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Walkabout: From A to B
Move the damn airport closer!
By DAFFYD RODERICK
October
20, 2000
Web posted at 4:00 p.m. Hong Kong time, 4:00 a.m. EDT
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People say a lot of things when you are about to embark on a trip. They range
from the mundane ("Have a nice trip") to the inquisitive ("When do you get
back?") to the hostile ("Don't come back"). None of the comments have surprised
me, sadly, not even the last one.
But there is one thing that no one has ever said to me, and that's "make sure
you get there early so you can spend some quality time at the airport." And I'm
glad. An airport should be a geographical nowhere. It's a portal (in the
traditional The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe sense, not the irritating e-
sense), you enter to get somewhere else. My only desire with airports is that
they are close and efficient -- and perhaps serve a decent cup of coffee for
under $10.
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I like that sense of being processed for travel: stamped, punched, paid, stubbed
and loaded. We go from being somewhere to being in motion. But that's not enough
for some people. They want to dress it up with duty-free shopping, spa
treatments, business centers and cable TV. They want to turn an airport into an
experience. This is not a good thing. As soon as you make an airport an
enjoyable place to be, airlines will grow increasingly comfortable announcing
delays. And increasingly stingy with food and accommodation vouchers.
An airport shouldn't be a hostile environment, but it should be a place that
knows it isn't a place. When I pass through airports, I don't want to gasp in
wonder at the architecture. I simply want to get in and out as quickly as
possible. When I'm leaving for somewhere else, I want to be out the door as
quickly as possible. There's nothing worse than standing at the doorway for an
awkwardly long goodbye. But it's taking longer and longer in Asia to give a
country the kiss-off.
Hong Kong spent $20 billion to build Sir Norman Foster's Chek Lap Kok. Kuala
Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) cost $2.8 billion, China spent $1.33 billion
to construct Pudong International, and Bangkok plans to erect a $2.8 billion
airport (on credit) to replace shabby but likable Don Muang. Now although these
airports are all significantly better than the ones they replaced, they are also
all further away from the population they serve. A few of them, like KLIA and
Pudong, are more than an hour away from their respective central business
district. Bangkok is going to about the same distance out. And this is seen as
progress? I'll take a gravel runway on the edge of town over the Louvre, two
hours away, any day of the week.
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