It pains me to say it, it really and truly does, but it must be said: Pune’s airport is a dump.
I flew out of Pune airport the other day, and landed at Delhi, and the contrast could not have been more stark. There is much to dislike in Delhi, and yours truly – he of the jaundiced eye and cantankerous temperament – could spend many pleasurable columns on pointing out Delhi’s flaws, but that is not the point today.
What is to like in Delhi is its T3 terminal, and a wonderfully built thing it is. Credit where credit is due: sparkling clean interiors, water fountains at every few steps, carpetted floors, shops that sell stuff worth a dozen kidneys – the works. Wide open parking spaces, comfortable seating both within and outside, and just the kind of airport that our nation’s capital deserves. Of course, once you step out onto Delhi’s roads and into a cab that is driven by a former F1 driver steeped to the gills in absinthe, normal service resumes – but I’ll ruminate about that another day.
But while admiring the sparkling interiors at T3, I couldn’t help but think about the rather dismal ones at Pune’s terminal – if one can call it that. It is in terminal decline, I’ll give it that much. Whatever enthusiasm one may have had about travel – and there isn’t much of it in the wee hours of the morning – simply shrivels up and dies at the first sighting of the Pune Airport.
To be fair, it wasn’t ever supposed to be an airport, let alone one that could manage the traffic out of a city as large as Pune. Originally an airport built for the Indian Air Force, it was used for what little civilian air traffic there was out of Pune in the days before liberalization. But now, when Hinjewadi, Kharadi and other completely-unknown-before-IT suburbs are bursting at the seams with techies dying to fly out to Trump land, our piddly little airport just doesn’t cut it.
It’s conveyor belts went out of fashion in the 18th century, it’s PA system is generally a lady yelling herself hoarse, its executive lounge resembles a Bollywood set from the 1970’s and the staff there thinks aerobridge is a card game played in the flight.
But this was cute, quaint and funny in the 20th century. Not now, not towards the end of the second decade of the 21st century. There are lots of areas in which Pune needs to wake up and smell the roses, but the airport has got to be one of the first ones.
One could look up the data and reach conclusions about Pune’s size, output, and growth, and therefore build some sort of quantifiable model that says the same thing – but it really shouldn’t be all that complicated. Pune needs a better airport, and that’s all there is to it.
In the meantime, I’m scheduled to fly back in a couple of days, and I can’t wait to get back to traffic that moves at less than supersonic speeds. I just wish I landed in the same year as the rest of the city.
He doesn't expect the paradox to be resolved in his lifetime
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