Of airports and winged globetrotters

 Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport is not the kind that travelling passengers would like to remember for all the good reasons. And for a frequent traveller like Arindam Chatterjee, a Kolkata-based consultant, Bangladesh's premier airport gives a false impression about the many wonderful things happening beyond that old-fashioned building.

“I stayed in Dhaka for 10 days on my recent visit and have imparted training in leadership skills to a multi-national company. But to be honest your airport needs to improve some basic things for the welfare of the passengers,” said Arindam while having a chat with this reporter on his trip back to Kolkata.

Short in stature, Arindam may need assistance to heave his luggage down from the overhead baggage compartment of a plane, but his wisdom in the field of customer care is something our airport management can take serious note of. He observed that the travelling passengers need sympathy like a patient before any sort of medical procedure. He did not refer to the newly-built Netaji Suvash Chandra International Airport in Kolkata, but it was a pleasant change for someone who was making his first trip outside Bangladesh since 2006.

The airport in Kolkata is nothing special. It is like any other airport across Asia. It has got substantial and neatly arranged passport control desks, a well-defined transit area, standard luggage control mechanism and sports a neat and clean attire. And these are the basic things that the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport is still struggling to provide.

Mosquitoes are quite dominant in Dhaka in this time of the year. But once this reporter entered the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on the night of March 5 for a flight to Dharamsala via Kolkata and Delhi, mosquitoes mobbed him like many others even through the green channel and inside the waiting aircraft. I'm not sure if a few brave mosquitoes made that one-hour trip to Kolkata. But once we were in the Subash Bose airport terminals, we felt absolutely secure from any mosquito menace and happily walked out through the exit gate with our luggage intact.