Equestrian International Airlines

The friends decided that the Friendship School's lecture hall would make a perfect setting for the decisions on how to lay out the new airline's functions and how to design the "planes" as they were going to be called. After a good night's rest, they were up bright and early to begin their discussions.

"There is the potential that the new airports will be very large. We cannot have passengers running all over the place to find their flight's departure point.", said Sandbar.

"I agree with Sandbar. We need to develop maps for the airports so passengers know where to find their waiting area.", said Ocellus.

"Safety should be maintained as well. Just as there are guards and security measures in place around the major cities, the new airports should include security screenings for the passengers as they are entering, along with regular patrols to watch for any disputes. That will make sure nothing illegal enters the airports and that no passengers are prevented from reaching their destination.", added Gallus.

"Gallus is right. However, some citizens have disabilities. To help them reach their plane as soon as possible, airport staff should be ready at a moment's notice to assist them.", said Silverstream.

"Not only that, but the staff will need to make sure that a passenger's belongings are put on the correct plane. In other words, their luggage needs to be labeled. That will raise the likelihood of passengers being able to retrieve what they've brought for their trip upon reaching their destination. However, that will not need to happen with every single piece of luggage. Passengers will be allowed to bring one small suitcase, called a "carry-on", and a "personal items bag", such as a backpack or purse, onto the plane with them. The tagged pieces of luggage will be referred to as "checked bags", meaning they will be opened and physically checked by the staff after they have been taken into the cargo holding area. That will happen before they are taken to be stored on the plane.", said Smolder.

"Having all of the planes depart from one single point in the airport would be unwise. That would delay flights badly. The new airports should have multiple areas from which to board the planes. Just as train stations have multiple platforms and seaports have multiple docks, the new airports should be split up into various wings. Each wing will have its own group of gates from which to get on the planes. Along with that, the airports need to have more than one runway for the planes to take off from and land on.", said Yona.

Flurry took note of everyone's claims. Using the information, she proceeded to write up a layout for how the airports would be constructed. The procedure would consist of several steps.

First, the travelers would check in and get their luggage tagged so the staff would know which plane it needed to be taken to. Next, the passenger would go through the security check to make sure they weren't trying to bring anything like weapons or dangerous substances onto the plane. That portion of the airport would be referred to as the "terminal".

The security check would involve a passenger placing their carry-on, personal items bag, footwear, and any other loose articles of clothing into bins on a conveyor belt to be taken through an x-ray machine. After placing their bags on the belt, the passenger would stand inside a special booth to have their body scanned for anything dangerous. This booth would work by having two vertical arms rotate around the passenger while bouncing radio waves off of their body and sending the data to a computer to be converted into an image. Two-legged citizens would be required to raise their arms up in order to match positioning stickers inside the booth. All of the passengers would need to stand perfectly centered in the booth for the scan to be done properly. To achieve this, marks would be on the booth's floor for them to stand on. Any passenger whose scan revealed anomalies would be asked to step aside to be patted down and checked with a metal detection wand.

Once the passengers had passed security, they would look at their flight's information on a large display screen in order to know which gate they needed to head for. Each group of gates would be called a "concourse". If a flight was leaving from gate B12, that meant the passenger would board the plane from gate 12 in concourse B. The passenger would be given a special document as well, which would give them permission to board the plane. As such, this document would be called a "boarding pass". The passenger's name, flight number, airline, departure point, destination, and gate number would be listed on it.

Just then, Flurry had her own idea for how the passengers could avoid being couped up on the plane at all times.

"Some passengers may need to travel long distances to reach their destination. If that is the case, they can't stay on the plane for the entire duration of their flight. They may need to stretch their legs and get a bite to eat.", she said.

"How would that work?", asked Sandbar in confusion.

"He's right. The plane can't stop flying in midair. That would be dangerous.", said Yona.

"It's actually quite simple. The longer flights will be broken up into pieces. While some passengers will be at their destination immediately, others will need to get off the plane at the next airport and move to another plane to continue their journey. They can rest during the time before their "connecting flight" as it shall be named. I am going to call this time period a "layover". Depending on where the passenger is going, they may have more than one layover, possibly two or three. Also, their luggage will be transferred to the connecting plane.", said Flurry.

"Thanks for clarifying that.", said Ocellus.

Now that the operation plans had been laid out, it was time to design how the planes would be built.