The Flight Frenzy !!!

Am writing this post at the Delhi T3 airport whist waiting for the ground crew to announce the boarding process of my flight to Bangalore. A routine procedure followed by all airlines to ask for passengers traveling in business class, those traveling with infants or those with special needs to board first. Then of course the procedure flows to allow the boarding for others in the order of seating with the last rows to be filled first. Another one of my numerous travels and yet nothing seems to have changed as far as human behavior is concerned and this is my experience of what I call The Flight Frenzy…..

Now we all have been waiting for some time and as soon as the boarding process is announced most of the people ignore the sequence and start to crowd the gates. Not that the ground crew is going to let them through nor whether their earlier boarding is going to win them a glass of free champagne but they all (most, sorry) get up and restrict the access to the gates.

This is not something peculiar I have witnessed in India….it’s been almost everywhere and I have travelled a lot indeed. So, why do they do it…..I mean all it is taking from you is from you being seated in the terminal to being seating in the plane and I prefer the latter till the final call has come. Cabin luggage space has always been adequate in all the flights barring a few rare cases but is that the reason why people tend to queue up to board their flight irrespective of the sequence? Or is it just a herd mentality….People get up and get in line because they have been waiting. Once they start to form this long line, more people get in it, because that’s what everybody’s doing……but yes, there are still the smarty’s, though in minority who remain seated chatting to each other or busy on their phones and wait till the line is more manageable or their turn has come.

Probably they forget that there are sequential lines to be overcome….one that you queue up at the boarding gates and get the boarding passes checked…..then a bit of a freeway till you get to the end of the aerobridge and then it’s a queue to get into the aircraft…..and the final queue within the aircraft to get to your seat…..so what was all the rush about?

While boarding the aircraft I don’t have much issues as I can pace my movement into the aircraft as per my convenience and understanding of the situation at the boarding gates. I’m traveling on the same plane buddy and just because you jumped the sequence got yourself ahead and plonked your arse on the seat first does in no way mean that you are going to reach the destination before me. I’m seated next to you! 🙂

What really gets to me is the f*****g frenzy of the crowd as soon as the flight lands and whilst it is still taxing towards the terminal the seat belts start unbuckling and even before the crew starts to make the announcements people start switching on their mobiles as if their oxygen supplies had been cut off for the last 3 hours. What’s the hurry!!! Maybe their military commanders were having their fingers on the nuke button waiting with abated breath for their Chief to finally call after 3 hours of lost communication till he barks….”It’s a go, Tango”!!!

Most conversations seem to start and end on a pretty bland note especially with the fist liners most commonly being as……

“Ha papa, mein land kar giye hoon, aircraft mein hoon, bahar nikalke phir phone karonge”

“Ha bhaiya, taxi rok ke rakhna, abhi abhi aircraft land kiya hai”

“Haanji, asse land kar gaeya ji”

And then everyone just gets up…..everyone (still, few exceptions). And this is another quirk that stands out as to why people are standing up even when the doors of the aircraft have not yet been opened. I mean why do people stand up, bend their neck, and remain standing with a bent neck as soon as their plane lands even though they can’t go anywhere? Isn’t it obvious that row 24 isn’t going to go anywhere without the front rows disembarking first? Or maybe we should start playing the national anthem in the aircraft and maybe then some of them may remain seated. 🙂

Despite their attempts to rush out of the aircraft in most of the cases I meet the same people queuing up for the buses to ferry them to the terminal and for the lucky few who managed to get an early bus, no worries I often meet them at the baggage belt.

So, what’s this flight frenzy all about!!!

Short answer. The world is full of idiots but it takes a relatively small number of them to inconvenience everyone else.