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In 1962, Trans-World Airlines opened a terminal in New York that seemed to cast the thrill of travel into concrete and glass. With a roof shaped like gull wings and swooping curves throughout, it suggested a Jetsonian future, as if passengers might one day be swept from their hover cars into luxurious jetliners beyond.

It didn't quite pan out. Eero Saarinen's artful design proved ill-suited for the dawning jet age, which brought enormous airplanes and swarms of passengers. When TWA folded in 2001, the grand old building was shuttered. By then, arriving in a grim, bunker-like terminal had become the norm.

But even as the flying experience becomes ever more constricted, the lost art of airport design is making a comeback. Today, JetBlue unveils a new terminal at JFK Airport - one among dozens of new and renovated terminals around the world, designed to accommodate growing passenger volumes and outsized airliners such as the new 550-seat Airbus A380.

This time around, though, function won't trump form. Maze-like passageways and low ceilings are out. Starchitects such as Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and Cesar Pelli are in, and with them have come majestic spaces, soaring roofs and natural light. Even Saarinen's venerable New York building is back: JetBlue has restored it for use as an entrance to its new terminal.

Of course, airports never come cheap: Prices easily reach into the billions. But an iconic airport can be a selling point for tourist destinations - or at least a balm for the indignities of air travel.

JFK TERMINAL 5 (JETBLUE)

NEW YORK

DESIGN Instead of altering Saarinen's soaring structure, JetBlue wrapped a giant Y-shaped terminal around it - then extended the new building right onto the tarmac. Passengers can take an architourism detour and use check-in kiosks in the old facility, or proceed straight into the new building (designed by corporate architecture firm Gensler).

Travel-friendly touches include no fewer than 20 security gates, soft, springy flooring material and benches for freshly de-shoed passengers, and big, easy-to-find washrooms that can stay partly open while they're being cleaned.

GOODIES A snacks-only airline, JetBlue doesn't serve meals - but its new terminal sure does. Of T5's 22 eateries, 11 are full-service sit-down restaurants run by top New York chefs. An Italian trattoria shows foreign flicks on the walls; chef Michael Schulson's Deep Blue wraps patrons in a swirling underwater decor; and a faux-diner called Loft evokes a historic loft in lower Manhattan.

Better still, passengers will be able to use touch-screen displays to order food that will be delivered to their gate. The central marketplace area will host 25 stores; an abundance of power plugs will save travellers the hunt for places to plug in their laptops.

BEIJING TERMINAL 3

BEIJING

DESIGN No surprise: Beijing's new airport is big. Designed by British architect Norman Foster's Foster and Partners, this 11-million-square-foot terminal has 120 gates and is bigger than all of Heathrow put

together. It's also much more pleasant.

When it opened in time for this summer's Olympic Games, critics lauded both its airiness and (despite its enormous size) comfort. Passengers can ride a light-rail train to reach the far end of the terminal, for example, and the walls of the tunnel have been planted with greenery to soften the journey.

In the terminal itself, Imperial-style gardens line the waiting areas, and traditional Chinese art hangs in the open space. (The building itself also has a bit of Chinese flair: The airport is said to look like a dragon when you see it from the air.)

Impressive, but not enough for booming Beijing. The city is already hunting for a location for another airport to open when this one reaches its capacity around 2015.

GOODIES The terminal might be grand, but the eating is down-to-earth. The 64 restaurants are split between local cuisine and familiar fare from Burger King, Pizza Hut and Starbucks. (The best stuff is before check-in.) Meanwhile, the airport's 90 stores can get lost in such a vast space.

DUBAI TERMINAL 3

Design Pity Beijing. Its brief claim to having the world's largest airport ended last Tuesday, when Dubai, the city where everything is outsized, unveiled the newest building at Dubai International Airport.

The new Terminal 3 is exclusive to Emirates, the national airline that recently introduced direct flights to Toronto. (Emirates was one of the first to fly the Airbus A380, and its new terminal has five gates for the jumbo aircraft.) When complete, the terminal will handle 43 million passengers a year on its own.

GOODIES Some Emirates perks give new meaning to the term "full service." There are special lounges for children travelling alone, replete with video games and minders. There are two hotels, one four-star and one five-star, and a spa, and you can shop in three duty-free stores, part of the 50,000 square feet of shopping. And if you get overloaded, you can have porters haul your baggage for you - for what Emirates says will be "a minimal fee."

HEATHROW TERMINAL 5

LONDON

Design All right, so misplacing thousands of bags in its first few days of operation this March didn't make for the most auspicious start. But once Heathrow's newest terminal gets its kinks worked out - and by all accounts, it's well on its way - it will turn over a new leaf for an airport that some disgruntled passengers have taken to calling "Deathrow."

Designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership, T5 rises like a grand glass hangar, an arcing roof stretching across its nearly 400-metre length. Inside, cramped tunnels have been replaced by vast, open spaces, and escalators take passengers from underground train platforms up four storeys of glass.

In the words of one British critic, this is "one of the most breathtaking man-made spaces in modern Britain."

GOODIES How to pay for this $8.8-billlion marvel? One answer is high-end retail. The terminal's owners hope that passengers will drop at least a few dollars in its enormous, 236,000-square-foot retail space, which includes the likes of Prada, Dior and Gucci.

Among the fine-dining options, chef Gordon Ramsay has opened up a restaurant called Plane Food behind T5's security barrier. Reviews have ranged from fair to scorchingly bad. And before you even ask: There's no McDonald's.

JAMES ARMSTRONG

RICHARDSON AIRPORT

WINNIPEG

Design Good new airport design isn't reserved for megacities. Neither are marquee architects. The new terminal under construction in Winnipeg is being created by the firm of Cesar Pelli, who not only designed some of the world's tallest skyscrapers, but as a young architect worked on Saarinen's TWA terminal in New York. Set to open in 2010, this two-storey terminal hopes to attract outsized jets. Like other new airports (including Beijing), it will also use broad expanses of open space to help passengers find their way, putting their destinations in sight rather leading them through endless passageways.

GOODIES The current terminal will be replaced by a new building for the Western Canada Aviation Museum - home not only to a collection of warbirds and airliners, but the infamous Avrocar, the secret military hover car that never, well, took off.

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Terminals worth the trip

BILBAO

Avant-garde architecture put this Spanish city on the map, and this terminal follows suit. Designed by Santiago Calatrava and opened in 2000, it's remarkable for its soaring wing-like design and a panoramic viewing gallery.

MADRID BARAJAS

This novel 2006 airport ensconces travellers in a forest of colourful, tree-like columns and an undulating roof of wood strips. Designed by Richard Rogers Partnership, it won one of the world's top architectural awards.

HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL

An engineering wonder of the world, the 1998 airport is built on a man-made island kilometres out to sea. The $20-billion project is one of the most expensive in history.

BERLIN-TEMPELHOF

Catch it while you can: This iconic 1927 building, which has a canopy that old planes could park under, closes at the end of the month. Its future is uncertain.

PRINCESS JULIANA, ST. martin

The airport's 2006 terminal is pretty. But the real draw is the beach at the end of the runway, where plane buffs get (literally) blown away by passing jets.

PEARSON TERMINAL 1

Yes, Pearson. The main terminal at Canada's biggest airport is both grand and functional. Extensive public art and thoughtful design (thanks to architect Moshe Safdie) make it worthy of being

Canada's front door.