Growth is good, satisfying and inevitable. In every walk of life, we see, aspire and chase growth. But can growth sustain? The answer is it can and the key lies in how you embrace the growth and how manage the growth. There are leaders who have built the empires, who have broken all the records and who have reached the pinnacle by virtue of a great vision and ability to channelize the resources towards the aforesaid vision timely. They have done so because they managed to sustain the growth on both micro and macro levels. To manage sustainable growth, we need all round plans to support the developing economy such as ours and this includes necessary infrastructure. As for Indian aviation industry, the growth has been great when you look at the dramatic increase in number of passengers, flights and airport bases over past two decades. Sadly, the infrastructure plans to support the growth has been lackluster and untimely. Before the total breakdown happens, there is a need to upgrade all important airport bases in India. Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai have witnessed the much needed upgrade – though little late. Need of the hour is to upgrade Chennai, Kolkata and Pune airports immediately.
The scene at all of these three airports is utterly chaotic nowadays. While reaching and entering Pune airport is not that difficult, the difficulty starts right at the baggage x-ray machines. With very limited number of machines, you can end up waiting for 15-20 minutes in the queue. Another example of mismanagement is having greater no. of check-in counters for the flights which are scheduled to depart most late of them all. Security check and boarding facilities are pathetic. Air traffic is all the more bad. A real bad experience if one had to fly from Pune.
And if you are travelling from Pune to Chennai or vice versa, be prepared for a lifetime experience. Getting out of Chennai airport is one of the biggest challenges. There is unbelievable chaos outside the airport and to get to your destination is even more difficult. Thanks to poor infrastructure of the city. Same is the case when you have to catch a flight from Chennai. Even if you managed to reach the airport just in time after travelling one km in 25 minutes on road, you have to pass through the Babus who are more interested in memorizing spelling of your name at the gate. It will take you ages to locate x-ray machine of the flight you are taking. Check-in kiosks are lesser in number and unorganized in nature. Even worse experience if one had to fly in and out of Chennai.
Kolkata had been pretty good till about 12 months back. The city is most famous for ultimate bureaucrats who are known for changing the procedures for worse or adding wasteful procedure in a otherwise fine working process. So what do they do at Kolkata airport? To manage ever increasing traffic, they put all the security check points at one place which were earlier located at various places to facilitate better usage of aerobridges. And this results into inexpressible chaos. 25-30% of fliers could at least head towards the boarding gates easily but that did not go too well with our famous administrators. They wanted everyone to suffer equally and as a result, all 100% fliers are facing the chaos. What is worse is that you have 70% of morning flights between 6 and 7. It is not so difficult to locate your x-ray machine as they are only a few. Then you have airlines representatives using their rapport with security official to sneak in their passengers first irrespective of boarding time. Chennai and Kolkata are very close in terms of worst airports but if I had to choose, I would choose Kolkata airport as the worst. There is piece of advice for all the readers - simply avoid taking a morning flight (departure time - 6 to 7) from Kolkata. I have done it more often than not in the recent past and hence plan to reach airport before 5 am, if at all there is a need to fly once again.
Who said Growth cannot be mismanaged!
The scene at all of these three airports is utterly chaotic nowadays. While reaching and entering Pune airport is not that difficult, the difficulty starts right at the baggage x-ray machines. With very limited number of machines, you can end up waiting for 15-20 minutes in the queue. Another example of mismanagement is having greater no. of check-in counters for the flights which are scheduled to depart most late of them all. Security check and boarding facilities are pathetic. Air traffic is all the more bad. A real bad experience if one had to fly from Pune.
And if you are travelling from Pune to Chennai or vice versa, be prepared for a lifetime experience. Getting out of Chennai airport is one of the biggest challenges. There is unbelievable chaos outside the airport and to get to your destination is even more difficult. Thanks to poor infrastructure of the city. Same is the case when you have to catch a flight from Chennai. Even if you managed to reach the airport just in time after travelling one km in 25 minutes on road, you have to pass through the Babus who are more interested in memorizing spelling of your name at the gate. It will take you ages to locate x-ray machine of the flight you are taking. Check-in kiosks are lesser in number and unorganized in nature. Even worse experience if one had to fly in and out of Chennai.
Kolkata had been pretty good till about 12 months back. The city is most famous for ultimate bureaucrats who are known for changing the procedures for worse or adding wasteful procedure in a otherwise fine working process. So what do they do at Kolkata airport? To manage ever increasing traffic, they put all the security check points at one place which were earlier located at various places to facilitate better usage of aerobridges. And this results into inexpressible chaos. 25-30% of fliers could at least head towards the boarding gates easily but that did not go too well with our famous administrators. They wanted everyone to suffer equally and as a result, all 100% fliers are facing the chaos. What is worse is that you have 70% of morning flights between 6 and 7. It is not so difficult to locate your x-ray machine as they are only a few. Then you have airlines representatives using their rapport with security official to sneak in their passengers first irrespective of boarding time. Chennai and Kolkata are very close in terms of worst airports but if I had to choose, I would choose Kolkata airport as the worst. There is piece of advice for all the readers - simply avoid taking a morning flight (departure time - 6 to 7) from Kolkata. I have done it more often than not in the recent past and hence plan to reach airport before 5 am, if at all there is a need to fly once again.
Who said Growth cannot be mismanaged!
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5 comments:
Indeed, it's a painful experience for travelers at the airports having spent hours in reaching the airport due to clogged traffic. Sometimes it seems like double standards to me, how come GMR in Delhi is chaotic and GMR in Hyderabad is doing wonders?
Govt should understand that great infrastructure/ services within the Airports and road/ accessibility to airports jointly make the entire experience comfortable for the pessenger.
I wonder if you'll be blogging about experience at our favorite airports (Vijayawada, rajamundri, kochi). Have you been to Madurai and Tutikorin airports? ;)
@ Kapil - nice idea.. fodder for a post... I think the facilities are bad in smaller cities. however the experience is not that excruciating. Haven't been to Tuticorin. Madurai airport was fantastic - it looked very new to me. May be they have built a new building since the time you visited Madurai.
I hope Delhi gets better with terminal 3. Things are getting better. :)
That's great, will get to see the Delhi airport next year hopefully. The experience at the small airport may not be excruciating but can be exasperating. Anyhow, you know the taxi driver who came to pick me up at Madurai airport, had my name on the placard "Kabil Safla". I took the picture of it and i still have it. :)
As always, India is a study of contrasts. Some of the airports you mentioned are truly world class. And the others you mentioned, especially Chennai, is awful. The problem is that we don;t wake up in time - only after the crisis has reached epic proportions do we even begin to act. Chennai airport modernisation should have started a decade ago. But then, such is our outlook on all things infrastructure.
@ Kapil - "Kabil Safla" - hahaha... may be some African would be proud of that :)
@ Ramesh - so true. Somehow, there is some problem with our outlook. I have met so many strangers during my trips and you know each one of them cribs in a very familiar fashion irrespective of locality, language, background and occupation. May be someday we will get to move towards true citizenship... may be!
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