JayMatt, my Rabbi explained that I could carry my things off the plane into the airport. He said that the plane connects to the airport directly. If you are in a place where you get off the plane and walk to the terminal it may be different.
This came up when I was flying to Japan. I was looking at flights and accidentally changed the date to fly on Friday/Shabbos. When I realized that, it made me curious to ask. He did say I shouldnt fly unless I needed to (which I didn’t, this was theory), but that it was allowed.
The more problematic part is surviving a 14 hour flight without using the bathroom. 🙂