THE story of the new Islamabad Inter­natio­nal Airport is in two parts — ‘Arrivals’ and ‘Departures’. Kindly fasten your seat belts.

Arrivals

Clearing the mist from the airplane window with my hand to see more clearly in the dark as we taxied towards the terminal, I could see the words ‘Islamabad International Airport’ come into view instead of the old and familiar Benazir Bhutto International Airport. The ‘a’ in ‘International’ was gone already. Still one was filled with anticipation of better things at the new airport.

“Ladies and gentleman, you may disembark from the back exit.” Hearing the announcement, there were sheepish smiles, as everyone turned around to face the other way. “They must have connected the aerobridge at the back only,” said a passenger. “We no longer have to climb up and down stairs like we had to at the old airport,” he added before realising that he had spoken too early. The stairs and the bus were ready to take passengers to the terminal.

Strangely enough the plane had pulled up right next to a boarding and disembarking bridge. Outside one could see a line of boarding bridges with lights off and the one or two planes there standing at odd angles from them as none were connected to any plane. With the airport opening some 10 or 15 days ago only perhaps the Civil Aviation staff at Islamabad were not in a habit of using the bridges. Still it was amazing to note how pilots who have manoeuvred around such bridges at airports across the world can also suddenly go blank at Islamabad International.

The driver of the bus with swaying, swinging passengers then suddenly stopped to look towards his left and right, and then made a U-turn and drove around in circles twice. There might also have been a third time had another bus from the plane not come. Then he followed it to reach the terminal.

At the spacious terminal, the escalator was off and passengers were supposed to climb up a fleet of stairs to reach baggage claim. “Great people to climb stairs with,” someone mumbled his disappointment.

The baggage claim area, meanwhile, had plenty of artwork lining the walls making the wait at carousels for one’s baggage easier while admiring the surroundings. But then more stairs awaited passengers finding their way out of the airport. The only lift in view had a maximum 13-person capacity though it took in even fewer people, with their bags taking up the space.

“Arrivals are here while departures are further up,” said an excited hotel staff loading my luggage in his car. He went on praising the airport, saying I should watch the runway, etc from the visitor’s gallery. “It is open to the public for now. You never know when they might close it in the name of security,” he added. While driving out he also advised me to turn around to admire the airport. “It is from here that you can catch the most impressive view of Islamabad International,” he said. I did look back to find a very well-lit empty airport.

Departures

On my last visit to Islamabad I badly needed to charge my phone but could not for the life of me find a working socket at the bus station-like waiting area of Benazir International. This time I was pleasantly surprised to find proper phone charging stations at every gate.

Waiting near our gate, a passenger said: “Arre, ye tau Dubai airport jaisa hai!” Getting a proper look around, one realised that the airport is in fact not too different from Terminal 3 of the Dubai airport. There are still scatterings of shops where there’s space for many more like those at Dubai. And there is the same nostalgic straight walk to the gates in adjoining long endless corridors with a view of the tarmac and planes.

Two ladies browsing in the shops when asked how they were finding the new airport said that even though it is said to be further away than the old airport, they reached it in record time. “Beta, it was getting so difficult reaching the Pindi airport in all that traffic. Coming here we found no such traffic jams,” said one of them.

But more chaos was in store with an announcement of gates being changed. Just like Dubai. And when boarding wouldn’t start even at the new gate despite it past take-off time one’s attention turned towards the seating with the few reclining chairs. Ditto Dubai Terminal 3 seating!

Outside through the huge windows you could see your plane waiting near a boarding bridge but not connected to it, and with stairs attached to its entrance. “When the Chinese and Japanese copy something they innovate and improve on it. When we copy something, we look for areas where we can save money to put into our own pockets, leaving behind our footprints,” laughed another exasperated passenger waiting to board a flight.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2018