world, *100 times* larger than Kansai, in 1955.
@@RadioNul Nope, that was not marshland. The average depth was 4 meters. It was marshland in Roman times, but many centuries of floods had washed most of the marshland away (except for a few islands like Urk and Schokland).
That’s ok, the Japanese were also creating tons of new land in Tokyo Bay centuries ago. And take a look at Ogata, created at a similar time to the Netherlands largest man made island. Both the Dutch and Japanese have long been masters of land reclamation!
Speaking of it, you should do a Megaprojects episode about Grand Central, the biggest train terminal in the world!! It's really an incredible work of engineering, and is still being updated and expanded to this day. East Side Access and new entrances from One Vanderbilt make it as modern and relevant as ever.
I've lived in Japan 20 years, near Osaka, and have used this airport more times than I can remember. Very good video! And yes, Terminal 2 is shite. Peach is indeed an Asian Ryanair, which flies to Korea and other nearby locations, and where if you are tall, you can expect bruised knees!
When I think of Spirit Airlines, I think of stinky school buses with wings. They don't give you free peanuts, but rather require you to bring peanuts to feed the pilot in order to keep his glucose levels stable.
I've done all sorts of flying over the last 30 years, and I've had trouble with almost every airline *except* Southwest. They're quietly the best airline in America.
In the uk a low budget airline is generally regarded as all economy layout, no frills. EasyJet, Ryanair and southwest all share the same business model, including utilising the benefits using 1 or 2 aircraft types to cut maintainence and pilot training.
Seems like I watched a documentary years ago about this airport. If I remember correctly, they have these huge jacks underneath of the airport to help with keeping everything level.
I worked on the original and the extension. As a mechanical engineer we put practices into place that had never been used before. For instance the last step in stairs in the basements was free flowing and 1.5 mtrs in depth. So as there waa movement the stairs wouldn't buckle and good move freely.
When you said, "by 1995, the island had sunk by over 8.2...." I thought for sure you were gonna say 8.2 cm or inches, my jaw dropped when I heard 8.2 meters. That's insane
The low cost aren’t like rayan air (or what ever that is) at last our staff is polite and also the plane on time and never cancelled (unless disaster) Most of those low cost are just a branch of another Japanese airline which made them more like a good choose for business trip.
Southwest Airlines may be short on frills but they have a lot of coverage and their on-time percentage is decent (though it has slipped since COVID, but all other airlines have too)
Something I like about Simon, he's the teacher I always wished I had. I'm pretty sure that I could enter a conversation with everything known and he'd be able to show me more but even make a video
A similar issue across parts of the US; when it comes to building on top of clay avoid it if possible. You'll find a lot of homes/buildings placed on concrete slabs+clay have a tendency to slide down hill over the years. Not a pleasant realization lol.
Don't you DARE equate Southwest with Spirit! Also, does anyone know if the clay base is still having its water squeezed out, or is the fill gradually leaking out into the bay?
I mean yeah spirit airlines is shit. But at least they maintain their fleet and haven't had multiple fatalities and emergencies. Spirit had their first emergency this year and that was simply a bird strike that wasn't their fault and can happen to any airline and aircraft.
In the last decade (2010 - 2020) I still saw protests at the end of the runways at Narita also. The Edo/Tokyo airport is Haneda with Narita being the International hub. I love Haneda being so close to the city.
"Airport is costing us $560 million a year in interest and is sinking into the sea. Wut do?" "Double up. Build another island. That'll make money back faster." Not sure I entirely follow this subtle Japanese logic.
It was nice landing at Kansai, going to the ferry terminal for a 80 minute ferry to Tokushima to visit the in-laws. Then they built the Kobe bridge and ended the ferry so we could drive 3 hours around the bay.
Kansai aiport, ground breaking architecture, ground breaking engineering and now, ground, breaking, underneath it Also for a good lol, 10:05 at 0.25 speed is pretty great, if somewhat random
You should do a video about the Samuel De Champlain Bridge in Montréal. Totally unrelated with a Airport, but still interesting. There is also the deconstruction of the old bridge happening.
No mention of the fight with Kobe over the location? They wanted to build it off the coast of Kobe. The locals said no, so they ended up building it in the current location. Then once it opened, Kobe said "hey. That's a good idea." when they saw it working as an airport, so they started building one themselves. (which can be seen at the top of the satellite images of the bay throughout the video) It's a nice airport. I've been there a number of times. The bridge damage after the typhoon... One side of the road deck was damaged as was the rail lines. Leaving just half the bridge usable. The damaged section of bridge had to be removed and replaced with a new segment. They had the airport back in limited operation while they were still repairing the bridge, but it was still back in operation 3 times faster then they had first expected. I had a trip into Osaka a few weeks after the typhoon (though I used Itami airport for that trip).
I remember watching a show called Beyond 2000 way way back when and they were talking about how they were pulling down the mountains to fill in this island. It looked so cool back then, hard to think it might turn into one of the most expensive flops in a couple of decades.
Landed at KIX in 2019 with no problems. The shuttle to Osaka was a nice ride as you head out over the bay. I miss Japan and it's atmosphere. Hopefully things will open up again in 2022.
KIX is my favourite airport, food, drinks and open smoking rooms 24/7, and the food is both good and cheap, Sukiya on the bottom floor of terminal 1 is my friend :-). Flown in and out of there several times and spent a lot of time there (early morning takeoff), flying with KLM/JAL shared, even the food on the planes is quite good (take the "asian meal", the "western meal" is miserable).
It's a common mistake that the amount spent on a project in the past means that more money should be spent on it in the future; In economics it's called the 'sunk-cost fallacy". Though politics may take that fallacy into account, the airport will be upgraded as necessary over the coming years because it's the right thing to do, and the airport is in the right place, not because of decisions made in the past.
The same idea was used for the construction of Nagasaki Prefecture Airport in South Eastern Japan.. I first flew I to it from San Francisco International Airport.. I flew into Japan to meet my now wife's family in the late 80's to ask permission if I could marry her.. It was a eye opening experience!! Thanks for this episode Simon!👍😃
This really makes me genuinely sad. I've traveled the world and Kansai is far and away the finest airport I have ever seen. (Hey, Kansai Airport Crew. You are the very best!) I have never been whisked off a plane faster or more efficiently. No dawdling, no farting around. I was off that plane, through customs, had my bags in hand and was on a swift and silent train so fast my mind was reeling. So professional. Coming back through JFK was utterly humiliating after that. Kansai just ruins you for other airports.
Even the bridge to the airport is quite something. A couple of years ago a ship lost power during a typhoon, and clobbered the bridge. It did a lot of damage, including dislodging one entire section. Bridge closed. The astonishing thing was that it took them only a few weeks to get the bridge repaired; pretty damned phenomenal, I thought.
Speaking of Grand Central Terminal... it might be a good idea for a video. Aside from the station building, there is a 48 acre(19.4 ha) railyard beneath the streets of Manhattan.
I recently saw a documentary on the same subject there were varying views on how fast settling would occur if I recall correctly some Architects assessed to that at 30+ feet safety buffer however the government considered that too expensive and decided to go with less, obviously they're paying the price
I cant imagine the expense and complications or building an island to put and airport on. Surely it would have been easier and cheaper to build the airport further away and connect it to the city with a bullet train
You obviously haven't been to Japan. There is almost no place to build an airport. Every flat area is used. Even in Tokyo Narita Airport there is still a farm in the middle of the north runway. And there is absolute no place to build an airport even in reach of Osaka. Which is why Kobe airport is.... on an artificial island in the north of the bay....
I departed from Kansai Airport in January 2009. It was so impressive. And yeah, just alone the train over the bridge to the airport was so cool. In 2010 I was travelling with Qatar airlines and to travel to Tokyo, there was a stop in Osaka, too. Everyone had to leave the plane, took a train half around the airport, go through customs and then travel back by train to our original plane and check in again. On our way back we could stay in the plane.
First time I really saw/heard of this airport was in Microsoft Flight sim 2020, just randomly choosing to fly from it. Thought to myself it seemed like an impressive engineering project, cool to see some background on it!
Also Typhoon Jebi was a monster. It tore off the roofs of quite a few houses and temples in Osaka that have weathered plenty of typhoons over the decades and in some cases, centuries. Wasn't surprised about the airport when I saw it on the news
Absurd cost at 20bn you say? HS2 has their eye on you. You can get 2 massive islands for less than 20% the cost of a couple hundred miles of hi speed rail. Which is likely to get more routes chopped before completed.
@@owenshebbeare2999 Nice of you to assume I'm Murican. I'm not. I also work in moth metric and imperial. We just happen to use imperial for larger distances here. Welcome to Britain, were regional dialects and using any type of measurement that you may be used to will piss off someone.
Southwest is pretty solid, really. They're something of an "economy" option, but that's part of their appeal. Flown them many times and never had a bad experience. Now United, on the other hand, is utter trash. I would rather flap my arms than ever set foot on one of their planes again.
@@jerryjencik3879 I'm curious, when you said "all American airlines are thrash," what does the word "THRASH" mean & how does it fit into a discussion about airlines? Also, seeing as how we actually have an airline named AMERICAN AIRLINES, were you referring to them specifically or just "ALL American airlines" 🤔🤔
How about the Flevopolder as a megaproject, by far the largest manmade island in the world with an area of 970 square km; that's almost twice the size of Prague.
Been to KIX several times. That very long terminal is a pain, one has to ride a tram to get to the boarding area, etc. Japanese have long been reclaiming land from the sea, and no small part of modern Osaka is built on land that was either beach or marsh.
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The Hobbit!!!! ... Meh
10:13 you're welcome
Southwest Airlines is the one where the cabin crew do the funny announcements. Spirit is the one where you have to jump out of the rear doors if you haven't bought the 'use-the-jetbridge' upgrade before boarding the plane.
yea i was finna say. definitely spirit😭
WHOA, WHOA!!! It's SPIRIT AIRLINES here in the 'States. Southwest is EASILY the best airline here since it's not QUITE a legacy carrier like Delta, American & United, but it's measures above Spirit, Frontier & Allegiant.
Spirit in my experience is absolute garbage
Is it related to the Spirit Airlines that operated in Asia? There is a running joke here in Asia about it, they say with Spirit Airline (Asia) "You fly Asian, you land Spirit."
@@alvincubus BAWHAHA 😂👍
Frontier is bad too. I had a 9 hour delay. The pilot coming off the plane before the delay was a total jerk, watched him yell and intimidate an elderly person.
Frontier is not as bad as the other two. Allegiant is the worst, I believe, and Spirit is almost as bad!!😂
As for the low budget carrier in America, they’re probably thinking of Spirit. Southwest is actually quite good
Thank the fact that they copied the operating manual of Pacific Southwest Airlines.
or Jet Blue
Apparently they got better, early 2000's truly, they were not. They lost me back then for so many reasons, I couldn't care less if they improved.
Let's not forget Allegiant.
@@twothreebravo Jet Blue is nearly as good as Southwest, and leagues better than Spirit and Frontier.
Spirit Airlines Bill:
Breathing - 1.00
Talking - 5.00
Standing - 10.00
Existing - 2.00
Lollygagging - 2.00
Chewing - 1.00
It was Spirit you were thinking of, not Southwest. But alas, all American and other global airlines are dumpster fires when compared to our glorious five-star Air Koryo
All this RUclips commenting has done wonders for your figure bro.
I think Simon was referring to Spirit or Allegiant airlines which sucks.
Southwest is actually much, much better than those airlines.
@@frankchan4272 Or Frontier.
No lollygagging.
Wait, are you the American-installed clone after the original Jong-un died of COVID?
"That actually makes me think, Grand Central Station is really big"
Sounds like a Megaprojects vid on that iconic terminal is in order! By the way, we call it Grand Central Terminal.
agreed
I’m writing an alternate history of World War II in which Grand Central Station is called Grand Central Terminal. The twist is, it actually _is_ Grand Central Terminal; a station is a stop along the way on a railroad line, a terminal is where the line begins or ends.
You mean Grand Central Terminal, right?
Oh definitely
@@richardyoung5853 nope, the post office is just called Grand Central Post Office. That was the name used ever since the days the building was solely used for that (originally constructed from 1906 to 1909). Only Google calls it Station, and Google can be pretty wrong at times. Either way, Simon was talking about the TRAIN TERMINAL, not the post office. And while often called Grand Central Station...its actual name is Grand Central Terminal
Damn! I was a Marine stationed in Japan until 2022. Some of my favorite memories were road-tripping from Hiroshima/Iwakuni to KSI/Osaka to pick up other service members. I was mind-blown the first time I drove on the airport and realized it was an island of its own. Beautiful drive. Side note; It was also very creepy during COVID as most shops looked abandoned inside. One of the creepiest/most depressing things I saw quite honestly....
Kansai International Airport - one of only places in the world, where the pilots aren't the only ones concerned about hearing a Sink-Rate warning.
Kansai International Airport - even the ATC tower is haunted at night by the "Terrain-Terrain" warning.
Kansai International Airport - the only airport in the world that needs TCAS warning system for itself.
These are some very niche Avgeek jokes, if anyone gets it too, please like the comment, even if it takes years to come.
Only 21 likes after a day? You deserve more than that. Have one from me. great comment.
I get all three and you make me ashamed -mostly because the 1st and 3rd are too similar.-
Those are pretty good jokes for the future to read.
*_blog it_*
if you didn't get this Airforceproud95 reference, welp, you're already out of the loop teehee
"Pull up, Terrain...pull up, terrain" Wait a sec, I'm an air traffic controller!
Southwest is a pretty decent airline. You are probably thinking about Frontier or Spirit.
Spirit. Definitely thinking about Spirit.
Definitely frontier, but frontier doesn't fee you to death, I mean, sorta, not as bad as Ryan Air, but Jesus christ the flights were often 3 times the price of southwest and meals and drinks cost the same, and the peanuts were worse, literally the same experience. Though I never flew on spirit for reasons, lol
Spirit is awesome for young people(18-24) because we tend to not give a shit as long as it was cheap, and we are mostly alive by the end of it... 🤣🤣
I'm sure the citizens of Atlantis will appreciate the fact they're getting an airport free of charge to use from the Japanese
Atlantis could probably teach Japan a thing or two about sunk cost
🤣you win
Rofl! Good one ☝️
Lawlawlawl Kim jong-un
Congrats to your recent weightloss
RyanAir isn’t entirely shit. My wife and I flew them from Berlin to Naples when we eloped to Italy. My wife had to carry along her wedding dress, and when we got onto the plane the stewardess said we’d have to stow it overhead (likely ruining it). The captain overheard on her way to the cockpit and offered to stow it in her locker. The dress made it unscathed all the way from Seattle Washington to Positano Italy, thanks in part to one of RyanAir’s awesome pilots!
If the owner of Ryan air o Leary heard that the cabin crew and pilots had given preferential treatment to a passenger he probably would have sacked them all.He is A total piece of nasty sh*t he even revoked the free air travel pass he gave free to his millionth customers and personally harrest her constantly going out of his way to make her life a living hell and groping her and got pissed when she wouldent sleep with him .nothing is to low for that nasty man
That doesn't mean the airline isn't shit, it just means there's a nice captain working for a shit airline. RyanAir is shit. Fullstop.
"After spending 20 billion this is not an airport they can just abandon"
Typical example of... sunken cost fallacy.
building a new airport somewhere else and doesn’t sink is more expensive than cost of any potential fix.
Southwest isn't THAT bad, it's like the budget airline that's still decent. Spirit Airlines is the one that is the butt of EVERY joke.
Agreed. I think he means Spirit....
Alright alright alright, but Frontier takes the cake, it’s like the Walmart of airlines
SWA is the best airline in the US. "United Airlines - We'll beat you up."
Frontier and allegiant are jokes.
Southwest is great. Their policies are the best in the country.
I love Simon's reactions to some of this information, it feels almost like he's having the same experience we are while watching the video.
"The island is sinking faster than we thought, it's the weight, it's too much!!"
"I know, let's slow it down by adding more weight!!!"
"Er, riiiiiight, okay then......."
:P
Well, *compaction* is helpful for this, most of the 'sinking' will have been the material settling into itself, so the denser it becomes, the less room for the material to moosh down there is. I don't know what the ocean floor is doing but sea level rise can be an issue, too.
@@OllamhDrab yeah the author is very unkind towards that project and doesnt even mention that possibility, like their was actually a video on this entire thing on youtube that detailed the entire construction with all the problems, the management, the issues and why they did the expansion, and its because it was at max capacity and still not breaking even as they just needed more traffic
like its not false information, but its definitely information with a negative slant, and I only clicked on it as I thought something had happened recently, instead it was just basic what if speculation with his final conclusion, like they hadnt thought of that despite this island being around, well damn near as long as I've been alive.
like give them a break, they actually have a plan and can make it work, as they have for the past 30 years.
@@kavinskysmith4094 For anyone interested:
The Miraculous Floating Airport | Super Structures | Spark ruclips.net/video/ETLVqETJAFQ/видео.html
I feel like there was an opportunity to make a sunk cost joke somewhere in here
I was lucky enough to fly into and out of Kansai INT before the pandemic. It is indeed a beautiful airport. I was coming in on finals, having flown through the night from Finland, the aircraft flew a starboard banked approach. Looking out of the left window, as I was, all I could see was water and it was getting closer than I would have otherwise liked. I don't think I saw "land" until we crossed the threshold. I've never been more relieved. It was the start of one of the most amazing weeks of my life. The video brought it all back. Thank you.
Flown into this airport a couple of times. It’s fantastic and has a great observation deck near the edge of one of the runways.
I spoke with some pilots and they love flying there, equating it to landing on a giant aircraft carrier.
Ryan Air and SouthWest aren’t the same thing… SouthWest doesn’t assign seats or give much food or drink but fly out of a regular airport. Ryan Air will tell you that Stanstead is in London…
right, Spirit would be a better comparison
I wonder though how far the furthest US airports are from the city they are named for. I suspect distances are larger there in general compared to densely populated Europe.
Taladar2003 I was intending to compare Stanstead to Gatwick, but point taken.
Stansted? lol ! Try London Southend Airport 😀
@@papathunderbird5042 Agreed
Ah yes, I see they contracted the King of Swamp Castle to build their airport
The first one, sank into the swamp. The second one, sank into the swamp. The third burned down, fell over, and sank into the swamp. BUT THE FOURTH! The fourth stayed!
When I lived in Japan one of my clients was the marine biologist worked at Kansai Airport. He said the fisherman get a huge payout every year and the island actually made fishing much much better so they are making out like bandits.
I'm sure it's a pain in the arse to give units of measure in metric and imperial but I greatly appreciate it Simon. My brain doesn't work in metric. Keep up the good work sir!
Then stop using the outdated system and get with the rest of the world. The metric system is far superior to imperial on so many levels, and it's only you yanks and 2 other third world countries who are still using it.. Hearing both units is distracting and unnecessary. I really wish he'd stop doing it.
@@Chris-hx3om I actually agree but good luck getting the rest of these people to. Thanks for your concern on our outdated "ness"
@@Chris-hx3om ... Whenever you're the 3rd most populated, richest and still proud to be doing things our way kind of country like the US is I guess we just think you guys can change for us(PS metric is far superior... No fractions and based on 10s just makes sense)
@@WKRP187 What give a country of just 332Million the right to tell the other 7.6 BILLION people what to do? Typical US arrogance! You people make me sick!
I think they should stick with just metric units. Come on, its not THAT hard. I'm American and have no issues with it.
This redefines the meaning of the term “sunk cost”. 🌊
"Long before Dubai was creating its first artificial island" ... the Dutch had increased their land area by 30%.
In *1597* the first serious polder was created, *67.56* square kilometers in size...
That is 6 times the size of Kansai. Granted, the Zijpe is not an island, but it would definitely be sea bed if not for the Dutch.
The Dutch created the largest artificial island in the world, *100 times* larger than Kansai, in 1955.
Then there is flevoland in the Netherlands which is a artificial island and the biggest in the world. Its 375 square miles. 😇
@@MauR1CEnl the former zuiderzee is a pretty crazy civil engineering feat alright.
The Dutch drained marshland. The Japanese built islands in deep sea.
It's apples and oranges.
@@RadioNul Nope, that was not marshland. The average depth was 4 meters.
It was marshland in Roman times, but many centuries of floods had washed most of the marshland away (except for a few islands like Urk and Schokland).
That’s ok, the Japanese were also creating tons of new land in Tokyo Bay centuries ago.
And take a look at Ogata, created at a similar time to the Netherlands largest man made island. Both the Dutch and Japanese have long been masters of land reclamation!
Speaking of it, you should do a Megaprojects episode about Grand Central, the biggest train terminal in the world!! It's really an incredible work of engineering, and is still being updated and expanded to this day. East Side Access and new entrances from One Vanderbilt make it as modern and relevant as ever.
I've lived in Japan 20 years, near Osaka, and have used this airport more times than I can remember. Very good video! And yes, Terminal 2 is shite. Peach is indeed an Asian Ryanair, which flies to Korea and other nearby locations, and where if you are tall, you can expect bruised knees!
You’re thinking of “spirit” airlines, whose de facto motto of “for when you don’t want to make it” is quite telling
Spirit Airlines: "the cargo hold Is first class!"
Spirit Airlines: the airline made to remind you you shouldn't travel
I have heard it referred to as the “Walmart of the skies”
@@NNICKKK but Walmart has everything. Tf does spirit have? 😂😂😂😂
When I think of Spirit Airlines, I think of stinky school buses with wings. They don't give you free peanuts, but rather require you to bring peanuts to feed the pilot in order to keep his glucose levels stable.
I've done all sorts of flying over the last 30 years, and I've had trouble with almost every airline *except* Southwest. They're quietly the best airline in America.
Southwests Airlines is well regarded in the States.
Good service with reasonable ticket prices.
pretty sure Delta was the one he was thinking of as a low budget airliner
In the uk a low budget airline is generally regarded as all economy layout, no frills. EasyJet, Ryanair and southwest all share the same business model, including utilising the benefits using 1 or 2 aircraft types to cut maintainence and pilot training.
Try frontier and spirit.
I flew frontier round trip to Chicago from Phoenix for $41. Carry on bag is $42 extra and $48 for a check bag.
Not Southwest, but Spirit is the US one you were thinking of
As in 'Break Your' Spirit Airlines
Seems like I watched a documentary years ago about this airport. If I remember correctly, they have these huge jacks underneath of the airport to help with keeping everything level.
Yes, I saw the same documentary, and marveled at the jacks used.
I'd like to suggest Grand Central Station.
???
@@brett4264 he would like to suggest grand central station..
There is no such place.
Grand Central Terminal in NYC would be interesting.
How about the largest man made island: the south Flevopolder?
I worked on the original and the extension. As a mechanical engineer we put practices into place that had never been used before.
For instance the last step in stairs in the basements was free flowing and 1.5 mtrs in depth.
So as there waa movement the stairs wouldn't buckle and good move freely.
mhm
When you said, "by 1995, the island had sunk by over 8.2...." I thought for sure you were gonna say 8.2 cm or inches, my jaw dropped when I heard 8.2 meters. That's insane
The low cost aren’t like rayan air (or what ever that is) at last our staff is polite and also the plane on time and never cancelled (unless disaster)
Most of those low cost are just a branch of another Japanese airline which made them more like a good choose for business trip.
Southwest Airlines may be short on frills but they have a lot of coverage and their on-time percentage is decent (though it has slipped since COVID, but all other airlines have too)
I rather fly Southwest Airlines than fly Spirit Airlines!
@@chrislanejones me too
Certainly beats Delta in my experience.
Southwest over Alaska airlines any day!
I've always flown south west. I have no complaints
Something I like about Simon, he's the teacher I always wished I had. I'm pretty sure that I could enter a conversation with everything known and he'd be able to show me more but even make a video
Hey Simon, how about a video on the SMART tunnel in Kuala Lumpur - an underground multi level road tunnel that can act as a massive storm drain
Love this update on Kansai! I watched a documentary about it in the 90s -- great to see how they have been keeping things above water.
Simon, love your content. Really cool stuff.
A similar issue across parts of the US; when it comes to building on top of clay avoid it if possible. You'll find a lot of homes/buildings placed on concrete slabs+clay have a tendency to slide down hill over the years. Not a pleasant realization lol.
Don't you DARE equate Southwest with Spirit!
Also, does anyone know if the clay base is still having its water squeezed out, or is the fill gradually leaking out into the bay?
I mean yeah spirit airlines is shit. But at least they maintain their fleet and haven't had multiple fatalities and emergencies. Spirit had their first emergency this year and that was simply a bird strike that wasn't their fault and can happen to any airline and aircraft.
2:05 - Chapter 1 - City rivalry
3:10 - Chapter 2 - Planning
4:50 - Chapter 3 - Reclaiming the land
8:20 - Mid roll ads
10:15 - Chapter 4 - The airport
13:05 - Chapter 5 - Opening
14:50 - Chapter 6 - Extension
16:05 - Chapter 7 - An uncertain future
This airport makes me think of the story in Monty Python and the Holy grail about the swamp castle.
In the last decade (2010 - 2020) I still saw protests at the end of the runways at Narita also. The Edo/Tokyo airport is Haneda with Narita being the International hub. I love Haneda being so close to the city.
..... that might be the best surfshark ad.... ANY AD that I've seen Simon do. LOL. I had to watch it twice :D
I dislike any vid with built in advertising, pisses me off
@@alexander1485 good for you
"Airport is costing us $560 million a year in interest and is sinking into the sea. Wut do?"
"Double up. Build another island. That'll make money back faster."
Not sure I entirely follow this subtle Japanese logic.
It was nice landing at Kansai, going to the ferry terminal for a 80 minute ferry to Tokushima to visit the in-laws. Then they built the Kobe bridge and ended the ferry so we could drive 3 hours around the bay.
Kansai aiport, ground breaking architecture, ground breaking engineering and now, ground, breaking, underneath it
Also for a good lol, 10:05 at 0.25 speed is pretty great, if somewhat random
You should do a video about the Samuel De Champlain Bridge in Montréal. Totally unrelated with a Airport, but still interesting. There is also the deconstruction of the old bridge happening.
The fuck? You know what channel this is? Is not called "tiny projects." Look at the Tapan Zee replacement finished in 2020 and say that again?
Southwest is great. You must be thinking of Spirit Airlines.
No mention of the fight with Kobe over the location?
They wanted to build it off the coast of Kobe. The locals said no, so they ended up building it in the current location.
Then once it opened, Kobe said "hey. That's a good idea." when they saw it working as an airport, so they started building one themselves. (which can be seen at the top of the satellite images of the bay throughout the video)
It's a nice airport. I've been there a number of times.
The bridge damage after the typhoon... One side of the road deck was damaged as was the rail lines. Leaving just half the bridge usable. The damaged section of bridge had to be removed and replaced with a new segment. They had the airport back in limited operation while they were still repairing the bridge, but it was still back in operation 3 times faster then they had first expected.
I had a trip into Osaka a few weeks after the typhoon (though I used Itami airport for that trip).
I remember watching a show called Beyond 2000 way way back when and they were talking about how they were pulling down the mountains to fill in this island. It looked so cool back then, hard to think it might turn into one of the most expensive flops in a couple of decades.
OMG Beyond 2000!!!
Landed at KIX in 2019 with no problems. The shuttle to Osaka was a nice ride as you head out over the bay. I miss Japan and it's atmosphere. Hopefully things will open up again in 2022.
KIX is my favourite airport, food, drinks and open smoking rooms 24/7, and the food is both good and cheap, Sukiya on the bottom floor of terminal 1 is my friend :-). Flown in and out of there several times and spent a lot of time there (early morning takeoff), flying with KLM/JAL shared, even the food on the planes is quite good (take the "asian meal", the "western meal" is miserable).
I think you're thinking of Spirit Airlines, not Southwest. Southwest is amazing.
KIX is beautiful. been through it on three trips and am always amazed by it
It's a common mistake that the amount spent on a project in the past means that more money should be spent on it in the future; In economics it's called the 'sunk-cost fallacy". Though politics may take that fallacy into account, the airport will be upgraded as necessary over the coming years because it's the right thing to do, and the airport is in the right place, not because of decisions made in the past.
The same idea was used for the construction of Nagasaki Prefecture Airport in South Eastern Japan.. I first flew I to it from San Francisco International Airport.. I flew into Japan to meet my now wife's family in the late 80's to ask permission if I could marry her.. It was a eye opening experience!! Thanks for this episode Simon!👍😃
0:27 "you aren't going to get streets ahead to take off, Pierce."
I was looking for this comment lmfao I knew somebody else had to catch that
Had to thumbs up because of that SurfShark ad. Best sponsorship plug I have ever seen.
What is crazy is building another runway for a bloody athletic event.
They needed to build it anyway. It was a single runway airport before and was at capacity. The event just gave them a date to complete it by.
This really makes me genuinely sad. I've traveled the world and Kansai is far and away the finest airport I have ever seen. (Hey, Kansai Airport Crew. You are the very best!) I have never been whisked off a plane faster or more efficiently. No dawdling, no farting around. I was off that plane, through customs, had my bags in hand and was on a swift and silent train so fast my mind was reeling. So professional. Coming back through JFK was utterly humiliating after that. Kansai just ruins you for other airports.
Even the bridge to the airport is quite something. A couple of years ago a ship lost power during a typhoon, and clobbered the bridge. It did a lot of damage, including dislodging one entire section. Bridge closed. The astonishing thing was that it took them only a few weeks to get the bridge repaired; pretty damned phenomenal, I thought.
Hi Its Sprit Airlines that has the bad reputation in the US South West has a pretty good reputation and treats its employees well
every time I travel to Japan with my family we go through this marvel of engineering. Hope it won't sink within my lifetime!
I've been to both Kansai and Narita and highly enjoyed them over the U.S. airports on my way to and from Canada!
Ahh the MCG - Australia's official measurement for friggin huge things. Thanks for making the size of this project easy to understand 😊
And speaking of earthquakes ......
That was a bit of a surprise this morning! Unfortunately no MCG equivalent for the Richter Scale
What about Syd Harbs?
Southwest Airlines is freaking amazing. Maybe you're thinking of Frontier?
Whenever I hear “Streets Ahead”, all I can think of it Pierce on Community.
Speaking of Grand Central Terminal... it might be a good idea for a video. Aside from the station building, there is a 48 acre(19.4 ha) railyard beneath the streets of Manhattan.
Business Blaze Simon trolled by The Hobbit and expresses his fondness of Southwest Airlines in this episode.
Minor correction for the drainage pipes but 38.1 cm converts to 15 inches rather than 16 inches.
Spirit. The only airline that ever made me wish id spent more to go with Anyone else
Good one. I really enjoyed that. Truly appreciated.
we love southwest, we loathe spirit
Loved the ad read!
I recently saw a documentary on the same subject there were varying views on how fast settling would occur if I recall correctly some Architects assessed to that at 30+ feet safety buffer however the government considered that too expensive and decided to go with less, obviously they're paying the price
YES! My idea has been heard and made!
Simon i believe you’re thinking of Spirit airline in the US as Southwest is one of the best to fly in the country. 💚
try to address the topic
He was thinking of Spirit... Southwest is awesome
I cant imagine the expense and complications or building an island to put and airport on. Surely it would have been easier and cheaper to build the airport further away and connect it to the city with a bullet train
You obviously haven't been to Japan. There is almost no place to build an airport. Every flat area is used. Even in Tokyo Narita Airport there is still a farm in the middle of the north runway. And there is absolute no place to build an airport even in reach of Osaka. Which is why Kobe airport is.... on an artificial island in the north of the bay....
I departed from Kansai Airport in January 2009. It was so impressive. And yeah, just alone the train over the bridge to the airport was so cool. In 2010 I was travelling with Qatar airlines and to travel to Tokyo, there was a stop in Osaka, too. Everyone had to leave the plane, took a train half around the airport, go through customs and then travel back by train to our original plane and check in again. On our way back we could stay in the plane.
First time I really saw/heard of this airport was in Microsoft Flight sim 2020, just randomly choosing to fly from it. Thought to myself it seemed like an impressive engineering project, cool to see some background on it!
Incredible video Simon!!
10:53 If it is, then how do we not have a Megaprojects episode about that? ;)
Also Typhoon Jebi was a monster. It tore off the roofs of quite a few houses and temples in Osaka that have weathered plenty of typhoons over the decades and in some cases, centuries. Wasn't surprised about the airport when I saw it on the news
See you guys in twenty years when Simon's daughter takes over the channel and does a video on the airport under the sea. . .
Absurd cost at 20bn you say? HS2 has their eye on you. You can get 2 massive islands for less than 20% the cost of a couple hundred miles of hi speed rail. Which is likely to get more routes chopped before completed.
"Couple (OF) hundred miles"...you Americans should learn English...and metrics!
@@owenshebbeare2999 Nice of you to assume I'm Murican. I'm not. I also work in moth metric and imperial. We just happen to use imperial for larger distances here. Welcome to Britain, were regional dialects and using any type of measurement that you may be used to will piss off someone.
Earthquake prone area and you decide... "let's build a thicc island for heavy aircrafts..." This anime's death arc gonna be gratifying
Don't forget the typhoons and tsunamis!
@12:28 "Spirit," my friend. 'Spirit,' airlines is the company you are thinking of. 🤣🤣🤣
Southwest is pretty solid, really. They're something of an "economy" option, but that's part of their appeal. Flown them many times and never had a bad experience. Now United, on the other hand, is utter trash. I would rather flap my arms than ever set foot on one of their planes again.
I think he was thinking of Spirit
@@braedon4589 thank you! It's so bad our buddy forgot it existed
@Scott Reynolds all American airlines are thrash
Yeah I think the airline he was searching for was SPIRIT.
@@jerryjencik3879 I'm curious, when you said "all American airlines are thrash," what does the word "THRASH" mean & how does it fit into a discussion about airlines? Also, seeing as how we actually have an airline named AMERICAN AIRLINES, were you referring to them specifically or just "ALL American airlines" 🤔🤔
Whoever did the ad copy you made my day! I haven't laughed that hard for a while xD!
Are we to suppose that he doesn't like The Hobbit?
@@johnhobson9165 He HATES the Fantasy Genre and REALLY hates LOTR so I'm glad the person made use of this injoke xD
Simon, you were looking for Frontier Airlines. Southwest is pretty good. And I'd rather fly on Soul Plane than Spirit Air.
Simon!! You just used The G (Melbourne Cricket Ground = MCG = The G) as a unit of measurement! You are now an official honorary Melbournian!!
How about the Flevopolder as a megaproject, by far the largest manmade island in the world with an area of 970 square km; that's almost twice the size of Prague.
Gekoloniseerd!!. Hij heeft volgens mij al een video gemaakt over de delta werken en de Afsluitdijk
@@Amlaeuxrai 'Swamp German', that's a new one for me :-)
Love that he referenced the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) It can hold just over 90,000 people. And that's just in the stands.
This video could also be called "That Time Japan played Minecraft IRL"
Tru af
Well that's sad. I arrived to and left from Kansai airport some years back when I visited Japan. Nice place. Lots of cool features and open spaces.
“Let’s address the elephant that’s…sinking in the water”, BADA-BOOM-BOOM-TSH!
Been to KIX several times. That very long terminal is a pain, one has to ride a tram to get to the boarding area, etc. Japanese have long been reclaiming land from the sea, and no small part of modern Osaka is built on land that was either beach or marsh.