Flying is already such a dreadful thing. Even a one hour flight takes 5-7 hours when you count in all the extras. In my experience, a 1 hour flight like London - Brussels, is not much faster than a 7 hour flight like London - New York. Airports are a text book study in what monopoly and fear mongering politicians do.
- On the day of the flight you go from your departure city to the airport somewhere far away in the outskirts. That's easily an hour, in places like New York or London it can be significantly more.
- Depending on whether it's a domestic flight or an intercontinental flight, and depending on the airline, you are asked to show up anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours before the flight.
- In the airport, you sometimes go through four or five or six lines where you are checked; There is a check in, might be baggage drop, there is security, passport check by, check at the the gate, and sometimes even again when entering the airport.
Once you are through security you are forced to spend time in what is basically an overpriced shopping mall but dragging around your coat and carry-on.
If you fly with a budget airline, or if you fly to America, you are often forced to wait in crowded waiting areas at the gate, usually without seating for everyone.
Sometimes you are stuffed in a bus that takes you from the gate to the plane. These busses are literally stuffed like a Japanese metro.
On the plane, you often wait in your chair before takeoff because a connecting flight with passengers has not arrived on time or because the runway is too full.
The flight itself is rarely comfortable, but that's the necessary part of the trip. Most flights could not be much faster than they are, except on long distance flights if supersonic planes were allowed.
At the arrival, you sometimes wait again at the tarmac.
Then you go through passport control again.
You warit for luggage.
And you need transportation from the airport into the destination city.
Upon arrival, you have spent what amounts to a full working day or more, even for short flights, and you are exhausted. If someone could take away all the assaults on passengers that the whole airport experience is packed with, flying would be much better, with or without your laptop.
2+3 hour: checkin line, security line, wait at gate, seating line
4th hour: actually move somewhere through flight
5th hour: passport check, baggage pickup
6th hour: from airport to city
All of the above is true unless you are flying through a small town airport or a pre-80's airport like TXL Berlin, built in 1974 and designed to be duty-free-maze immune
A few weeks ago I had to travel to Berlin from Amsterdam, flight time about 1 hour. I took a 6 hour train instead because I would have internet (roaming is really cheap now in Europe), and all the reasons you mentioned.
The train was even a bit more expensive, but worth every euro.
What do you think could be improved/changed in the future?
I agree that the process is overly tedious to an unnecessary degree. I have read that test have shown that TSA security( or check-in security in general) is more for show (providing sense of security) then actually being effective. In addition to that the statistics even say that risks of airplane failures are far lower then other risks.
Yet there seems to be a trend in banning and restricting more and more from airplane travel. And many people, that I know, think these restrictions are good.
I lived in Singapore for a year. As an Employment pass holder, flying to or from the airport involved scanning my finger-print and my passport, I never had to talk to any immigration or customs officials.
A 20 minute taxi from the center gets you to the airport and I never had to arrive more than an hour before departure. So actually a system that doesn't suck: is possible.
Given that today's airplanes need several km runway to take off and to land, and that people often need to transfer from one plane to another, we are probably not going to have many more airports per city than we already have in a foreseeable future.
But if an airport terminal could just be a series of small waiting rooms, one for each plane, sort of like today's gates but where where you met up directly at the gate with your luggage 30 min before. Then everything from passports to tickets, to body scan and luggage, was checked once, just once, and then you boarded the plane through at least two jet bridges (front and back on a normal plane). End of story. Those who wanted could show up an hour before, and they would get a small rebate and not have to wait in line, and those who wanted could show up 30 min before, and they would pay a little more and wait in line. And the plane should not wait for anyone who's not there 30 min before takeoff.
Could you board a standard narrowbody plane with 150-200 passengers in 30 minutes (if none of them opted for early boarding)? Two jet bridges, each with at least 2 security lines with scans/pad downs of passengers, a couple of luggage dumps with scans of luggage (I imagine it could largely be done automatically). A normal narrowbody plane with 150-200 seats means each line should handle 75-100 passengers in 30 minutes. That's around 3 passengers per minute or 20 sec per passenger. Should be possible. But I think many would opt to meet up shortly before and save a bit of money.
Same in the other end. You would pick up luggage directly at the plane, and have your passport checked immediately as you enter the terminal.
Much of the waiting in airports is because airports want passengers to mix up in the shopping mall before check-in and takeoff.
There are airports which have something like this, but generally it's very expensive to maintain so many separate security checkpoints.
In the US, the Kansas City airport was originally designed and built before any type of security checkpoints were present in airports, as a series of horseshoe-shaped terminals. Now, each terminal is internally divided into groups of a few departure gates each, and each one has its own security checkpoint. This is extremely convenient for people coming to the airport -- when I lived there, I could arrive 45 minutes prior to my flight, knowing I would get through security and be at the gate by 30 minutes before departure (which is when boarding begins). On the other hand, there are very few amenities beyond the checkpoints; toilets had to be installed, and there are a few counters selling food, but only one area that I know of has a real restaurant available inside.
And it will almost certainly be torn down and completely rebuilt with a centralized single security checkpoint, because operating it in the current setup is too expensive.
- On the day of the flight you go from your departure city to the airport somewhere far away in the outskirts. That's easily an hour, in places like New York or London it can be significantly more.
- Depending on whether it's a domestic flight or an intercontinental flight, and depending on the airline, you are asked to show up anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours before the flight.
- In the airport, you sometimes go through four or five or six lines where you are checked; There is a check in, might be baggage drop, there is security, passport check by, check at the the gate, and sometimes even again when entering the airport.
Once you are through security you are forced to spend time in what is basically an overpriced shopping mall but dragging around your coat and carry-on.
If you fly with a budget airline, or if you fly to America, you are often forced to wait in crowded waiting areas at the gate, usually without seating for everyone.
Sometimes you are stuffed in a bus that takes you from the gate to the plane. These busses are literally stuffed like a Japanese metro.
On the plane, you often wait in your chair before takeoff because a connecting flight with passengers has not arrived on time or because the runway is too full.
The flight itself is rarely comfortable, but that's the necessary part of the trip. Most flights could not be much faster than they are, except on long distance flights if supersonic planes were allowed.
At the arrival, you sometimes wait again at the tarmac.
Then you go through passport control again.
You warit for luggage.
And you need transportation from the airport into the destination city.
Upon arrival, you have spent what amounts to a full working day or more, even for short flights, and you are exhausted. If someone could take away all the assaults on passengers that the whole airport experience is packed with, flying would be much better, with or without your laptop.