YOUR NEXT BIRTHDAY PARTY WILL BE AT ....THE AIRPORT

ZURICH—Kids at Learta Sinani's 10th birthday party here ate cake, played games and faced a thorough security screening. It's all part of celebrations at one of Switzerland's hottest tourist spots: Zurich Airport.
When Ms. Sinani's mother first proposed taking friends to the airfield, "I wasn't so sure," recalled the birthday girl during her recent festivities, as friends climbed in a child-sized control tower. "Now I think it's really exciting." (click below to read more)

Switzerland's main airport is among a growing number in Europe that are trying to renew a halcyon era of aviation, when airports felt welcoming. From Munich to Stockholm, the unticketed masses can now tour terminals and ride around runways for fun.

Airports in Europe are now becoming tourist destinations in their own right, and are not just for people passing through. WSJ's Daniel Michaels reports from Zurich's airport, where tourist activities include birthday parties for kids.
Hospitality is proving so successful that these airports are increasingly pitching themselves as party venues. Revelers are climbing onboard. Zurich's three weekly birthday slots for youngsters are booked into next year.
"You should reserve before your child is born," jokes Rahel Kindermann-Leuthard, manager of visitor services and events at Zurich Airport.
In the U.S., most travelers can't escape an airport fast enough. But the takeoff in European tarmac tourism offers a reminder that despite the increasing meanness of flying, people world-wide remain fascinated by it.
They are folks like Andreas Krug, a Hamburg resident who enjoyed taxiing across his hometown airport before a recent flight over Germany. When he landed in Frankfurt and discovered that the airport offers guided tours, he and his wife paid €8, or about $11 each, for the quick version—an hour-long bus ride.
"When you're flying, it's too short from the terminal to the runway, and we wanted to see more of it," he said while zipping around the vast hub. "Next time we'll do a big tour." Those include a new three-hour special in December that concludes at Frankfurt's Christmas market, for about $30. A summer tour ends with a cruise down the Main River.
Welcoming airport tourists with open arms while searching them for arms poses challenges. Frankfurt erected a small building just to house security scanners for tourists. Standards are the same as for travelers. Its bus tours, which began modestly in 1972, once included a stop where participants could step off and take photos near airplanes. That ended after Sept. 11, 2001. Outdoor observation terraces around the world closed. Instead, many airports expanded lounges and shopping, catering to travelers now forced to kill hours.
In Europe, airports have long attracted locals with mini-malls located outside security. Now officials say letting locals back near planes helps community relations, especially where neighbors complain loudly about noise."We use tours to show we're not just a piece of flat asphalt, but play a role in society," says Jan Lindqvist, spokesman for Stockholm's Arlanda Airport. He says visitors find the control tower and luggage-sorting systems most interesting. "If we explain it in a PowerPoint presentation, it doesn't sound so exciting."
Few airports woo sightseers with such gusto as Zurich, which on Dec. 1 opened an outdoor observation deck. Its innovations include computerized binoculars that superimpose flight information on whatever plane they're pointed at.
For kids, there is an airport-themed playground, with a replica jetliner to climb in and a control tower jungle gym with a slide.
Access costs five Swiss francs, or about $5.50, per adult and everyone must clear a special security checkpoint, where they can also buy souvenirs. Kids get an activity book and crayons.
Visitors can stroll atop a protruding airplane-boarding pier to watch passengers embark through the jetway below and gaze straight into a parked plane's cockpit. Nearby, a digital sign offers details about the waiting jetliner, including its route, flight path and weather conditions at its destination.
"In terms of getting close to airplanes, it doesn't get any better," boasts spokeswoman Jasmin Bodmer. She predicts 300,000 visitors to the observation deck this year, making it one of Switzerland's top man-made destinations.
Hosting birthday parties lets airports court young fans, and through them, adults. Some terminals already had play areas where families could let children romp before being cooped up on airplanes, so opening to locals during slow periods seemed logical.
At Munich Airport's "Kinderland," outside the secure zone, kids can paint, dive in a vat of plastic balls or build with giant soft blocks. The airport hosts parties there, along with a special kid-friendly version of its bus tour.
The package costs about $13 per child and includes a pack of airport-themed invitations that arriving guests present as their "boarding pass." Frankfurt Airport also simplifies arrangements by hosting parties outside security, after a bus tour.
Both airports are unusually welcoming since they permit people on tours to carry liquids, which are prohibited for air passengers across Europe. Zurich Airport also offers lockers for sightseers to stash forbidden items.
Partygoers at Sweden's tiny Karlstad Airport see less action than at big hubs but can climb on the airport's firetrucks. The birthday kid gets to shoot the water cannon. Even the security scan is fun.
"Kids always want to make it go beep," says airport chief executive Peter Landmark.
Children often board waiting planes and see the cockpit. Photos with pilots are common.
Birthdays at Karlstad finish with a high-tech party game: Guests put presents in the X-ray machine and the host, watching the monitor, guesses what's inside.
"It is very good marketing for aviation," says Mr. Landmark.
Learta Sinani's birthday at Zurich began on the observation deck, followed by a tour aboard a bus festively painted with a child's drawings. At the intersection of two runways, the kids alighted in a fenced-off area to experience takeoffs close up. Nearby megaphones blasted radio traffic between planes and controllers.
The party concluded with games and cake at an airport playroom. Learta's mother, who celebrated her daughter's last birthday more modestly at a McDonald's, said colleagues at the bank where she works were fascinated by the whole idea.
Mr. Lindqvist of the Stockholm airport says most adults find airport operations engrossing, as do kids until about age 14. But there are limits. "At 15 or 16," he adds, "they're much more interested in each other.