Man From Matunga

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August 12, 2005

Can’t We Get Anything Right? About the New Domestic Airport Terminal

I arrive for the 10.40AM flight to Trivandrum and find that the walled-off enclosure that I’ve been used to seeing for the last few months, is now a full-functioning, spanking new terminal. I walk in, trying to absorb the new sights and sounds and find familiarity only in other confused faces like mine, all of us taking our time before striding in, trying not to bump into non-familiar objects.

All the non-IA airlines, except Kingfisher are in this terminal and things seem pretty chaotic. Jet Airways gets the pride of place, with its check-in counters, bang in front of the main entrance. After finding the correct counter to go to, I get my tele-checked boarding pass within a minute… and then get promptly shoved from the back by a harried Bengali woman who has come-in late for her Kolkata flight that is scheduled to leave in less than 20 minutes and can’t find the correct counter to go to in this crowd. So she comes to the first relatively empty counter that she can see, which as it turns out can’t take check-in baggage. Luckily the Jet ground-staff is very polite and helpful and she is taken care of. I manage to extricate myself and with 20 minutes to go before boarding, start to go to the upstairs lounge.

I go towards the only logical area, but the only sign there says “Security Check”. I turn the corner nevertheless and find two long lines of people. I’m lost! Where is the way to the lounge? Where is Arjandas Gangadas Khatri, the book shop? I turn back and go all the way to the other end only to find another entry point. Finally giving up, I ask one of the Jet ground-staff the way to the lounge, only to be told that I have to take the elevators on the left, just before the security gates. There is a passage there? She nods her head at this question.

I stride back towards the security gates and find an alcove to my left which now houses all the familiar shops from the old terminal. Arjandas is in disarray, but they manage to pull out the latest copy of PC World for me. They are cribbing as hell, because business is down…mainly because no one knows how to find them and they are no longer “on the way”. All the shops are now in this alcove, and you have to make a special effort to go there…impulse buys will definitely be affected. The stairs and the elevators to the lounge are in this alcove as well.

The Jet lounge on the first floor is however still the same and the only sane place during this entire experience.

I get back down to security check and find the lines smaller but the chaos unchanged. There is a separate line with an x-ray machine, for women, which is obviously underutilized as compared to the only other one, which is overwhelmed by the men. I ruefully view the non-existent line on the “ladies” side, but the attendants are firm on the segregation. Normally at this time, security check is a breeze, but I land up spending a good 15 minutes, before I am picking up my bags.

I finally get through security check to find that boarding for the Trivandrum flight has just started. In front of the single counter for Trivandrum, a long line snakes upto the steps, which divide the actual security check area from the boarding area and everyone’s stumbling to find a way of joining the line. People who need to go to another counter, have to cut across this line…as usual, some apologize and some just push and shove their way through.

I finally manage to get past the boarding check and onto the bus pick-up area, where things are now more familiar. From then on, everything’s as usual.

Granted that the terminal is only three days old, but it seems difficult to imagine that things will improve, unless eventually we’ll have both the terminals running simultaneously.

Questions:
Why is this terminal so small? Or are they going to eventually use this one and the older one besides it as well?
Why is the signage so inadequate?
Why is the gap between the security check area and the boarding counters so small?
Who the hell designed this place in the first place?

I mean, can’t we get one f****ing domestic terminal right?

Posted by bhavinj at August 12, 2005 02:21 PM

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Posted by: mumbaigirl at August 30, 2005 10:15 PM

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