Sánchez: Fun at the airport?

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

TOURISTS are expected to have fun when they land or exit at Negros Occidental’s airport.

Well, maybe not, judging from several local news items. That is, unless their concept of fun is to swelter from the air conditioning that seems to be conditioned to as a heating system inside the pre-departure. Right system, wrong place since Negros is situated smack in the tropics. Our airport’s heating system should be exported to Europe where Europeans are experiencing extreme winter. That would be fun for us from the sale proceeds, and fun for Europeans who need to stave off the extreme cold.

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What other fun part do we know at the Bacolod-Silay airport? Ah, the comfort room. Except there’s no comfort, unless one’s concept of air fresheners is to inhale stinkers, or what we call in Negros “pangsot.”

Of course, we can change the name to “restroom” as euphemisms for “toilets.” But then when use restroom in Bangkok, Hong Kong, somehow the word “toilet” and the stink that’s associated with it still stands out.

Bacolod-Silay Airport has one competitive edge over other airports including Terminals I, II, and III in Metro-Manila and even Suvarnabhumi Airport, also known as Bangkok International Airport. I’m referring to the Wi-Fi system that makes it fun to be waiting at the pre-departure. I used to send my Sun Star Bacolod columns at the airport while waiting for boarding.

Not anymore. It seems our airport refuse to get ahead of the pack. Lately, they joined the rest by allowing the free Wi-Fi to conk-out and waiting passengers to die of boredom. Well, they can always bring with them books to read like in the olden times.

To think the Bacolod-Airport charges outgoing passengers P200 for boarding passes. Is that another way of saying passengers should pay the airport for lousy services? Because that is exactly what they’re getting.

While we’re into that, how about the arm-and-a leg that passengers pay to get from Bacolod to the airport by cab? That’s much, much more than I pay a cab in Metro-Manila when I travel by cab from Quezón or from Caloocan City to NAIA Terminal I or II. That’s literally highway robbery. I wonder where the fun is there for flight passengers? Oh I get it, the fun is for the cab drivers and their operators.

(To be fair, though, there are now metered taxis, but these cabs form a minority compared to the highway robbers that fester outside the airport confines with everyone including security looking the other way). Makes me pine for the way they do it at the Davao International Airport.

I can agree that the Negros Occidental airport had to be transferred from the old one along Jam Step Airport to its present site in Silay. I’ve seen airports abroad that are purposely located in the middle of nowhere (read: away from densely-populated communities). But there, good transport systems compensate from the main urban centers to a desolate place.

I asked a metered taxi how would be a reasonable cab fare from Bacolod to the airport? Answer: P250. The old excuse that they would have to double the rate or P500 for empty cabs on the way to the airport doesn’t wash anymore. These cabs always find suckers to ferry back to Bacolod.

And oh yes, the flies, the flies who refuse to fly away with the airplanes? Why didn’t anyone mentioned that? Is that supposed to be a fun surprise for first timers at the pre-departure lounge? The fun is of course not for the passengers but for the flying critters who wants a bite from your snacks.

Maybe to compel Bacolod Silay Airport manager Mecine Reyes and Assistant Director General II Edgardo Costes of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines to do their homework the soonest possible, they should stop charging repair and maintenance costs from say the boarding passes or from the tickets and instead charge expenses from the salaries of airport manager.

Now that would be what I call being fun, responsible and fair to passengers who are being made to suffer because of poor management. It would be unfair to pay them with good salaries when give the public bad services.

Please email comments to bqsanc@yahoo.com