I am happy to report that I have just survived my first encounter with Liszt Ferihegy’s latest pride, the Skycourt. It was not easy to organize but I managed. Here is the story.
With my better half we were preparing for an early Summer break in Jordan, a country we consider almost as a second home, what with our love for that completely different world and nice people. I can only recommend this wonderful country to everyone, a visit will give a unique experience to all (I would be more than happy to provide the telephone number of our favorite taxi driver to anyone interested).
The only problem is that you must get there somehow and this is only possible these days via the Skycourt. Like my friend Steve before us, we too had to suffer through this. This was so in spite of me being one of the privileged individuals who are allowed to park their car in the official lot leaving the vehicle there for the duration of our holiday. On such occasions my company gives me a temporary parking permit and a no-name magnetic card which opens the barriers through which the car has to pass. Well, it was this magnetic card that caught the attention of the alert security agent just before our entering into the famous Skycourt. How did I come by it; it is not even valid anymore; how dare I take it out of the country???? I stood there incredulous for there was nothing else I could do in the face of his misguided questioning.
How the hell should I know that the damn card is not valid anymore? This is what I got from my company and I assume they know what they can give to their employees (or do they?). As to taking it abroad, well, where the hell should I leave it while I am out of the country?
So we stood there for a while with my wife until one of the bosses of the little over-zealous security agent appeared. He studied my card for a long while, shook is had knowingly and called for his superior. Soon a whole group of very serious looking security people were gathered over my card trying to decide the threat to international civil aviation represented by the card. The situation was further complicated by the fact that we were trying to fly to Amman. They noticed this also with uncanny perception… Why was this a noteworthy circumstance? Ah never mind. I do not want to even try to understand them.
Final they arrived at a conclusion. We were allowed to proceed BUT!!! We had the solemnly swear that we will not show this card to anyone abroad… I promised… kinda like you promise things to a mentally retarded person when your only wish is to get rid of him.
After this encounter, falling into the Skycourt was like icing on a bad cake. To be honest, I felt like throwing up at the sight of this unashamed set-up to puzzle people’s money out of their pockets. One has almost no time to recover from the hurdles of getting to the airport when the push starts to get you into the stores and to spend your money. Disgusting! We were less than relaxed and so we rushed through the stores and found a place to sit down.
After a little while we did look around and I must admit, inside it is a nice, imposing building. But I still maintain that it was a totally unnecessary investment. Of course this is me, the aerodrome controller talking who sees also the other side of things. A person who knows how all that money could have been spent on things much more useful, things that would have generated extra revenue over the long run. This only proves how irresponsible it was to sell the operating rights to the airport since investors are interested only in short term profit and do not consider the interests of the airport or the country. I hold responsible the previous governments for this but also the current one which is hell bent on selling even the last tiny Hungarian state-owned bit.
Luckily the flight made us forget all this frustration. I did have a premonition that I would know one of the pilots but in the end it turned out that both of them were old friends and I was able to visit them in the cockpit. Now this was something I would have loved to brag about to that miserable little security guy with his over-zealous attitude. It would have been great to watch his face! Unfortunately I missed that opportunity.
After a wonderful week, we landed again at Ferihegy. I will continue to call our airport Ferihegy, no matter how it was renamed by this bunch of backwards thinkers! Our gear arrived on the carousel with the usual delay but at least they were all in one piece. We thought we would be driving home in no time at all. But that was not to be, it took another 40 minutes before we could be on our way!
As it turned out, all traffic in front of the terminals was being diverted as a result of a protest action of some cab drivers. We knew nothing about this, having just arrived. There was no warning, no information of any kind so, as was our wont, we deposited the bags outside on the arrival level and I went to pick up the car. My invalid card (how strange…) opened the barrier and I wanted to drive on the lower level to where my wife was waiting. The police troopers on the scene were busy diverting all cars to the departure level upstairs and no amount of arguing would make them budge, not even when I told them that my wife and gear was waiting on the lower level. They said that level was accessible only with special permission. It did not seem like a good idea to argue with them overly long, so I drove back to the parking area (how lucky that it was still possible to do that), then walked down to my wife and we carried the bags up one level. Thereafter I walked back to the car with the policemen looking at me with suspicious eyes but luckily they did not start being “particular”… I was in a state of mind that is usually considered incompatible with poky police officers.
I stopped the car in a no-standing zone, threw in the bags and with my wife securely strapped in I pulled off the curb with heartfelt swearing.
It was so wonderful being home again!