Smelled any good airports lately?

— -- Next time you go to the airport, take a good, deep breath.

What does it smell like? Cinnamon rolls? Barbecue? Cigarette smoke? A locker room? Nothing?

Airports in North America have been doing a lot lately to make the travel experience more enjoyable by upgrading shops, dining venues, and the furniture and lighting in gate areas, and by adding artwork, power plugs and wireless Internet access. Even the TSA is trying to do its part by setting up self-select lanes to help calm things down at security checkpoints around the country.

It's a step in the right direction. But as far as I can tell (or smell), few airports are focusing on their smell, or at least talking about it.

One that is: the UK's East Midlands Airport. The single terminal airport, located about an hour and a half north of London, serves about six million passengers a year. Two years ago the terminal underwent a major renovation that included upgrading shops and restaurants. But Sales and Marketing Manager Sarah Fletcher didn't think upgrading the look of the facility was enough. She wanted the airport to smell better as well.

Sniff your way to sales?

It wasn't as if travelers were steering clear of the airport because it was stinky or anything like that. Fletcher says it was just that, as the 2008 holiday season was approaching, the airport had run out of wall space to decorate or use to communicate with passengers and the staff was intent on creating a pleasant ambience in the airport. "We realized," says Fletcher, "that one thing we could do was send Christmas up the passengers' noses."

Fletcher contacted ScentAir, a large scent marketing company headquartered in Charlotte. The company's worldwide roster of clients includes grocery stores and restaurants, hospitals, hotels (i.e. Hilton, Hyatt, Westin), stores such as Macy's, Nordstrom and Jimmy Choo Shoes, spas, amusement parks and even the U.S. military. To choose an appropriate aroma for the East Midlands airport, Fletcher and several staff members went shopping in ScentAir's scent library. "I told them I was looking for a holiday smell to start people off on their journey. After a day of testing scents, we settled on a cinnamon/Christmas smell."