5-4-Friday… airport experiences

Griff you big snitch, I bet you subjected that old lady to terrible in-flight films as a result of being unable to knit.

While we’re on the subject of airports, my favourite has to be Blackpool. Check-in a few hours before flight, nip outside and go next door to the Two For One pub. Big meal and a few beers later, stroll to the depature lounge and board flight. That’s how it should be!

My worst experience was two years ago. I was in Barbados waiting for a flight to Gatwick which was 8 hours late due to the plane skidding off the runway at Gatwick earlier in the day as a result of the snow. When approaching the runway all the power on the plane cut off and all the engines failed. We then had to get towed back to the stand so that we could hook back up to the airports power supply to start up the plane again (essentially, a bit of a jump start). Suffice to say, I had a bit of a nervous journey home.

Most surreal airport I have seen (admittedly just from the beach) is Dutch St Maarten airport:

I have also had employers that like to pay for me to travel the world, but my best memory is from my very first flight. Dan Dare from Manchester to Milan (Malpensa) for a week away with a few mates to celebrate my 21st.

Anyway Milan was fog bound for the return flight home so we were taken to a military airport a couple of hours away to join our diverted flight for departure. Now fighter jets on the runway is a bit off putting, but actually what followed made me smile and has stayed with me for the past 24 years.

This place was tiny and we were all ushered into the airport building which could just about accomodate the 100 odd people so long as we stood up and didn’t mind intimate contact. Bags were all manually tagged and taken away on trollies through a set of glass doors at the end of the building. There were actually two glass doors just a few feet apart and we could see through them to the runway. As our flight landed a big cheer went up and the one Italian trying to organise us all came out with a marker pen, two pieces of A4 paper and a loudhaler.

He proceeded to put a number 1 on the paper and stick it one of the glass doors. He then used the loudhaler to announce that “Dan Air Flight 123 was ready for boarding through gate 1”. He opened the door and we all traipsed out towards the plane. He then put a large 2 on the second piece off paper, stuck it to the other door and as the delayed/pissed off passengers who thought they were off to Milan disemabarked he informed them to proceed to the baggage reclaim area through gate 2!

He’d been to real airports and seen how it was done. There was no way his place was going to be seen as anything other than a ‘proper’ airport and fair play to him.