Whenever I say I hate flying people assume I have a phobia about being in the air. This is not so, I love being up in ‘planes. Its great to look at the earth below, laid out like a map. Flying into London at night once I was lucky enough to be in a window seat on the right of the aircraft and could see the lights of docklands and the West End. The sight was beautiful. Going over mountain peaks such as those of the Alps or Pyrenees is unforgettable . The approach to Stockholm Arlanda over the archipelago offers a spectacle that could never be seen from the ground and flying into New York is just incredible. Being up in the air is a wonderful experience, and even more exciting in small aircraft. Its having to negotiate airports that makes flying shite.
It was no surprise then to hear the airport experience coming in for some heavy criticism. The problem is the profit motive. I first flew in the 1960s, before terrorism, cheap flights and profiteering spoiled everything. There were duty free shops but not on anything like the same scale, no fashion outlets or luxury goods stores, the restaurants were either mediocre or excellent depending on one’s means and the purpose of the airport was to process people through the formalities of crossing national borders and on or off the aircraft with minimum fuss. Airports were usually owned or regulated by municipalities or national government. Their function was to facilitate travel not to part travellers from as much cash as possible. The safety, comfort and convenience of passengers was paramount.

Now of course, in this era of “market economics,” the “passenger experience,” while much talked about in PR presentations must always take a back seat to the profit motive.

We live in dangerous times and some inconvenience for the sake of security is acceptable. What is not acceptable is the inconvenience and delay due to airports trying to cope with far more passengers than they are equipped to handle or just deliberately keep passengers hanging around so they will spend more money.

Put airports back under the control of municipal authorities or national governments and things will change.

The closet Maggie Thatcher fans will be at my throat for saying that of course, but the results of passenger surveys comparing customer satisfaction at Manchester (council owned) and Heathrow ( private enterprise) settles the case. And Manchester is far from perfect. And on a personal note, Sweden may be a land of loony socialists as far as the Maggie brigade are concerned but the airport at Stockholm (owned by the city) is absolutely wonderful.

Until the profit motive is brought under control I shall keep remining myself there is far more that is worth seeing in places reachable by car ferry or tunnel than one could ever see in a single lifetime.