Sunday, June 5, 2005

London's Heathrow debuted its super-sized Terminal 1 this week, with almost two dozen new shops, lounges to accommodate 1,000 more waiting passengers, and twice as much room as the previous terminal . . . A microwave oven and lawn mower were among the stranger unclaimed items abandoned in Miami International's Lost and Found and offered at auction last week. The airport reports that nearly half its left-behind items -- including video cameras, laptops and 600 pieces of luggage so far this year -- are never claimed . . . With Reagan National parking lots more jammed than usual in summer, travelers are advised to call its parking hotline at 703-417-7275 before departing for the airport . . . The renaming of Batimore-Washington International as Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall, if approved by a governmental panel later this year, would take effect Oct. 1 and cost an estimated $2.1 million, mostly to change signs in and around the airport.

-- Elissa Leibowitz Poma