A good list from Ask the pilot. Here’s two I particularly liked:
11. Ample gate-side seating
If the plane at Gate 12 holds 250 people, there ought to be a minimum of 250 chairs in the boarding lounge — not 100, not 150. There is something extremely uncivilized about having to sit on the floor while waiting to board your flight. Do we sit on the floor when waiting for a table in a restaurant? Do we sit on the floor at the doctor’s office? (When Singapore’s award-winning Changi Airport was built, the gates were outfitted with no fewer than 420 chairs, matching the average number of seats on a 747.)
12. A quiet area
Every concourse needs a cordoned-off quiet zone with some comfy chairs and newspapers, insulated from the blare of public address announcements, cellphone yammering and CNN.
I’ve been around aviation for years, and have yet to figure out the phenom of the terminal.
They don’t serve the pilot’s needs, the aircraft’s needs, the passenger’s needs – never have figured out how they get designed.
Form should follow function.
Just never have figured out what function they are fulfilling.