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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
When I arrived at the Gulfport Mississipi airport this past March, I commented to the person who greeted me that Katrina had really done a number on it. She smiled and said, "It was pretty much like this before the hurricane." The terminal lacked dry wall, plastic sheeting served as construction dividers, seats were situated willy-nilly, and hallways were reduced to single person traffic. To make matters worst, security was absurd: I had to present my ticket and ID to three officers along a 20 foot path, including the guy on this side of the metal detector and his colleague standing on the other side (close enough to shake hands). Its pathetic how serious, puffed up, and drunk these guys were on their limited power. On a positive note, I got to see Wayne Newton trapse through in all of his Vegas glory.
SFO (San Francisco, USA) Comfortable, decent food at decent prices
PTP (Point-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe) Surprisingly large and efficient
He, he, that bit about passengers being well-advised to use the facilities on the the plane reminded me of Philly International. I was dropping a friend off recently, and she mentioned (heatedly, and at length) how pathetic it is that there are nearly as many toilets on the aircraft as there are in any given terminal at PHL. And this in a major metro airport. Did people not pee back when PHL was built? Or did the misguided thinking that held that crudely cast concrete is aesthetically pleasing also extend to restroom facilities?
It's no wonder that every employee there seems depressed and demoralized, what with the horrible food (if you can find it), the loud and depressing architecture, nowhere to pee, the security screening areas slapped together with scraps of drywall, and yes, panhandlers in the baggage claim area.
As a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal, I’ve spent a fair amount of time at this airport. I can say it is NOT worthy of this scathing title. I’m not defending its cleanliness or the volume of “dubiously intended hangers-around,” but a few polite but firm words will, at best, elicit a laugh and, at worst send them on their way. While a sense of humor and lowered expectations are a must (functioning ATMs? Please…), the bar is a great place to get a cold beer and enjoy the wonderful chaos or, as the author refers to it, the “muggy sort of dignity.” Who is acting sullen now?
It is no fault of Senegal’s, or a reflection of its “national pride,” that the airport did not live up to the author’s romanticism. To be sure, where did the idea of wanting to be “sandwiched in the back of the overbooked Airbus with luggage-laden Africans" come from?
It is possible to find negative experiences at any airport – developed and developing countries alike. I have certainly had my fair share of mishaps at airports from Philadelphia to Tajikistan. I would argue; however, that the ungracious title of the World’s Worst Airport it is more a reflection of the author’s state of mind. The alternatives are simple: either stay home or leave the expectations on the tarmac, hop on the airport shuttle that takes you about 20 feet from the plane’s stairs to the terminal, and enjoy the experience!
It is all about expectations--Costa Rica is advancing nicely, and as a long-time resident and soon-to-be citizen, I know we can do better. Sure the airport looks good with new fittings and nice overpriced shops, but it desperately needs the five new gates under construction. These have been unfinished for about five years while the government and contractor argue about who's going to pay for cost overruns. But if you're a tourist don't worry, when the lines for immigration reach back to the gate where you got off, they'll come take you to the front of the line so you don't get a bad first impression.
And it takes its toll. In Panama, PTY, which looks like nothing if not an elevated tugboat pier with thin poliester carpets and scattered plastic seats, and has one restuarant (airside) with $10 hamburgers, COPA is frantically opening new routes and can because there are 20+ gates there. If somebody new wanted to do that from San Jose, forget it. TACA is protected, so we pay $400 to go to El Salvador which is about the same distance as LA-San Francisco.
Worst:
Coimbatore - Filthy, I was nervous about sitting down on the upholstered chairs.
Chennai international arrivals and departures -- totally chaotic, even at 2:30 in the morning, with one British Airways steward employed to identify non-Indians (i.e. white people, which he was quite obviously and distinctly singling out) in the crowd and say "British Airways?" to them and shepherd them through the mob. Arrivals is also weird, Indians had to re-screen their luggage in order to *leave* the airport but my blonde white self was waved right through. The huge mass of waiting relatives just outside is pretty funny though. The departures "lounge" is dreadful, no shops no food (except for the samosas that someone mentioned earlier) and the BA lounge is *before* security and not well identified at all, so if you miss like I did it that's it, you're stuck inside the horrible uncomfortable lounge area for the next two hours.
Best:
Heathrow, but only if you're flying on someone else's dime -- the Business Class lounge is FABULOUS. Showers, dude! Showers! Free booze, free hot food, comfy chairs, and a really nice cappucino machine. The only bummer is that they charge for wireless internet. That seems unnecessarily parsimonious, to me. If they're splashing out all that dosh on other amenities, why cheap out on the internets?
the chaotic and cramped Delta terminal at JFK leaves a lot to be desired. The last time I was there (taking off on a Tuesday afternoon, no less!), it was packed to the gills, mostly because the place is TINY. The ticket counter can't be more than 25 feet from the door, which means all the space in front of it is packed with lines interweaving for various services--i.e., the check-in line mixes with the kiosk line mixes with the luggage drop-off line mixes with the security line. The lines are horizontal across the front of the terminal because it lacks the depth to be able to line people up in vertical rows.
The JFK Delta terminal rents a few gates to Saudi Arabian Airlines, and I don't think the Delta employees appreciate that very much. My husband and I were in one of the aforementioned crazy lines to check-in to our flight to Barcelona and a dark-skinned man moved outside the line towards the counter, presumably to ask a question. The check-in agent suddenly screamed angrily at him to get back in line. When I asked her why she felt she needed to be so rude about it, she retorted loudly, "All I did was yell at him--in his country, they'd just shoot you for stepping out of line!"
Needless to say, I was appalled. The guy hadn't even spoken a word! Ugh. I guess that's the kind of behavior they tolerate at Delta.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
