Mario's World

Today afternoon we had quite the dust storm. Strong winds and very low visibility. I went to the airport in the evening and it was insane. Almost all the airport staff were wearing dust masks. There was a light dust cloud inside the airport. Even in the restaurants! It was quite suffocating. I’ve never seen [...]

I took the picture above at Chennai airport. This is at the section just after immigration. As you can see, everybody (except Ro and I) were crowding at one spot, all of them trying to get a glimpse of the bomb. Yes, there was a bomb alert, with a guy in full bomb disposal armor and 2 [...]

I found this very interesting chart on global airline traffic at Amadeus. It’s based on a study between airconomy and Amadeus. I’m not surprised to see the 13.4% increase in air travel between Asian countries and the Middle East. Looks like Qatar Airways and Emirates are the key players boosting air traffic to/from and via [...]

Came across Flight Radar 24 this morning when one of my colleagues inquired about monitoring flights in real time. I immediately focused on the Middle East region and found an interesting flight path. Looks like the site tracked this flight’s take off and landing multiple times as it shuttled between Kuwait and Dubai. There was another interesting flight [...]

Well, the simple answer is “in the middle of nowhere”. I’m sure anyone who has traveled on Wataniya Airways for the first time would have asked that question. There are sign boards pointing in the direction of this terminal all along the 55 and 50 but not a single sign on the 51. It took me 30 [...]

Landed in Dubai yesterday morning and was puzzled to see the aircraft taxi to a remote area of the airport for disembarking. I would understand if all the ramps were occupied but from where I was sitting, all the Terminal 3 ramps were empty!!! And ours wasn’t the only flight to disembark a few hundred [...]

I’d have to say that on an average I get a complementary business class upgrade on every 4th journey. Its just one of those things that puts a big smile on your face at the check-in counter and an even bigger smile when you get into the aircraft. I noticed that this is more prominent [...]

I think its fair to say that most of us travel pretty often by air nowdays. The main reason would be cheaper prices and the next would be better availability of seats than maybe 10 years ago. With these frequent visits to the airport, do we take our flights for granted? Most flights require you [...]

Most people would not expect to see this in an airport! Its a swimming pool at the Dubai Airport – Terminal 3. Was returning back to Kuwait last night and the flight was delayed by 45 mins. So decided to roam around the terminal (in search of Microsoft Surface tables) and landed on the 5th [...]

Breaking news!!! It seems that most flights from Kuwait to Kerala have been cancelled. All the airlines operating on that route have complained of a high percentage of no-shows at the airport. They have attributed this to the recent economic crisis. However, I found out the real reason. The Malloos all saw this sign board [...]