This is what the private sector can do. Hats off to the new New Delhi airport. Basically, the same airport, refurbished and a new terminal building thrown in; swanky, clean and efficient. More number of travelers and the airport still has no queues, and it’s a pleasure to wait here. And my communist friends continue to sing paeans for state ‘enterprises’.
Food court is full of South Indian delicacies to Pizza Hut to Curries and of course, Costa. The only irritant is the constant hullabaloo of the announcements, for every flight, for every delaying passenger; and that too in two languages. Why do you need that? Maybe, we could take a lesson or two from HK airport. No boarding announcements at all. And, nobody misses a flight.
Every time I travel, I wonder why we Indians are the way we are? Why don’t we want to learn from others; why do we not think and stop to take a look at the way we work.
My list of such things can be huge, but I would limit to aviation – something truly makes the world a global village.
Yesterday, I accidently booked a ticket from Mumbai to Delhi on the international flight of Air India. Assuming it to be a domestic flight, I landed at the Mumbai Domestic terminal, only to be turned away to the international one, a good half hour by car though the airport is same! At both the terminals, the computer print-out of ticket was thoroughly checked and tallied with my photo ID, notwithstanding the fact, that it can take me less than a few minutes to simply create a computer print-out; if I were a crook. Checking before entering the airport is something unique only to India. It can’t do any harm, so I will leave it at that as an example of Indian bureaucracy.
What worries me is the fact that at the point of boarding the plane, nobody bothers to see a photo ID of the passenger. The focus is on the illegible rubber stamp on the Boarding pass or the hand baggage.
Again, if I were to be a crook, wanting to escape out of India leaving no trace to the authorities, I could easily do the following:
Get a Boarding pass of the domestic leg of an international flight of Air India with no checked in baggage (so that they won’t look for you more than once when you don’t board); get an accomplice to take a boarding pass for the whole international journey; use the domestic boarding pass until I arrive at the gate so that no immigration is required; use the international boarding pass to get on board; and remain on the plane with a valid international boarding pass. Simple! All on the national carrier!!
I assure, I am not a crook. So I won’t do such a thing. But there are too many of them on the loose; and I suspect they know this. Only our rubber stamp happy authorities do not know what to do.
World over, they look for a photo ID or passport depending on the type of flight before you board the plane, except India. Either the whole world is wrong; or India is!
