The unpleasant UK airport experience needs to change

I was watching Donald Trump on a news bulletin the other day. I wasn’t really listening to what he was saying as I pottered around my front room, but what did catch my eye was his hat with ‘MAGA’ emblazoned across it.  

And that is when it came to me, in a flash – a road to Damascus revelation, if you like: the outbound travel industry needs its own MAGA movement.  

I don’t mean the same ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan that Donald Trump champions. I’m thinking more along the lines of ‘Make Airports Great Again’. 

My old dad, who is no longer with us, used to love airports. Specifically, he loved going on holiday from them. He used to say that his holiday started not when he checked into an overseas hotel or stepped into the Spanish or Portuguese sunshine for the first time in 12 months. Instead, his hard-earned annual holiday, he always maintained, started with his first pint of Guinness and a full English breakfast at whichever UK airport we were departing from.  

As kids, his ritual at the airport, regardless of the time of day, was the signal for us that the holiday had begun.  

And the airports were so conducive in setting up the upbeat excitement of going on holiday. From an uncle dropping us off outside the departure terminal, unloading our cases onto the pavement and finding a trolley for us, to the hugs on the concourse from an auntie and a cheery wave as we walked through the sliding doors into the terminal, it was one of the most exciting parts of going on holiday.

Bygone bonhomie

There was plenty of interaction with airport staff as they checked you in and wished you a good trip as you headed for security, where the staff and passport people waved us excited kids through with a smile. My mum loved all the designer shops that were not on our high street back home, as well as the duty-free store for a bargain.  

Fast forward to today and there is little doubt about it: airports are arguably the most unpleasant part of the travel experience.

 

"The industry needs its own version of America’s MAGA Movement. It’s time to Make Airports Great Again."

 

And whenever I talk to fellow travellers, airports win this accolade hands down. From the brutal and draconian drop-off charges that are little more than a legalised racket to the overpriced shops; and from the soulless self-check-in process to the often sourly security and border force staff who must, one would imagine, go on some sort of training course on scowling, departing on holiday from a UK airport is just not a pleasant experience.  

Airport antipathy

For airport chiefs, this might not seem like a particularly big deal. As long as all airports play the same game, with roughly the same exorbitant drop‑off charges and soulless approach to customer service, they have a captive market and there is little the consumer can do.

But perhaps there is a danger of killing the goose that lays the golden egg here.  

My family will now do almost anything to avoid the British airport experience. I only fly if there is literally no other way to get to a destination. The solution for us has been cruising, which has a completely different approach to airports when it comes to customers departing from a port. 

And I’m not alone. Every time I cruise, I bump into large numbers of fellow travellers with the same mindset. “This is so much better than flying from an airport,” they say.  

If my old dad were alive today, I suspect he wouldn’t see the airport as the beginning of his holiday but more like the last depressing hurdle to overcome before the start of his annual break. 

The need to get the public to fall in love with British airports again is long overdue. 

The industry needs its own version of the MAGA movement. It’s time to Make Airports Great Again.