For the love of airports

Never forget the hubs that connect us all

Tom Ronell is the CEO of Istithmar World Aviation Holdings

Once upon a time, going to the airport was a special experience. The airport was a place of dreams and flights of fantasy – both literally and figuratively. It was a place of excitement: people embarking upon new adventures, others arriving to the cheers of their families and friends.

Somewhere along the way, the romance of the airport disappeared and airports stopped being fun. Air travel became mass transit, an everyday event to be minimised by arriving at the airport as late as possible in order to catch one’s flight without having to spend any time in the airport. In the age of heightened security, that equation has been reversed: we must now allow plenty of time in order to arrive at the front door of the terminal (or as close as we are permitted to get), not to mention checking in and going through multiple levels of security checks before arriving at our distant departure gate, stressed and exhausted by the effort already expended.

The airport is the last place most people want to be, made worse by flight irregularities or lengthy connections. Facilities are mostly inadequate for the volume of departing and arriving passengers, not to mention the in-transit passengers who are often strewn all over, appearing as third-world refugees. The design of most terminals separate us from that instrument of magic – the aircraft. We often never see anything but the doorway of the aircraft from the jetway, or perhaps the nose of the aircraft. Gone are sweeping views of the airport and runways; forget about outdoor observation decks or places to park under the flight path.

On your next trip, consider what a self-contained city an airport is: thousands of workers, police department, fire squad, security, food court, hotels, ground transportation, infrastructure, etc. Imagine the organisation which is required to make everything work, from the traffic police on the approach to the terminal to the skycaps at the curb, through check-in and security to the gate, where various organisations are servicing your aircraft, cleaning, catering, supplying fuel, performing maintenance, loading bags and cargo, pushback crew, air crews, air traffic controllers, people who maintain the runways and cut the grass along the taxiways, etc. You should agree that it is remarkable how well things actually do work.

We are fortunate to be at the crossroads of the world, the Middle East. Notice faces of the people and crews that you pass in the concourses. If you find a window with a view, look at the unusual airlines from all corners of the world and the unusual aircraft types. Consider the exotic places from which these aircraft come, the passengers who travel these routes and what cargo might be carried to and from their home bases.

Imagining all these distant locales will return the flights of fantasy about the magic of aviation and the privilege of travel. Airports can still bring out the kid in us, if we will only take a moment to marvel at our good fortune to be in the airport, going somewhere….