Airports and airplanes

January 21

It is 5:42 am as I am writing this and I am waiting to board my plane to Guwahati which goes via Delhi. It will be another long day of traveling but I am thankful that I don’t have to do any teaching till tomorrow.

As we’ve always mentioned, India is a fascinating country in so many ways. The economy is growing so rapidly with a fast-expanding middle-class. With the amount of traveling done by Indians, there has been a lot of demand (and of course, supply) of domestic flights. A sample of the home-grown lot of airlines include Jet Airways, Paramount Airways, Kingfisher, Jetlite, Spice Jet, etc. So far, I’ve flown Jet Airways and Paramount Airways and this morning I’ll be experiencing JetLite.

Indian domestic flights are in direct and complete contrast to American domestic flights. First, the service (at least the ones I know) is exemplary. Jet Airways’s service is comparable to Singapore Airlines! I was immediately impressed when I flew them last September. Second, the food is mostly excellent. They give you a broad range of choices from vegetarian to non-vegetarian, regular to low fat, etc.

Last evening, we flew Paramount Airways from Kochi to Chennai. There is no economy class on Paramount flights. They are either First or Business. They were great. Despite the 45-minute delay due to air-traffic congestion, I was thoroughly pleased with the service. When they serve the meals, they serve them with cotton/fabric napkin! Though the food wasn’t as good as Jet’s, the service and the final touches were classy.

However, there is also a downside to this explosive growth of air travel here. First, when in line for either check-in or baggage screening, Indians have no qualms about cutting in front of you. Either they will slowly inch their way in front of you or they will appear like they are ignorant that they are cutting into your line! Then, there is the line confusion where sometimes a few lines would converge into one and cause all kinds of shoving around. Very frustrating when you’re trying to do it the proper way and the person in front of you gives way and lets some guy cut in.

Second, most of the airports here are still trying to cope with the increased traffic. Some have undergone renovation and expansion but the volume of travelers still seem to exceed the capacity of the airports of most cities. Also, in some cases, the service level of the airport ground staff has not caught up with the sophistication of their high-flying colleague. Hence, often there is a great customer service gap you’d experience between ground and air. India, if she hopes to truly catch up with nations around her like Singapore, Malaysia and even Thailand, will have to really buck up some of these aspects that are essential to development.

January 25

I am presently waiting to board my flight home to Singapore – yay! I can’t believe it’s already been 11 days since I left home. Since I left for Guwahati four days ago, I’ve been incommunicado. Whenever I’m in the Northeast of India, my Blackberry does not work. I discovered that the government blocks foreign phone lines from roaming in those areas to prevent foreigners from aiding the all-too-often insurgences there.

Unfortunately, this time, Brian was not even able to call me at the hotel I was staying for some reason. So, we were out of touch for a couple of days. Was so glad to be able to talk to him briefly as soon as I got into Kolkata on transit earlier today.

The two-day training seminar in Guwahati went really well, I thought. More than 20 people from all over the Northeast attended – some had to travel more than 12 hours by bus or train to be there! Mind you, these were not like villagers tucked away in the hills and hence the travel time but really highly qualified people. We had a few university professors, a few medical doctors, a few PhD candidate students and a few pastors. I always learn so much when I’m here even though I’m supposed to be the teacher. Always a humbling experience.

Oh, by the way, JetLite quite suck. First, my flight was delayed big time. And then, the “food” (or whatever it was they were serving!) sucked! The service was poor as well! When I went to use the lavatory, it was unflushed and there were “liquid excretory product” in the toilet! Gross! Then, when the plane was in transit in Delhi, we had to sit in the plane for almost two hours as the British Prime Minister, Brown, was visiting and hence the airport had to be closed for his arrival! If the flight was not delayed in the first place, we would not have been caught in the closure…

The saving grace was the wonderfully chilly weather in Guwahati. A very nice change. Anyhow, gotta stop here as I’ll be boarding soon…