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 this problem before during any of the other sand storms.

Bet the Kuwait Airways staff were happy they went on strike today. Or maybe one of them left a window open somewhere to make a point.

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 sniffer dogs and they all still wanted to get as close as possible to the action.

I’m not sure if this is just us Indians in our usual inquisitive Indian mode, but who goes “near” the bomb. If I thought there was a bomb around, I would walk as far away from it as I could.

And our brilliant airport authorities just left the immigration counters running so people could keep piling up to watch all the action up close. Luckily, it was a false alarm. No bomb in sight. And we could all leave after a good 40 mins of watching the dogs and the armored guy take turns checking out the “un-attended package”.

Still, good job by the guy in the armored suit and his two cuddly sniffer dogs.

I found this very interesting chart on global airline traffic at Amadeus. It’s based on a study between airconomy and Amadeus.

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 path where it looked like some flights just took a u-turn in the middle of the Indian ocean and flew back. Quite interesting to see this interactive picture of what’s happening in the skies above.

What’s more interesting is that it only costs about 600 EUR to setup your own receiver and antenna (up to 350km range) to pull up this info on your personal computer. Most commercial aircraft models are supported but no surprise that hardly any military ones were present. Who would have thought it’s this easy to track our flight movements?

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 mins to find the damn place. I was quite worried since all the sign boards along the road to the terminal  read “restricted area” and “air force”.

When I drove in there, no one in the “un-identifiable” Valet parking drop-off  spot knew English and from the little Arabic I understood of what they were yelling, I just drove ahead and parked in the paid parking lot ahead. Luckily that guy was nice enough to tell me that I need to wait for a while near the first class entrance till someone comes and helps me. So drove all the way back and after waiting for 15 mins, someone did come by.

Only after flashing my First Class ticket, I was fussed over and started to enjoy the Wataniya Airways experience. Next time I’ll try driving there in a Rolls Royce, just to see if it makes any difference.

Looks like the site was updated today with a map to the terminal.

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 miles away from the airport. All the flights were moved there. As I was getting into the wobbly bus sent to pick us up, I noticed a bunch of security guards flashing their torches under the aircraft!!! Searching for something? Dead bird most likely!

Nobody seemed to know why we had to go through all that fuss.

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 on multi-leg flights especially with 4 or more stops.

How often do you get a complimentary upgrade? 

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 to arrive at the airport 3 hours in advance. Exceptions would be first and business class travelers and those that do an online check-in where they need to arrive about an hour in advance.

My sense is that only two things would motivate you to arrive at the airport early.

1) Duty Free Shopping

2) Free high-speed internet at the lounges

Take for example the airport in Kuwait. The duty-free section is terrible and prices there are almost double. (I’m sure they have a good excuse for that). Has anyone ever seen a crowd there? Compare that to Dubai’s Duty Free. Its huge, there is a lot of choice and most of the items are either cheaper or at par with market prices (and any day cheaper than prices in Kuwait).

Personally, I prefer to arrive at the airport about 1 hour before I plan to clear immigration (since duty free shops are beyond that). This would normally mean about 1.5 to 2 hours before departure in Kuwait and about 2.5-3 hours if its Dubai.

How about 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 floor. I didn’t even know there was a fifth floor at that terminal.  Anyway, its there and there is a swimming pool and spa and what not up there. I clicked that photo from within the elevator. 

I wonder if anyone ever gets time for a quick swim while waiting for their flights!

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 on the way to the airport and went to Farwaniya instead!

BTW, that sign has been up on that road for over a month now!