I have been travelling quite a bit the last fortnight and in the course of my travels I have paid the airport development fee (ADF) twice at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport. An amount of Rs. 1300/- each time I left the country.
I was at the airport yesterday to catch my flight to Dubai and was waiting in the queue to pay the ADF so as to get my boarding pass. Soon I heard raised voices and found out that a person in the queue next to mine did not have the money to pay the ADF. He was a middle-aged man, definitely not well-to-do and was looking very worried and helpless. He pleaded with the man at the counter but to no avail. He was sent to the airport manager’s desk to figure things out. His boarding pass was not given to him.
My heart went out to that man. Flights to Dubai are filled with people going there to work as construction workers. Theirs is a hard life, but I guess they take up the job so as to send some money back home to their families.
I had some Indian rupees to spare so I followed the man thinking that I could lend him the amount he was short of. Unfortunately just as I was getting close to where he was, my name was called out at the counter I was at. After I got my boarding pass I went looking for him again but he was nowhere to be seen.
While awaiting the boarding call I kept looking out for him, wondering what happened to him. Fortunately he made it to the flight. As I was entering the aircraft I overheard the girl in front of me tell her companion that she was short of money because she had to spend for the ADF and said that the airport authorities told her that the newspapers had published news of the ADF and so travellers should be aware of it. There were no boards put up anywhere in the airport informing passengers of the ADF.
My cousin had dropped me to the airport yesterday and as we approached it we saw the construction in progress for the new airport. It is massive and I’m sure it is going to be impressive. But after what I witnessed yesterday I wondered whether the man I saw or the girl I heard would ever enjoy or be proud of it. I wonder if they will shop in the duty free shops or drink coffee in the plush cafeteria of the new airport.
Incidentally, after I reached home last night, I looked at the receipt I got from the airport. It was a receipt of payment for excess baggage, with the words ADF written in hand in an almost illegible scrawl.
Why is it that when we dream of something big the execution of it is so small, unplanned and insensitive?
5 comments:
While I am in agreement with the concept of the ADF the way it has been handled at the airports is very sad and I am sure leads of multiple similar incidents like what you have mentioned...
simple ways like mentioning it on the tickets/websites/through agents could have been done to prepare the people for this unexpected expenditure at the airport (in cash) and save some of the not so happy incidents !
Air travel is not a luxury anymore, it is a necessity, specially when it comes to international travel. I don't see a logic of forcing ADF this way. We don't pay extra for using a railway station, do we? Or for using Bus stands? If revenue has to be generated, it has to be in an integrated manner. And, in the name of "Excess baggage"? That's plain simple cheating!
Anyway, enough debating... how was your trip? No pictures to share?
Just yesterday Banna, Sachin and I were discussing about the ADF and how inconvenient it is to passengers. Both of them had to suffer the process recently at the Bangalore airport. Why can't they simply charge it to the ticket? People may not be carrying cash with them all the time, even if they can afford to pay.
I do not like the concept of the ADF much, especially when we pay such high taxes anyway.
Besides it cannot be assumed that everyone - both in and out of India is aware of it. It was just a coincidence that I happened to have the cash in hand.
On a lighter note...my trip to Bhutan was simply awesome and yes, I do have lots of pictures. Waiting for the weekend to upload them and write about my vacation.
Yeah its quite bugging but then its not just a India thing, Other countries also charge it. I had the same problem at Cambodia few years back too..
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