René Seifert - Entrepreneur & Global Citizen

Recently, I was talking to a friend and he asked me: “Have you ever seen an airport worse than in Bangalore.” - I did not have to think a second to burst out a decisive “No!”: It’s definitely pathetic. I am right now sitting in the most worn out and most crowded departure hall which anywhere else would not suffice for a third class bus station. In order to give some justice to the situation, I have to mention that the airport actually was not supposed to run on such a capacity like today. It was/is apparently owned by a aironautical enterprise which was running its test flights from it, here and there some military MIG aircrafts are taking off and landing, whereas the few incoming civil airliners were just at best a side phenomenon when Bangalore used to be the pensionists’ paradise.

As these times are gone with the advent of the IT-boom, the capacity could be compared like forcing a grown up adult to fit into his clothes when he was 12 years old. Bottlenecks everywhere, and the worst when you fly out from the international part of the airport. This is for example the ENTIRE security lane for ALL the passengers flying out abroad.

So one can imagine the fun when at a time like this, more or less three planes are about to depart to Bangkok, Paris and Frankfurt, the latter LH 755 being my own. I’d also like to mention that my appreciation for an airport is not attached to fancy duty-free shops which have to make their business without me anyway. It’s about a somehow efficient procedure.

Hence, what sucks is the slow speed to incrementally upgrade the facilities unless the new Bangalore airport is going to get launched by allegedly 2008 and the useless bureacratic steps all the way till boarding the aircraft. Even for entering the building there is a huge queue where you have to show you ticket, check in at way to few desks, get through immigration, get your documents re-checked for the necessary stamps (stamps are essentially important in India), go through that lame lane for security with just 2 X-Ray machines and before boarding again showing your ticket and bagge tag that they have been - guess what - stamped.

Don’t get me wrong. Security first and I will allow for frisking me down to my underwear if I see the purpose of an integrated security concept. But this most critical part is, compared to Munich or Frankfurt, really easy. Maybe too easy. But instead resources get wasted in order to keep the bureucratic chain of command intact. Sad.

Log-off as we are ready for boarding. Hope I have all the stamps in place …. ;-)