Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Kabul Airport Needs Attention

In its present capacity, Kabul airport can be labeled as one of the busiest airports of the world. Its limited area and other facilities can never be compared to the grand airports of the world like that of Beijing, Dubai, London or others but even then, this small airport is handling large number of domestic and international flights. But increasing flights of our traders and countrymen inside and outside the country and visit of foreigners for different work related activities has increased the numbers of fights in the past few years.

Unfortunately, when this airport was expanded and renovated during the reign of ex-president Karzai, the long-term plans were not kept in consideration. The planners had no idea that the present capacity would become insufficient in just a few years and so they failed to project and allocate some more possibilities for any future expansion. Millions of dollars were spent at that time and with some more spending, the airport could have been easily made big enough to meet the needs of country for many decades to come but in less than a decade of its completion, it is felt that airport is small to handle the increasing air-traffic and there is an immediate need of expansion of the airport.

Due to this fact, the flight experience has become much frustrating from the Kabul airport. It takes many hours before a person enters the airport and goes through the different stages to reach the final stage of boarding on the plane. It is also a fact that airport is run with an absolute non-professional approach. The security check is repeated at a number of places which adds to the frustration of the passengers. At all the international airports, even where the security threat is at peak like that of Urumqi in China, a thorough security check is done at a point after which passengers can easily go through different points to reach their plane. But at our capital airport, security checking is repeated at a number of places. It appears that different authorities like police, border security forces and airport officials conduct their security check separately and without any proper coordination between them. At the same time, it also shows the lack of trust among these bodies of security.

VIP culture is the most disgusting and painful fact of our airports when it is observed more than any other part of the world. At our airport, ministers, members of parliament, high government officials, foreign troops and their contractors and high ranking officials of police and national army use their influence to ignore any queue and discipline and this results in the delay of the common passengers who have developed very bad feelings about this unjust culture. There are so many great nations and important officials in the world but they are found to be waiting for their turn and VIP culture is not much promoted but in our country, it has become so rampant that anyone with some power and political influence tries his best not to observe the regular discipline and gain benefits of VIP culture.

Another painful fact is the improper behavior of the airport employees. At all international or even internal airports, the employees are given training so that they should treat the passengers in the best possible manner. It is the reason why, passing time at any other airport of the world becomes a pleasing experience. Contrary to this, majority of our airport employees are absolutely careless about their behavior in dealing the passengers. Starting from a minor sweeper to high-ranked officials, no one is ready to give any importance to the passengers. Their rude behavior shows that they have not been given any due training in this regard and their attitude with the passengers is not checked or evaluated. In this regard, our visa and passport control section is the most notorious where some harsh and rude people have been assigned with the most important duty of the airport.

At all international airports, large numbers of facilities are provided to the passengers but at our airport, some facilities are really disturbing. The shuttle bus service, baggage clearance and claiming, final security check, and some other facilities are not according to the standards.

The in-flight services of some airplane companies are also not satisfactory. Safi Airways was badly criticized during the Hajj operations when continued delays and mismanagement in its flights created much disturbance to the pilgrims. In the same way, the delays in departure and arrival of both domestic and international flights have become something of routine which is really painful and defaming to our country and the countrymen.

It is said that a good network of roads inside the country work as backbone to the economy of the country. In the same way, a well-functioning airport is also necessary to keep good communication inside and outside the country. The way of dealing of passengers, especially of international flights, brings good or bad name for the country. If we want that we should prosper, the visits of foreigners and traders increase and economy flourish, the new government needs to give immediate attention to the situation of airports especially the capital airport. The facilities should be improved, the employees should be trained and their hiring process must be made transparent and based on merit, the regularity of flights should be ensured, and most importantly, plans should be made so our airport should be able to meet the increasing needs of passengers for decades to come.