As a manager in a 1st class airport in a 3rd world country (and not in Asia), I found your article quite interesting. What's surprising is that you actually noticed the difference. Most visitors rush through so quickly and pre-programmed that the effort we put in seems to go unnoticed. And it is about priorities - our upgrade took years of planning, getting funding, designs and building. It took committment at the national level from government, business, etc. I don't think the US has all 'bad' airports, just many uncomfortable spaces.
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The gap in wages also contributes to the difference in experience. At Phnom Penh International, I clocked the time it took to deplane, apply for a visa, get my luggage and go through Customs. Eight minutes. The 13 employees who speedily processed my passport through a bureaucratic assembly line were just part of the abnormally large (3,500-strong) work force for this small airport. In the United States, where labor is considerably more expensive, airports are chronically understaffed. The ratio of passengers to full-time airline employees rose from about 60 to 1 in 2001 to more than 90 to 1 in 2006. Upon arriving at Kennedy, I had to wait 20 minutes at passport control because there were only nine agents on duty.
Asian airports also highlight another dichotomy of the global economy. Countries that never had pervasive landline telephone systems frequently enjoy better wireless telephone coverage than here. Cambodia and Vietnam are only now getting around to building their aviation infrastructures, but they're purchasing state-of-the-art products rather than updating legacy systems. You're more likely to find brand-new jets on rapidly expanding carriers like Asiana and Vietnam Airlines than on US Airways and Delta.
To be sure, investments in U.S. air traffic control and airports are long overdue. But the short-term miseries of the American flier are a function of our nation's long-term success. Given the choice of hassle-free air travel or the hassle-filled life of the Cambodian and Vietnamese people—to whom the second half of the last century was so cruel—I'll choose the surly TSA guard and the three-hour wait at La Guardia.
© 2007
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