It struck me on a recent visit to Mauritius to have a look at what has made that country a world leader in tourism service delivery, that airport hassles on departure quickly make one forget all the great service of the past few days or weeks.
Any South African who has visited the leading hotels, restaurants and shopping centres of Mauritius will have experienced the phenomenal level of service delivery. Finding the reason is not difficult. It is nothing more than national pride mixed with enormous competition. And of course a well-drilled mind-set that somehow turns subservience into something positive rather than demeaning.
It is a country where the customer really is king.
But, when it came to leaving the country, the airport was a complete shambles. In my opinion, a completely unnecessary shambles. One queue of passengers stretching right outside the airport building and spilling over on to the pavement outside. Then another single queue for another rudimentary security check, then a queue again to check in luggage, then another inordinately long queue to go through passport control. Why not two, three or four queues?
Tempers frayed and people scared of missing flights started getting edgy and irritable. No flights were missed - they all just left an hour late. And the insanity of security people insisting, for example, on making male passengers remove their belts while leaving others wearing hats big enough to conceal A-bombs.
Sound familiar? It's just like Johannesburg International on any given evening.
There is a huge opportunity for those who are charged with the marketing of brand South Africa to start engaging the people who run our airports. To cajole, persuade and if necessary, bully them into making a plan.
It strikes me that with the airport business very much a business now, even in spite of the huge airport taxes that travellers pay, there is a reluctance for companies like ACSA to actually put in enough people to handle the crowds. Everyone has to go through one or two entry points to check in to separate passengers from non-travellers . Why can't there be ten of these entry points?
Why can't all the check in booths be manned at peak hours? And passport control as well.
This high security thing is not something that will go away and is something that airports companies will simply have to work around. And they need to work around these in a way that does not infuriate passengers.
There is a huge marketing opportunity awaiting South Africa if it would just get its airport act together. It really, surely, cannot be all that difficult. And if ACSA can't afford to provide a decent service, then Government needs to give charge of our airports to a company that is able to see the big picture. A company that understands that it is creating the first impression for travellers arriving here and also creating a lasting impression for those who are leaving.
Making the airport experience pleasant rather than the complete balls-up that it is at present is something of national interest.
Problem is of course that all our Government officials and tourism executives never travel as ordinary passengers but rather get whisked through airports via VIP lounges and limos that collect them from the aircraft steps.
It is imperative that some of them actually try and travel as ordinary tourists just once, to see just how bad airports really are.
Certainly something needs to happen because travelling by air is becoming a huge hassle these days. I have noticed more and more dinner tables conversations that used to consist of who was travelling where, now turning to people saying that frankly air travel is such a schlep these days that the whole notion of foreign travel is becoming decidedly unpleasant. Far better to just stay at home.
If I were running an airline, this trend would worry me. Clearly is has worried Ryanair which is suing the UK Government over its stringent security clamp downs at airports.
And Ryanair has a point because of lot of this security is pointless. Even without hand luggage terrorists will manage to get explosives on board hidden in clothing or by bribing ground crew to smuggle stuff aboard.
Short of making all passengers travel completely naked and forcing ground crew to work in the buff, all this knee-jerk security is doing is irritating innocent passengers and making the terrorists think they're winning.
Hmm..., now about this travelling stark naked idea... another marketing opportunity, Mr Branson?
