What is an airport? One definition is “a complex of runways and buildings for the takeoff, landing, and maintenance of civil aircraft, with facilities for passengers.”
That part about “facilities for passengers” covers a myriad of services not for airplanes, but for pax.
A typical airport is, for one thing, a parking lot, often with busses to pick up passengers and deliver them to terminals. It’s the first part of the airport with which the pax does business upon his arrival and the last as he leaves. It is designed for pax, not airplanes.
An airport is a shopping mall, and this part of the airport is growing in size and quality. Pax now buy newspapers, breath mints, books, and electronic equipment, including a lot of things they just realized they forgot to pack. This is a very important service for pax.
An airport is restaurants, bars, bathrooms, Wi-Fi, and a garbage system. It is a ground transportation system of escalators, elevators, moving sidewalks and electric carts.
An airport is a police force, a security system and the first impression of pax arriving at a new city.
These parts of airports are all provided for pax—and they better be fast, high-quality and convenient.
Makes me think the very definition of airports is a bit weak. Is it really a place for airplanes and the pax they serve? Or is it a place for pax and the airplanes that serve them?
It also makes me admire the group of people who manage airports. How in the world do they do it?
