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Contrasting Airport Experiences Contrasting Airport Experiences
Recently I had the opportunity of visiting Sydney, Australia and Kathmandu, Nepal on official trips.
In the case of Sydney I was to fly back by Emirates flight at 6 am. As usual in terms of Indian standards I assumed that one has to check in more than three hours before the flight i.e around 3 am. Since, I was in a foreign country and to avoid any trouble in getting transport in the middle of the night thought of checking out early from the hotel and reaching and waiting at the airport. It turned out to be a wise decision as the hotel, though it claimed to have 24 hour check out, stated that their computer systems won’t work after midnight. So luckily checked out in time and after a brief taxi ride reached airport at around 1.30 am thinking I would be able to while away time there. Imagine my shock on reaching when I found that the airport at Sydney is shut down from 11 pm to 4 am. At night they don’t have any flight taking off or landing and the airport was totally closed down and we had to wait outside the airport till 4 am when they opened the airport doors. Even after that there was hardly any one inside the airport and shops etc were still closed as no one wanted to lose a good night’s sleep. Can you imagine in India airports closed at night? In fact here the maximum rush is at night time. However, at the same time it must be admitted that once inside the airport the formalities including security check took place quickly and unobtrusively to the point that security checks are almost not there at airport or anywhere else in Sydney.
Contrast was my experience while returning from Kathmandu in Nepal a couple of days back. I had to pre-pone my return to India as the Maoists had declared a mobilization drive and show of strength in Kathmandu and subsequently called for an indefinite strike. Because of this it was advised that we return early. On the day of the strike my flight was in the afternoon but as it would have been a problem reaching airport once the demonstrations start planned on reaching the airport in the early morning itself (in fact even during normal days there are lot of traffic jams in Kathmandu). After waiting the whole day in the airport - where facilities leave a lot to be desired, finally was called for security check. The security check was a harrowing experience.. there was just a single long line and it was taking inordinate time for the officials to screen the hand baggage. Even after passing through the x-ray machine subsequently each and every bag was being opened and all contents taken out and rummaged and checked. By the time all passengers went through the ordeal and reached the tarmac for boarding the aircraft the time for takeoff of the flight was well past. When we reached the steps for climbing into the aircraft a surprise was in store… . there were tables kept in a makeshift enclosure and for every passenger every hand baggage was again checked by the Indian Airlines staff opening and removing everything. It defied any logic as the baggage had already been x-rayed and opened and checked by the security staff. Again there was a long line formed at the bottom of the aircraft ladder as this entire exercise took place and the flight kept getting further delayed. On being asked whether there was any specific security alert causing all this fuss the Indian Airlines staff said that it was not so and the same type of checks are done every day. Normally one accepts some security check procedures as a way of life and believes that it is for our safety but this appeared as more of a invasion of privacy and cause of inordinate delay. They seem to be checking mainly for sharp metal objects and height of ridiculousness was that when they later served us food in the aircraft and one notices that there was the heavy sharp metallic fork which was given in the food tray!!!!....the whole experience left a bitter taste in the mouth and it was nothing to do with the food which any way was also not that great….what a contrast!!!
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