Challenges at YYC's New International Terminal

Recently, I had the experience of using the brand new "state of the art" international terminal at Calgary International Airport.  It was quite a challenge!  It is one of the most passenger unfriendly terminals I've been in!

WestJet CEO Gregg Saretsky was complaining about it in the paper this morning.  I agree with many of his concerns.  Here are my comments;

• Long walks.  Be prepared to walk long distances through a maze of hallways and huge rooms.  There's not a slide-walk or moving walkway in sight.
• Little art or decoration on the miles of corridors.  This is what prison hallways must look like!  After leaving Las Vegas from Terminal 3 there, it's quite a shock! 
• Some of the folks I was travelling with were concerned that their luggage would get lost travelling between the International Terminal and the Domestic Terminal since they understood that the two luggage systems are not connected, yet.  I was skeptical about this, but apparently it's true!  Gregg says it's like having the terminal system broken in the middle!
• Little seating at gates.  Maybe I was looking in the wrong places but I saw very few seats in the waiting areas at the gates.  After that long walk, I could have used a chair for a few minutes!
• Very few services available on the long walk to the departure gates.  I was looking for a little kiosk to buy a snack and a soft drink.  The only one I could see was most of the way up a long sloping ramp which I had just come down.  I didn't feel like coaxing these old bones back up the ramp so I did without my snack.

I agree with Gregg's critique of this new palace.  It needs to made more user friendly.  We need to have the place more welcoming to our international visitors and to those of us leaving for destinations outside Canada!