IGI Airport, New Delhi

We posted this story on 27th August, 2004 and all observations are still valid today - almost 30 months later. Though, with the airport being privatised and the Commonwealth Games due in 2010, there seems to be some hope!!


Venusian posted this rather interesting comment on the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi on her blog. I have her permission to post it here along with all the comments on the entry!!

IG airport has gone Wi-Fi and while there are many who would hail this as yet another venture proving this city's 21st C relevance, I for one would have been much happier if they had just got some decent loos , fixed the long queues, got some smiles and courtesy (what that) on the faces of ground personnel, and if I really wanted to stretch my wishful thinking.....got some good restaurants and shops there !!!

Since I can now access the internet and its limitless wonders, I can perhaps do a google search on bladder control next time I am at the airport ! While the wi-fi will not take away the frustrations of those queues it can bring some relief from the morose faces surrounding me and allow me to least feast on a few virtual gourmet delights.

COMMENTS

Vikraant on 27 August 2004 at 13:25

IGI airport is in a league of its own.. once I was catching a flight leaving at 0230 hours. Got there at half past midnight thinking will grab some beer before boarding only to be told that they don't serve liquor post-midnight.. and this when 80% of all departures are post midnight anywez!!!
And how about some more passport control counters and baggage belts!!!!

Why IGI is in a league of its own??

1. Maximum number of Sardars congregating outside of Punjab and a Gurdwara

2.Most complex non-parking system designed by human beings

3.For each passenger arriving there are 10 waiting to receive him/her

4.When you walk out, you can feel like its Chandni Chowk...only without the halwais and the rickshaws.Its amazing how they introduce the essential flavour of the city right there at the airport itself.

5.The airconditiioning works just enough to float the humid and sweaty smell to every nook and corner of the airport.

6. The time you will spend in queues is directly proprotional to the flying time to reach your destination.

7. The efficiency of service, wrt to ground personnel, is inversely proportional to the time you will end up spending at the airport.

8. The quality of food and the choice , is inversely proportonial to how hungry you are feeling.

9. No other airport quite manages to convey the same impression of just how over-populated this planet truly is !

10. No other airport can make you wish you had peed a little later, and consumed a lot less fluids.

11. Only at IGI do you contemplate travelling by ship/rail/road again.

12. Only at IGI does the Eagles' song get twisted to 'You can enter anytime you want, but you can never check in'.

13. Delhi International airport is perhaps most representative of Modern India. Most airports are clinical places that can never give you a sense of the city.



FEEL FREE TO ADD TO THE LIST.............................




MORE COMMENTS


v on 27 August 2004 at 13:56
Welll.. tell you what.. Mumbai International ain't much better... its almost as if they are trying to compete with each other!!



Toro on 27 August 2004 at 14:05
They've got to privatize these airports... i'm yet to get over the trauma of seeing Dubai-bound passengers hitching up their lungis and sleeping in a line inside the terminus...
But a silver lining exists: at least IGI ain't called Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus! :-)