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Hernando Today

Miami Gateway Breeds Airport Misery

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By JOHN HERBERT

Published: January 4, 2008

We seldom realize just how lucky we are to have Tampa International, a passenger-friendly airport that actually works, right in our own back yard. Tampa is recognized as one of the better airports in the world. Airport architects come from far and wide to learn what makes Tampa so special.
Cynical airline pilots may still call Tampa International a "cow pasture," but the 15 million to 20 million using TIA annually would beg to disagree. Size, at least in an airport's case, isn't everything.
Too bad Miami airport officials missed some important signals. If we want to fly overseas from Florida, Miami is our main gateway. Especially if we have to change airlines from a Tampa-Miami feeder flight.
To my recent chagrin, a change from Concourse "C" to Miami's new Concourse "J" called for a half-hour walk and a long wait in the new concourse, which was freezing (hopefully, some day, someone will learn how to manipulate Concourse J's air-conditioning).
What was just as surprising, Concourse J opened without any of the time-killing concessions you'd expect to find in any busy airport. There were no restaurants or bars, no newsstands and no duty-free shops, even though most departures are international.
They'll be coming — eventually. But, in the meantime, what were the sadists in charge of Miami's airport thinking? For starters, Miami's concourses are strung out in what feels like a mile-long row. Tampa's terminals radiate conveniently from a central check-in building and shopping mall.
All the new concourse can offer for now are a couple of soft-drink stands, with plastic sandwiches and ice cream, manned by disinterested staff who can't even speak English. Why the big billboards advertising Corona beer? The closest beer is in the next concourse, maybe a 15-minute walk away. Have another drink and miss your flight, Miami seems to be saying.
We can't blame Miami's miseries on the TSA, an acronym for "Tourist Supression Agency." Security inspectors are overly polite and patient in both Miami, Tampa and just about every other airport in the U.S. They're effective, too.
We haven't had another 9/11-type disaster in the six-plus years the TSA (also a.k.a. "Thousands Standing Around") has been a deterrent factor in our struggle against terrorism. Listening to airport employees, airline traffic still hasn't fully recovered from the blows of 9/11, either. Not even during traditional holiday peaks, they insist.
There's a report circulating throughout Washington that claims the TSA bureaucracy hasn't made airports any safer, according to a Harvard survey. What do Harvard "eggheads," as Harry Truman called them, know about reality?
Security is an annoyance and a hassle, to be sure; it's amplified at an airport like Miami where inspectors don't have room for more than makeshift operations. While departing passengers snake though painfully slow lines to take off shoes, belts and (the latest twist) even innocent little hair barrettes.
I wonder why I don't see airline advertising very often these days. The cost crunch is certainly one valid explanation. But the airlines can't be very proud, either, of a product that requires passengers to check in at the airport as much as four hours before departure. Yes; four hours. I have it in writing on my E-ticket from LAN.
There was a time, less than 20 years ago, when major airlines were falling all over each other to cut departure times to 20 minutes for domestic flights, and maybe 35 minutes for international departures. Those speedy check-in times were reason enough to advertise efficient trips.
It's not that we have any time over to relax, eat and drink overpriced water and bagels, or shop. All of those four hours are spent in check-in lines, security, immigration and navigating through an oversized airport. At many overseas airports, there's also another long line to pay $10 to $20 worth of departure taxes. Any time left to wander around those attractive shopping areas many airports are optimistically adding? Fuhgeddaboudit.
One country, Chile, is at least calling a spade a spade. Arriving American passengers are charged a $100 "reciprocity fee" to enter Chile by air. "Reciprocity" for what? One look at Miami airport will help explain. When are the Chileans, among others, going to smarten up and start serving Tampa, instead?

A regular columnist for Hernando Today, Herbert lives in Spring Hill.

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