JOHN Milton, the English poet, once said ‘They also serve, who only stand and wait’, author Rudyard Kipling wrote ‘If you can wait and not be tired of waiting’.
In this new decade we are living in an instant age - from coffee to mobiles but we may have to return to the good old slower days.
Since 9/11, security at airports has had to be tightened considerably, which has resulted in longer minimum check-in periods, from one to two hours, then three and it looks as though it will now be stretched to four.
Most travel reasonably long distances to reach airports so, when it comes to total travel time, it would appear that we are returning to the days of the propeller.
It was an age of innocence which, unfortunately, due to procedures such as laborious security controls, can never return. Today, we have reached a situation that despite the speed and convenience of modern jetliners means total travel time has become similar to our parents’ generation, thus eradicating all the shortened hours and superb facilities of modern aircraft.
This results in all of us contending with longer journeys at each end of the trip. We still have the privilege of using modern airports and superb aircraft with all the gizmos that go with them such as in-flight movies and entertainment but now we also need the patience of our forebears.
Yesterday’s travel world was mobile-less (sheer bliss).
Travel agents did not have to deal with customers bringing in internet-printed itineraries and then being asked to ‘finish the job’. It was a well-regarded profession, and it still is, but the access to the internet has created a similar problem to that faced by writers who are in competition with Twitter and Facebook’s would-be authors.
This do-it-yourself anomaly of the new millennium pushes down salaries as travel agents try to compete with the availability of booking engines on myriad websites. Thankfully many, corporations in particular, have seen the advantages of using travel agencies and corporate travel has become a steady and growing sector for the agencies.
Today’s phone-cum-internet generation has forgotten how to wait. Their parents and grandparents were accustomed to waiting – waiting to save money to buy their first house, waiting to save up for a car, hire purchase contracts were available but frowned upon by their elders, or waiting to save up for an annual holiday. The ‘Fly Now, Pay Later’ slogan was a gimmick of the me-me-now generation.
This was the era when schools concentrated on writing, reading and arithmetic. The teachers of that period would have cringed to read today’s quick English such as gr8, cu2mrw.
Of course I realise that today’s world, particularly aviation, would not function without computers. However, what do we do with all the time saved by these magnificent machines? We call a friend, while sitting alone in the coffee shop. We e-mail a birthday greeting instead of writing a proper birthday card. Children spend hours playing computer games, instead of reading books, or watch endless satellite TV channels.
We will have to wait longer at airport security, unless someone has the brains to buy more machines and hire more personnel. Some people will have to wait longer to retire thanks to pension schemes being devastated by greedy bankers who have worsened the current recession.
We will have to wait a long time before the credit-for-all days return. Most people in the UK or the US owe thousands on their credit cards and continue to ignore this black hole in their finances, which I believe will be the next crisis to hit the financial world.
We will all have to wait for property prices to rise, as the downturn of the previous 24 months takes half a decade to right itself properly.
In the Gulf, we will have to wait forever for airlines to increase commission as they expect travel agents, who have made them rich and supported them throughout the growing years, to survive on the crumbs from the table.
And then we have, of course, the so called green lobby folks, who will forever ask: “Is your journey really necessary?” Luckily for us living in the Gulf region, we will have to wait for some time before some ignoramus asks that question, as flying is the only convenient mode to travel this region.
Local airlines such as Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways as well as carriers such as British Airways, Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific, have already foreseen the future and the longer waiting periods by opening comprehensive lounges for their first and business-class passengers, some even with showers and inevitably a business centre.
As the waiting game accelerates, airports may have to extend those types of facilities to all passengers if the waiting becomes longer and we face the prospect of spending more time at the airports than in the air. What a thought!
But the human race is a rather unique species in the universe (we think) and I am sure will creatively tackle the problems of the ‘waiting years’. Paradoxically it will probably be the next generation of mobile phones which will possibly help the powers-that-be find ways and means to cut the red tape associated with the security problems.
For example, the new passports will eventually help immigration to clear you before you even arrive at the airport via the communication from the travel agent, who has checked the passport.
New scanners may be developed so we can send baggage ahead, more body scanners will be designed so that they are fast walk through arrangements. Of course, all this will take time and… we will just have to wait…
By Jonna Simon