It has
always been ‘we dream we do’ but this time we were forced to think. Yes
with the government going in for full scale privatization we were forced
to think or perhaps dream. What’s that these firangis can do? Do we have
to import the thought procedure from Frankfurt ? I just dreamt of my
Jaipur Airport 2010. This followed:
The Car
Parking :
Suddenly car parking grew ten fold. I removed all the barricades from the
car park. Even I broke the boundary wall. I just had one huge gate with
separate lane of ‘in’ and ‘out’ lined up with the flower hedge. I also
broke the wall adjoining the colony and included the present garden into
car parking. I went underground and created parking for few days and
nights there. Passengers could just drive themselves and leave their cars. The car parking contract revenue grew four times. At the distant west of
car parking I had franchise of pizza hut even a new AAI restaurant
national brand of ’Apron’ you fly we eat with a glass structure had come
up. I also had a counter of prepaid taxis/hotels RTDC there and thus had
decongested my building. In the night with the colorful sign boards the
place looked lively people wanted to stay for long in the parking itself.
Even the idea of stilt and magazine floor parking attracted me.
The
Airport colony : I converted
my residential colony from the expense head to the revenue head. I had
purchased 50 flats with the capital out lay of 10 crores in the nearby up
coming residential complex. I had negotiated the deal 15% cheaper. My
employees were happy and were ready to check in before I could even take
the possession. I saved on my Rs 70 lakhs annual maintenance budget. After
three years these flats were to be sold off in the market at a premium of
20% with the first right of purchase going to employee at a discount of
5%. my sales were immediate even I had advance booking for the same. New
purchases took place after three years.
I
converted my present airport colony in to huge commercial and office
complex. Airport director’s bungalow was his office Secretariat now.
Scores of airlines had mushroomed, the glow signs were endless. With pain
I dismantled type I and type II. The place had a huge indoor
air-conditioned hall with lot of recreational facilities. Some persons
were arguing that it looked better than the main terminal building. It had
huge place for worship/ massage parlors/national scale swimming pool/gold
gym/eateries/ groceries stores/gift shops/wine shops/beer bars/cinema
hall/hotel and a full fledged aryuvedic centre. queues were endless to use
these services.
I decided
to lease the complete complex. Also I invited corporate memberships. There
were immediate takers. My non traffic revenue had crossed traffic revenue.
Pre-entry area :
it had a huge touch button screen the real time position of flights was
known. Also it carried all India schedule.
The
entry :
I had installed biometrics at the entry. Each airport employee just had to
place his/her thumb. Entry was recorded. Absentee statements were done up.
The same system catered to multi organizations with multi rosters.
I reduced
security personnel breathing down the necks of people in fact there was
none to be seen. Instead they monitored security with the help of cameras.
Even frequent visitors data was biometred. A passenger data base was
under preparation under a national plan. In fact it was being partially
used. The entry was grand. All the side offices were butchered
mercilessly.
The
Check In of Passengers :
The check in of passengers was centralized. It had machine interface.
Passenger just keyed in PNR no and there came up boarding passes. I had
reduced lot of people from the airport instead few were there for
extending courtesies only for extra baggage passengers. There were some
green lanes for passengers with no luggage. I had ensured no loaders on
passenger seats rather sight of employee on passenger seat was an offence.
The
Terminal Building : I had terminated all petty contracts inside the building. Instead huge
single area was demarcated for all services combined. The big corporate
had entered the fray. Reliance had its multi product retail store it
brought new architecture. New investments were becoming more demanding. It
decongested the building and my revenues soared up. It had huge gleaming
toilets done up with artificial plants/sunlight, the best seen anywhere
around. There was no sight of employees hanging around for petty tips. No
brooms were seen inside the toilets. I had thrown all the multi-sizes
advertisement boards and instead lot of display for passengers had come
up. Heritage paintings of Rajas and Maharajas, forts, elephants, some kind
of processions with fancy focus lights adorned the walls. In fact lot of
artist wanted to display their works. Auctions for these paintings
attracted lot of crowd and money to the Airport. It became a hunting
ground for art facts.
The
Restaurant :
The Restaurant was a conglomerate of coffee stall/cafe counter. It looked
like a open food court. Beer and festivity was in air. Also it had a
famous DJ doing the show. Celebrity endorsement was an order of the day.
People would just wait there to have a glimpse of a famous actor. People
didn’t mind the flight delays instead they would come early to spend time
here. Airport employees also frequented the place as the rates here were
not exorbitant. You could see the complete band of kingfisher loaders
dressed like the old British army. Also on many a corners romance was in
air.
The
Visitor’s Gallery :
I had used my first floor of the building to create a huge visitor’s
gallery. All the day round it was frequented by school children. It had
separate entry and exit. The counters removed from the terminal building
were rehabilitees here. Entry tickets were kept. Revenue from entry ticket
contract quadrupled. I also had lot of artificial trees planted in the
visitor’s gallery. Even a water fall had been created. Lot of employees
specially the new ones were also here just for the heck sake.
The
Security Area : The rotten
carpet had been thrown off. So were dirty counters and rotten paper
posters. The place was absolutely clean. Gleaming tiles and shine was the
order of the day. I also ensured that security was announced just in time.
There was nothing known as security ‘Hold’. The need of coffee counters
had been done away with. Passengers were just walking through the security
area. I had also reduced anti-hijacking control personnel. Body frisking
was a crime. Instead hi-tech gizmos were used for vigil.
The
Flight Ground Handling : It
was mandatory by law for AAI to invest in ground handling of aircraft.
There were equipments common to all flights. Additional revenue was
generated if any Airline wanted to place their advertisement over these
equipments. The whole exercise generated lot of goodwill and revenue.
Duplication of equipments stopped. It reduced airline’s expenses and in
turn they were more than willing to pay. Sight of loader on Apron was
rare. Security personnel were also relaxed. I saved a lot of Apron space
meant for keeping duplicated equipments.
The
Apron :
It had more than 30 bays. Bays were created all around the terminal
building. Old buildings were done away with. All bays were Power-in push
back bays. Some bays were separately earmarked for smaller type of
aircraft. There were three gates which opened to Apron and similarly three
gates led the passengers out of building after their arrival. The east
side of the building was tore opened. It gave lot of sunlight inside the
building. Also alternate exit was here. There was separate vehicle lane
for vehicles in order to save Apron markings. A full fledged Apron control
was in place in the old control tower. I was also thinking of some RED EYE
flights especially for Delhi and Mumbai. In this passengers just walked in
and tickets were issued on board itself.
The
Operational Area :
Operational area remained well manicured. One would wonder whether it was
a golf course. It was perfectly sprayed with insecticide. It was difficult
to sight a single bird. Lot of solar panels was installed and I was told
we could even sell electricity. Runway light was photocell controlled and
came up as soon as visibility dropped below 3000mtrs. Solar carts were
also used to ferry employees. Lot of employees used cycles inside the
operational area since the complete area was well manicured. My petrol
bills were reduced drastically. Huge investments were in water harvesting.
Each single drop of rain was harvested and it met all the water needs of
airport.
The ATC
: ATC remained a harassed lot. Although few new sofas were provided
along with some coffee tables. A new ATC table also came up some how.
Cordless mikes were also there. A constant grudge of shortage remained.
Also there was a cry of parallel runway as the movements were touching 125
per day with congestion in morning and evening. Parallel taxiway already
provided was most soothing. There was minimum runway occupancy time. More
efficient approaches were added but the same required more alertness.
Flight level was enhanced to FL 190 but even that was not enough. There
were also cries of making Jaipur as ACC but same was rejected under some
national up gradation plan. Billing was very smooth even a credit card
machine was installed. Some kind of debit cards were issued by AAI and one
had to just swipe the card for payment. Central processing unit kept on
giving alerts for registration of default aircraft. All clearances to fly
were deemed as ‘flight clear’ unless a alert popped up on screen. An
automatic dialer was there to inform of any emergencies. Touch button
phones were provided with units marked over it. It was easy to hear the
transmission made earlier for training and safety purpose.
AND THE DREAM
CONTINUES …………………….