Airport!

No... This has got nothing to do with the Arthur Hailey Novel!

I recently had the opportunity to travel by air…. From Jabalpur ! Yeah, that’s right. And you never know your luck… anyone might be required to do it anytime in their lives. Hence I thought of giving you guys an idea (a few DO's and DONT's) about the whole thing so that you know what to expect if you have to take the same risk that I did in the future!

The Place
The airport is a comfortable 2 BHK built over an area of 1200 Sq. Ft (unfurnished though!). One room for arrival and One room for departure both with attached bathrooms.

Timing
Discipline and punctuality are two pillars over which this airport thrives on! It opens sharp at 8 AM and closes not a minute before 10 AM! Make sure that you go on time and board the flight. A minute this side or that side and you may find yourself alone on the runway.

The Men
We HRs… we just cant divert our attention from manpower! There are totally two people who man the airport. Quite efficient and experienced, I must say! One person takes care of luggage handling and the other person takes care of man handling (I mean…Taking care of the passengers).

Baggage
As I mentioned earlier, one person is totally dedicated for luggage handling out of the two available staff. This person promptly completes the baggage screening formalities (By opening your luggage and scanning it thoroughly! Work cannot stop on the pretext of lack of infrastructure! You may not have a X-ray scanner but you still HAVE TO do the baggage screening). After the baggage screening process he puts it on the conveyor belt and runs along its length himself to collect the luggage on the other side and deposits into a truck which he later drives to the aircraft. The efficiency of the ground staff is generally good… But it is better to check your luggage once you have boarded the aircraft even though you have checked them in earlier (It is always good to double check!).

If you are lucky you might sometimes get a porter! DO NOT pay more than 20 bucks for carrying your luggage till your seat… He might argue that seat no. 15C is quite far… But remember, the back door of the aircraft is also operational and it is an ATR flight which hardly has 3 steps to climb!

Runway
This is something really important. The runway! It is sufficiently large for an ATR. To give a comparison, it stretches a length of 300 meters! But the adept handling of the pilot makes the runway look very long as he takes a U-Turn during the process of landing and take-off thereby effectively doubling the runway length!

In the flight!
At this juncture, I want to give you two important tips…

First of all, make sure you don’t see any horror movies the day before you travel. You might feel lonely and extremely scared in the flight!

Take your own bottle of water… DO NOT search for an air-hostess…. She is not there! In case of an emergency, there are 4 cans of water. 2 located near the wings, 1 at the back and 1 at the front! The reading lights on top of each panel will help you locate the nearest can!

Transit Passengers
In case you are a domestic transit passenger, don’t worry… The airport authorities have arranged for bullock cart service from terminal 1A to the bus / Railway station! Customer orientation has never been an issue here… I was told!

So guys… Now you know how to prepare yourself for an air travel from / to Jabalpur ! In future if you guys have to travel to this place, don’t be afraid…. You cannot be risk averse… always!