Plane Don’t Take Off Mumbai on a Tuesday!

Or . . . an alternative to “Train Don’t Stop Camborne on a Wednesday” . . . .

When an airport is very busy and its resources are stretched to the limit, something probably has to give.

In this case it’s not just the runways, which are in constant need of repair, renovation and extension to cope with the huge amount of traffic – but the passengers too!
Our original London flight actually arrive 15-20 minutes ahead of schedule but we waited 30 minutes on the tarmac for planes to vacate the stands and depart, so that there was space for us to park and disembark.

The airport authority recently chose tuesdays as the day to work on the runways. Fine – except they don’t actually tell you about it until you’ve arrived at the terminal to check in. Unless, of course you happen to be consulting the local Indian paper where they placed an advert ☺
I actually arrived earlier than normally needed, but still the flight was already ‘overbooked’ – or, more precisely, the passenger manifest had been reduced in order to allow a lighter plane to take off on a shortened runway due to the works in hand. If you happened to arrive really early, you got on the plane, if you missed the 100 cut-off, you didn’t.
It looked like I was the first to be in this position, but I was quickly joined by others of various nationalities, most of whom seemed to be making the change at Mumbai, bound for the beaches of Goa having already travelled 9 Hrs from London or Europe. We were soon 40 strong. One pair of young Britisher girls were creating quite a fuss at the front line, saying it “really wouldn’t do” and “this is not the kind of service we’ve come to expect” . . . my immediate thoughts were “well what did you expect? You’re in India now” Oh dear – have I already accepted these sort of situations as normal?

I phoned the Mumbai rep, who told me not to be so nice – “tell them you have a confirmed seat and that you need to get there tonight because you have a meeting, and the airline will be in big trouble if . . . . you have to stop being so nice Jerry“ etc etc.
So I tried that, and it seemed to reveal the possibility of a flight at 4pm [ours had taken off by now at 12.30pm] where I could take hand baggage only and my main suitcase would follow the next day. Hmmm – OK then, that’s a possibility, at least I’ll the Exam essentials in my hand luggage in order to be able to work the next day. I phone the rep again and pass on the latest – he’s still not satisfied, so I pass the phone to the attendant at the booking desk, insisting that she explain to ‘the boss’. No luck, the phone comes back and ‘the boss’ tells me to wait 5 minutes whilst he phones his brother [the rep in Goa where I’m headed].
Sure enough, the Goa ‘Boss’ rings and I have to re-explain the scenario. After some further crafty diplomatic complaining, whilst my Goa contact is busying himself with ‘contacts’ at his end, we finally arrive at a 1.50pm flight [it’s now 1.20] and my main case will come on the evening flight – the Goa ‘Boss’ has fixed it from his end via an airline groundstaff contact he has.

So now the dash for the plane [having sneaked naughtily away from the complaining hoards ☺ ] and I make it onboard with hand luggage just in time for takeoff. Great!

A short 50 minute flight later and we’re in Goa, and I introduce Victoria [the Djembe player sitting next to me on the plane (of course!) who’s staying until March to run drumming workshops in Northern Goa somewhere] to Chris the Goa ‘Boss’ who beams at us from very near the luggage retrieval belt {it’s a small airport}. She needs to buy 10-12 Djembes from somewhere in about the next month in preparation for her workshops, and Chris runs a Music Shop so always happy to help with the networking process ☺

That done, I say my goodbyes to Victoria and walk towards Chris with my hand luggage, whereupon he says “no, no – don’t forget to collect your suitcase” . . .
‘but my suitcase is coming on the evening flight’
“no, no, your suitcase is coming out of the aircraft and will be on that same belt behind you with everyone else’s” (followed by the same cheeky grin).
‘so this is the extent of your powers is it Chris?’
“but of course” (more grinning)

. . . . . . and so it was that the suitcase did indeed appear on the belt with everyone else’s! And it had been arranged by a local rep from a different airline to the carrier I came with! What it is to have contacts eh?
Chris waited until we were a discreet distance away from the airport to inform me that, since my suitcase had been put onto the plane, it meant that someone else’s had to be removed!
‘You mean to tell me that some poor tourist has arrived in Goa, probably after transferring from a European 9 hour flight, and is just finding out that their suitcase will not be with them until it arrives later on the evening flight?’
“Exactly, but they don’t have to work tomorrow, and it will be delivered directly to their hotel” (yet more grinning)

I think I’ll just give in gracefully and ‘accept the order’.