On a recent Friday, Don Bradway, 74, stood in the atrium of Norfolk International Airport as the usual hubbub of parents rushing kids along, the constant zip of wheeled suitcases, was magnified by international proportions. A global technology outage had delayed about half of the early morning flights, stretching lines at ticket counters and everyone’s patience.
A man carrying luggage jogged up and started asking questions.
“Oh, you need to go downstairs to check your bag,” Bradway said with a smile. “Yes, downstairs. Down that way.”
The man looked relieved and hustled away toward the escalators.
Norfolk International has 28 airport ambassadors, mostly retirees, who volunteer to soothe the nerves of frazzled travelers. Ambassadors wear mint green, hard-to-miss shirts while they stand throughout the terminal. They keep travelers moving and, in turn, help the efficiency needed in an airport. Their work has become more crucial. The airport expects to exceed 5 million travelers by the end of 2024, a record.
“They’re the airport’s face to the community,” said airport CEO Mark Perryman, “our face to our passengers.”
The program started in 2000 and has grown with the number of people flying in and out. Since 2022, the airport has hit a record each year. More than 4 million people traveled through in 2022; the following year, about 4.5 million.
Bradway, a retired business executive who lives in Virginia Beach, started as an ambassador in 2017 and enjoys bumping into former colleagues who still go on business trips.
“I’ll end up having a conversation with somebody I’ve known for 20 or 30 years,” he said.
He’s also happy to answer what he called the four most common questions for ambassadors: Where are rental cars? Are there places to eat beyond security? Where are the bathrooms? Which gate do I go to?
“Sometimes, you get, ‘Is there somewhere I can take my dog out?'” He’ll show them to an outside area.
Then again, not all travelers have needs that are so simple.
Vera Cornish, a 78-year-old retired educator from Virginia Beach, remembers a woman who declared to her: I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. The woman and her children had missed their flight and didn’t have much money, Cornish recalled. She led them to the airport’s “family room,” which has a bathroom, changing table and comfy chair. She told the woman to lock the door and take a nap. By the time the woman woke up, Cornish had called a friend who allowed the woman and her kids to stay the night until they could board a flight the next morning.
Another time, Cornish enlisted her husband to help a traveler find her car after she forgot where it was in the parking deck.
“We searched for two hours,” Cornish said. “But I’m glad we found the car.”
After retiring from a 48-year career at Newport News Shipbuilding in 2018, Bill Morehead needed something to get him out of the house.
“My wife was telling me I was getting to be too much underneath her feet.”
Now 67, Morehead said the people-watching opportunities are too good to give up. He’s seen a man get on one knee and propose. He’s worked on Halloweens when people dressed as Godzilla and Barney cheered up children nervous about flying. He once saw hundreds of strangers begin to cry when a serviceman sneaked up on his relative after months away on duty.
“We see everything here.”
Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8138, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com
