Ontario Airport installs free short-story dispensers for travelers

Ontario International Airport has added Short Story Dispensers in both Terminal 2 and Terminal 4, placing free reading material near the security screening areas. Travelers can choose a story by genre or by reading time, then walk away with a 1-minute, 3-minute or 5-minute strip of paper to read in the terminal or on the plane.

The kiosks are part of Ontario’s broader effort to make the airport more comfortable and family-friendly while promoting literacy and local authors. The airport also runs a quarterly Authors at ONT program, which brings in meet-and-greets and signed books, and its terminal environment includes charging stations, work booths, hydration stations and lounge space.

Public Library Association and Short Édition materials list each roll of paper at about 350 to 450 stories, and the dispensers can hold more than 80,000 stories in the short formats offered to passengers. Short Édition operates about 600 dispensers worldwide, with roughly half in the United States, after launching the concept in Grenoble, France, in 2016.

Ontario welcomed 7,084,864 passengers in 2024 and 7,116,735 in 2025, including 566,923 international travelers last year, up 29.2% from 2024. Daily departures have climbed from 58 to 90 since 2016, when the airport moved to local control from the City of Los Angeles, and Ontario credits that passenger and cargo growth to local control and expanded nonstop service across Greater Los Angeles.

Airport spokesperson Steve Lambert said the dispensers have been “super popular” with passengers.