With regards to the safety/weather/convienence issue of airstairs--seems to work pretty well for Ryanair and Easyjet. The UK and Ireland are as cold and wet as any US destination. If the engines aren't running, whats the safety issue? Finally, maybe if more US passengers were forced to drag their oh-so-heavy carry-on luggage up and down a flight of stairs each time they flew, there would be fewer of them that would have to purchase two seats due to obesity. Are we so obsessed with convienence these days that the most elegant and effective soultion is passed on so people dont have to spend 3 minutes outside?