As mentioned up thread, some people should really get around a bit more in order to get some perspective. I’ve been though FRA, ORD, JFK, EWR and CDG more times than I care to remember, and whilst far from being the super efficient hubs they ought to be, there are far worse places in the world. In random order:
LOS. Most things about Africa are eff’d up one way or another, and LOS beautifully illustrates this with its eclectic mix of organised crime, poverty, dysfunction, dirtiness and corruption.
HRE. A bit like LOS, only much more run down. Doesn’t have the crowds of LOS, and I suppose that’s a small plus. On the other hand, there were pictures of Uncle Robert on every single wall
IQA. Visiting war zones is usually never a good idea, and IQA certainly didn’t disappoint. It’s really not cool having your aircraft peppered with shrapnel from exploding mortar rounds during the turn around, and it’s equally uncool having problems maintaining cabin pressure on the way back. But since there was no alternative to flying back, and certainly no alternative to fly outside the range of MANPADs, that’s what we did.
DAC. This airport struggles handling a single turboprop arrival, imagine being amongst 450 other souls arriving on an EK 777-300. Nasty, dirty, smelly, broken, corrupt and with two-pronged immigration process which just takes forever. And that was with an escort of high-level government and airport officials; doing it as a regular passenger must be absolute hellish.
Many more where these came from, I could keep going all day and never get even close to mentioning FRA, LAX, CDG, EWR, ORD or JFK which, by comparison to the above, are absolute beacons of orderliness, efficiency and good service. And I’ve yet to arrive at either of those airports to find an immigration officer throwing my passport back at me, claiming there’s a page missing. Those who haven’t been to Africa may not understand what that means, and you’re all the better for it!
Last edited by Sheikh Yerbooty; Jan 3, 2023 at 1:02 am