This one is a very good and timely article. As a passenger, many times I have faced similar situations. AAI cannot even think of international standards. A fast train to connect domestic and international terminals is a real necessity. Rediff should promote such good articles rather than "Shenoy and co's communist bashing".
I do agree with you .Indian airports are no where near calling as wht called international airports.The service quality is the biggest issue in there apart from infrastructure.
I went out side india when i was a student.Even then for every trip bcak home loaders wolud harrass for Dollars.
I found service even in other Asian airports is too good as compared to AAI.
I hope MR. Minister would take note of his own words and do something to those issues.
The article addresses most of the problems that I have faced in Indian airports, especially Mumbai. Having been to around 10 other international airports, I find that Indian airport management is in a pitiable state.
Ethiraj has hit the nail on the head and with a hammer 5 tons in weight. I just compare our airports to those in China and no I'm not talking Beijing or Shanghai but Urumuqi.Mumbai is simply no comparison. Chile has better airports and so does Brazil. Things are getting better but at such a slow pace it's frustrating. The day of the Mubai rains I was stuck in Jo'burg. When we finally took off a couple of days later we circled Mumbai for an hour and finally landed in Chennai. This was at 9.30 a.m. We finally got down from the aircraft around 2.00 p.m just because a ladder could not be arranged for us to come down. Imagine the plight of women with infants and children.Then the luggage took 3 hours to arrive and that too when the passengers volunteered to go to the aircraft and haul it in themselves. There was absolutely nobody to hear the passengers complaints too. The sooner we change the better for all of us customers. regards Vishwanath Bangalore India
I completely agree with the picture described by the author regarding the mumbai airport. This agreement comes from my personal experience which I had last month when I arrived at this airport from Frankfurt. As exactly described by the author, I was shocked to see the loaders surrounding me and asking dollars for getting my luggage cleared when there was no reason for me to have a problem with the custom guys. The greed in the eyes of the customs guys as well as the way the whole corruption game was so organized is something that made me furious. With such a pathetic situation, I guess they have no right to go against privatisation.
Real good anatomy of the pathetic situation of the Airports in India. This is just to add one point that u missed. I was coming from Singapore just a few days before. It took around 3 hours for the flight to reach bangalore and guess what... we could collect our luggage only after 50 minutes. And I don\'t know about the passengers who were still waiting for their luggage. And you know what?? I was desperately searching for some drinking water, but it was a futile attempt :-( I don\'t have any suggestions or comments.They should atleast take care of basic problems like toilets and drinking water.
Well written article , but will the AAI authorities have the time to read as they are always busy in acquiring expertise or managing strike. The billion dollar question is how to bring in a service attitude? we always think we are doing a big favour.
We spend more time in talking about it than doing anything about it. Even small improvements that they do to the airports are very short sighted,which can do good only for few months - leave alone few years. Something has to be done drastically. As an Airline emplyoyee,I have many a time felt small before passengers and general public both in India and abroad whenever they have talked about our airports. We need more tourists, more business, more investments and yet we cannot take care of basis facilitites at our airports, which are the gateway to our country. Is in it shameful? Certainly, we have the expertise,Public sector can also do well, as our well managed public sectors like BHEL, MARUTI are doing. But it is the dedication towards it is lacking. Venkat
