Is NMIA an airport or plaza?

THE EDITOR, Sir:

What a shock and disappointment I felt travelling from Kingston's Norman Manley Airport in December. After checking in for a delayed flight, I decided to go straight to the departure lounge where I could sit comfortably and even watch the news about the St Ann by-election that day.

I turned right from the checkout, as usual, but that was the wrong way. After a long walk in the other direction and then up an escalator, I found myself walking through one of Jamaica's newest shopping malls. No more carpeted floor, comfortable grouped seating, subdued lighting and televisions which could be both seen and heard, surrounded by an ample supply of small shops. Instead, just glare, noise, and shops, shops, shops.

I eventually found some seats that were not at the bar/eating area, tucked away behind the shops. But no chance of hearing the news from the one television high up behind the bar counter and almost too far away to see.

Old-fashioned

Yes, I'm old-fashioned, but having spent so much already on my ticket, I didn't come to the airport to spend even more. And it's not as though airport taxes have been abolished, given this new commercial income source for the airport owners. The only saving grace was buying a patty and coffee at reasonable prices from the person who had run the little café downstairs before the changes. I'm glad she managed to get a spot.

I thought I was alone in my thinking until I found this piece below by Neil Clark writing in the Guardian newspaper after the snow-induced chaos at various London airports in December. I need say no more, except to wonder when the new dual carriageway to the airport will be privatised and turned into a drive-through shopping mall!

"... The privatisation of the state-owned British Airport Authority (BAA), we were told, would ensure that 'better services are provided for all airline passengers'.

Writing in the Guardian in 2007, the designer Sir Terence Conran told a story that illustrates perfectly the difference between the ethos of a publicly owned infrastructure company and a privately owned one.

"Conran revealed that when he was working on the design of the state-owned Heathrow Terminal 1 and the North Terminal of Gatwick airport in the 1960s, he was pressed to make sure that he provided 'lots of seating' for the public. Conran contrasted ... the much more commercial attitude of BAA today, where every square inch must be turned over to retail space. ... The privately owned BAA is seemingly guided by just one concern: maximising profits for its Spanish-owned parent company, Ferrovial. That means out with public seating areas, and in with forcing people to pay to sit down in rip-off cafés and restaurants."

I am, etc.,

PAUL WARD

pgward@cwjamaica.com

Kingston 7