Airports are fabulous places to observe people, look at their faces, clothing, and luggage. People strolling down the alleys as though they are at a market place, some people in true high-end fashion designer clothes seem to play at strolling down a catwalk, others take a drink at a coffee shop and children run around watching airplanes.
Everything starts at the entrance of the airport hall. Some people running late walk straight to checking in their one piece luggage and others keep their slow pace as though their confidence would extend to the cockpit of the flight they are about to board and do not bother to rush. Other love airports to the point they would just spend hours going through a routine check-in and security check and then stroll around for hours probably even shop till they drop. Good for them as some airports still allow passengers to check-in a few hours before their flights. Security though has taken over quite a few pleasant things from airports. Security checks are really a burden and the poorly trained security officers also tend to act as though their uniform would give them some extra entitlement. In an era where travel has become a habit, airports have remained large hubs of communication. Most airports offer wireless communication, most airports in metropolis and large cities also offer a variety of restaurants and hotels. Food is however of very low quality in any airport I have visited except for one major airport in the gulf.
One thing has always impressed me about airport is the handling of luggage. I would not even be able to estimate the number of luggage passing through a given airport in 24 hours operations. I have no idea where luggage goes after you see them rolling away at the check-in. They seem to have their own lane, their own way to reach the correct cart and eventually reach the cargo area of the plane. I am literally fascinated by the luggage handling. Indeed it would be easy to assume there actually are more pieces of luggage passing through an airport then people. Would that guess be correct? That also gives an idea of the number of employees of an airport. Well airports are hub and some have become almost like resorts offering relaxation services in luscious surroundings. Shall we hope that airports on the Moon or even some other outer space planets will also be human-friendly resorts? We are anxiously waiting to see that happening.
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