A tale of three airports

Last week, last month, and the month before that saw the unveiling of three airports in three very distinct areas. The first is actually a terminal (no. 5) at Heathrow in London, the second serving the city of Beijing in China, and the third in Banglore, also known as Bengaluru, India's Silicon Valley.

Comparisons between Heathrow and Beijing's airport galore online, so let me elaborate on the third since it's not as lavish, it's not as costly, and certainly it's not as sexy.

The above is found on New York Times website, main graphic for the respective lead stories about the airports. The contrast between the two airports of two largely developing nations could not be more stark. If one needs more pictorial evidence of the same, there is the accompanying slide show, and if that is not enough, there are of course stats such as number of passengers served (55M in Beijing vs. 11M in Bangalore).

The point here is not to vent at the lackadaisical attitude of the Indian government - that goes without saying. It is about the sheer ineptitude pervasive in the bureaucratic system and the malaise afflicting the political fiefdoms. We have made the airport but the road leading to it is still clogged with traffic (Beijing has put up a swanky subway with 22 stops from downtown to the airport). We want to put shops around the terminal because we recognize the currency they will bring in but we have not yet installed water pipes leading up to the airport. We want to serve the growing hi-tech industry but they don't want to drive for 90mins to cover 21km to reach the airport - they would rather go to the old one.

So that's the story of two airports in the developing world. The third, Terminal 5 at Heathrow, was built at twice the cost, took almost twice as long, and will serve about 70% fewer passengers than Terminal 3 at Beijing airport. Heathrow will be remembered for all the wrong reasons (baggage transportation system failure on day 1). Indian babus will be busy renaming our cities and streets to reflect a past long gone while Beijing looks forward to astonishing the world with chrome & steel and all that jazz.