MONEY-MAKING AMENITIES ARRIVE AT WORLD AIRPORTS : CASINOS, MALLS AMONG DIVERSIONS.

Byline: Jennifer Chao Associated Press 

With five hours between flights at Schiphol Airport, Athanasios Krokos decided to give one of the 75 slot machines at the airport's casino a crank.

After that, he could try his luck at the roulette wheel or a few hands of blackjack in the glittering gaming house winking at travelers from between two boarding gates.

He lost at the slot machine, but that's OK.

``When you have too much time you have to do something . . . this kills time for sure,'' Krokos, of Athens, Greece, said with a grin.

Once, killing time at airports meant squeezing into a transit lounge chair, flicking through a magazine or browsing the duty-free shops.

No more. The people huddled around the roulette table at Schiphol represent one of the many new ways of entertaining travelers with time on their hands - and separating them from their money.

Increasingly, airports around the world are shifting to private ownership, and that means more focus on the bottom line. Some airports have become virtual ``second cities,'' competing against nearby metropolitan centers for travelers' cash once spent mostly downtown.

``Airports are marketing themselves, finding their niche, and reinventing. They are no longer just about runways,'' said Avi Gil of Airports Council International, a trade group based in Geneva.

With sparkling shopping malls, high-rise hotels and connecting business plazas, some airports have evolved into commercial hubs for surrounding communities.

Schiphol's new mall boasts the longest retail shopping hours in the Netherlands, luring airport and railway passengers as well as locals eager to shop Sundays when most Dutch stores are closed.

Interestingly, the United States, long a leader in the trend toward lessened government involvement in business, trails in this area. U.S. law bars privately owned airports from receiving federal money.

Susan Black Olson, spokeswoman for a group representing more than 400 commercial service airports in North America, said there are a few airports in the United States that are privately managed under contract to government owners. But there are no commercial service airports with private owners.

Congress recently authorized a test program for five airports, which have yet to be designated, that would allow them to be leased to private business.

Most major airports around the world already provide basic business facilities like fax machines, computers and conference centers.

For globetrotting business people, some airports have become final destinations as well as transit points.

The airports in Amsterdam and Vienna, Austria, have their own World Trade Centers to showcase international commerce.

``You can arrive at the airport, do your business here, sleep in an airport hotel and go home again without even having to leave the airport,'' said Marianne de Bie, spokeswoman for Schiphol.

At Arlanda airport outside Stockholm, Sweden, business executives fly in to attend meetings at the airport's SkyCity business and commercial center and fly out the same day without having to drive 25 miles to the city, said Sofia Holst, SkyCity's conference manager.

Just as many cash-strapped governments are welcoming private sector money for airport development, investors are recognizing the profit potential, said Paul Behnke, director of economics for Airports Council International.

Many international airports are open 24 hours a day, every day, a potential marketing bonanza. Add to that the release of inhibitions that traveling can bring.

``People are just waking up to passengers' huge propensity to spend at airports,'' Behnke said.

Gatwick and Heathrow are already 100 percent privately owned. Vienna and Copenhagen airports are semiprivatized. Australia plans to privatize all 22 airports through long-term leasing.

The council's member airports - which account for 90 percent of all global passenger traffic - handled 2.5 billion passengers worldwide in 1995 and expected last year's total to end up 6 percent higher.

Passenger volume worldwide will double over the next 14 years, according to the group's projections. To meet this growing demand, existing airports are being expanded and new ones being built.

In Asia, where passenger growth is greatest, at least 12 new airports are in the works.

Hong Kong's new Chek Lap Kok airport, scheduled to open in April 1998, is the largest civil aviation project of the 1990s. The $20 billion facility will handle an expected 35 million passengers and 1.32 million tons of cargo with the first of two runways.

Other cities getting new airports include Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Seoul, South Korea; and Bombay, India.

Not all travelers are impressed with the changes. All the shopping and entertainment arcades usually mean a longer walk to the gates.

``What's being lost is the ease of being able to just hop on a plane,'' said Roberta Rossi, a London-based television producer. ``I am not there to be entertained; I am there to get on a plane.''

``The more they add to airports, the more you have to go through,'' Rossi added. ``It's just so much more hassle.''

Michael Potter, president of an independent European telephone company, agreed. ``I try to spend the shortest amount, the minimal time at airports,'' he said.

While conceding some travelers are irked by the changes, Behnke said the success of the new airport enterprises show more are happy.

``There will always be the no-frills passengers, but there are also others who would get there early just to loiter,'' he said.

MONEY-MAKERS

Sample of new profit-making activities at airports:

GATWICK (London): Internet cafe, Planet Hollywood theme restaurant, toll-free shopping information hotline, personal shopper and advance-order services. Spectator's gallery, with flight deck of Comet II, world's first jet airliner, on display.

HEATHROW (London): Flight Connections Center with facilities including coin-operated showers, fax machines, computers, dry-cleaning services, recliner seats, food courts.

SCHIPHOL (Amsterdam, Netherlands): For passengers: casino, airport TV station, business center, conference rooms, children's play area, sauna. For all: shopping mall, art exhibitions, dry cleaner, grocery store, shoe repair, hairdressing salon, World Trade Center.

VIENNA INTERNATIONAL (Austria): Airport World Trade Center, which leases office, conference and exhibition space. Center also provides trade information on Austrian, Hungarian, Polish and Czech markets.

ARLANDA (Stockholm, Sweden): Business and shopping center with hotel, shops, 41 conference rooms.

FRANKFURT INTERNATIONAL (Germany): Supermarkets, disco, sex shop.

CHANGI (Singapore): Fitness center, karaoke lounge, putting green, rooftop swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna, science discovery corner, Internet center.

BANGKOK INTERNATIONAL (Thailand): Microbrewery pub.

DUBAI INTERNATIONAL: Luxury car raffle.

ABU DHABI AND AL AIN: Cash raffle pays $138,000 at eight drawings every month.

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Box: MONEY-MAKERS (See text)