Thursday, May 29, 2008

PASSENGER CONNECT

PASSENGER CONNECT
Deccan Herald invites its readers who have used the new airport to share their experiences so that the operator can attend to the hitches. You may have complaints or compliments or both. Mail to us, preferably with your photograph, at dhfeedback@gmail.com. Selected mails and photographs will be published in the newspaper

Bangalore finally has Bengaluru International Airport. The operator of the airport as well as the users are facing several teething problems. Complaints include delayed flight arrivals, delay in immigration and baggage clearance, lack of guidance to passengers among others. Deccan Herald invites its readers who have used the new airport to share their experiences so that the operator can attend to the hitches. You may have complaints or compliments or both. Mail to us, preferably with your photograph, at dhfeedback@gmail.com. Selected mails and photographs will be published in the newspaper. Two such mails are published below:


YOUR SPACE

Service needs to be improved

I was waiting to see the new international airport which my city had got after such a long wait. I landed well past midnight on day two after the airport became operational. My first impression was: not very warm and welcoming, especially after a long and tiring journey. It is a huge improvement on HAL airport but, it could have been better…
It may be a little too early to comment on service but definitely there were not enough people to direct tired passengers. Most passengers were prepared for the worst, knowing that it was a new facility and there were bound to be problems. The Air France flight arrived on time but in the slot our plane had to park was taken by Malaysian Airlines. There seems to be no segregation between domestic and international flights. There was Deccan, Kingfisher, Lufthansa parked next to each other. We waited for a good 45 minutes to park. We could see people struggling to connect the aerobridge to the plane.
Since three international flights landed more or less at the same time, there were long serpentine queues and just a couple of officials in immigration. Nobody wanted to fight but there were sarcastic comments floating around about the inordinate delay. Baggages took a long time coming as there was no one to load them from cargo. It was more than an hour later that we actually saw the baggage. Meanwhile, Mr Brunner (I recognise him from pictures in the papers) himself came and appealed that they were trying to sort out things, could the passengers please bear with the inconvenience. There was just one customs official in attendance. I don't know how he coped with the surge of people. I was more focused on retrieving my baggage.
My three pieces of luggage came in three different trips and took more than two and half hours after arrival. Many were still waiting.

BIA positives:
-ATM complex which houses kiosks from different banks at one place, in one compact module
-Suma Krishnaswamy ,
Banashankari


Steel birds hit real birds

This is with reference to the report on Page 1 of Deccan Herald (May 27, 2008)-"Bird hits, rains disrupt flights".. I was in the airport with my husband taking a flight to Delhi as the new airport was celebrating its third day. We watched grim faces of the staff who sadly announced delays in flights because of rains and bird-hits.
While the cost of Rs 80 for a plate of idli and sambar at the fancy outlet inside the airport shocked the wits out of us, (the old airport had a little cafe which served good filter coffee for just Rs 5), what is all the more shocking is the fact that Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials have said that ultrasound devices to scare off the birds in minor incidents, to shooting birds in extreme situations could be adopted.
This sends the message that the euphoria of the swanky airport has gone to the heads of humans so much that they have forgotten sensitivities towards creatures of nature. The BIA has encroached into the territories of the birds and not the other way round- "the vicinity of the airport being a vast open space full of lush greenery which is home to thousands of birds." We human beings occupy the homes of animals and birds by destroying nature and building glassy towers. We have no right to do this and on top of it blame the poor bird which is flying its way and a big fat noisy aircraft obstructs its way. So let the AAI think twice before taking the guns to harm these innocent creatures and also let the media change the headline-: Bird Suffers Plane-Hit and not Plane suffers Bird-Hit!

-Nigar Ataulla

C I Ground Floor A, Flat No 737, Austin Town, BDA Flats, Bangalore
Email-nigs3@yahoo.co.in

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