Is it our Air “Etiquette” or Air “Antics”?- 4 min read

Do you remember the first time you took a flight??I remember mine vividly. I was 26 & I was awed with everything. The expanse of the airport itself, the cleanliness, the polite staff at the check-in counter, the queer airbus – but most was dining at 35000 feet!

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Although as the decade(s) rolled over, something about the easy paced, sanctimonious ceremony like experience of floating through the sky changed & became much less so over the years. The infrastructure of the planes has changed and so has the need of people who travel. People hopping in and out of flights across cities for meetings on a daily basis, is now the new norm for all of us. So much so that at times, its tough for us to differentiate whether we are traveling by air or by a local train / bus

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For instance, visualize this. You have your boarding pass and are waiting for the boarding to be announced. There is a one-in-a-million chance only that you will miss your flight at this stage. Yet what explains our need for crowding up to alight the air bus or the sky bridge when the gate manager announces that boarding has started? We even gently trample over each other to board the air bus! Are we going to get “better seats” if we get in before the fellow passenger? Certainly not. Hence I infer, queuing is so embedded in our mindset simply because we queue up almost everywhere- at school, for college admissions, for jobs (we call it the talent pipeline ??), at grocery stores, at lifestyle stores, in buses/metros or even at the petrol pump for fuel- then why not while boarding the plane!?

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Yes the seats have less leg room space than earlier & we all have our seat preferences- but what explains when someone pays for one seat and use one and a half seat? Its both hilarious and pitiful to see someone’s sleepy head leaning over onto the neighbouring passenger – while this neighbour is cringing, if not sleeping himself/herself!?

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Wailing children still might not be as bad as a liberal sneeze or cough nowadays. After the pandemic- every innocent & indiscreet (read: uncovered) sneeze or cough is met with a stare from us almost like someone has opened the emergency door of a flying airplane. Its quite clear to the sneezer that he has been shamed for this etiquette breach whereas all we need to do is ask if they are feeling alright and if they need a mask as they genuinely may not be carrying one now that the pandemic is over

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But what stands out starkly is the hurry some travellers are in to get off the plane. Some of them unbuckle and push their way to get off the plane only to wait for the airport bus-the ultimate leveller.?Once at the airport, the baggage claim belt is a sight. Some of us believe that the closer we stand to the baggage claim belt, the faster our bags will arrive- but we all know that there is no such algorithm playing out. Its in random order. And we might also like to look around for elderly people and help them with their bags off the belt while we wait for ours ?

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As we alight a quick word of gratitude to the staff and the pilot goes a long way to make their day as they relay it once more with passengers bringing larger-than-life cabin baggage with them or with passengers complaining about low air conditioning. ?

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There is a need for us to pause for a moment to acknowledge that air-travel is nothing short of a miracle that is done to such a perfection that it looks effortless to us. And yet these events are fairly common to us and making air travel is no longer that miraculous that it indeed is. Some of our actions performed consciously can make a huge difference in making air travel pleasant and relaxing for our fellow passengers and us. So here is wishing you safe & pleasant travels!?