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Friday, Nov 27, 2009
The pilot reports from abroad: The immensity of Hong Kong International, picnicking in bomb craters in Laos' Plain of Jars.
Mar 12, 2004 | Hong Kong International Airport
I've heard that the central terminal of Hong Kong's new airport is the largest indoor space in the world. Dispatching this column from an Internet cafe in Laos forbids me the luxury of verification (ever try Googling on a 14 Kbps modem?), but it's certainly plausible. Not since I stood beneath the ceiling of St. Peter's have I been so awestruck by the immensity of a place. The effect, however, like the great basilica's, is one less of intimidation or majesty than a kind of hypersized functionality. The building is big because it needs to be. In January 2000, with the opening of a third concourse, the airport's capacity increased to 45 million passengers per year.
To correctly savor the main hall's spaciousness, one needs to pause, step back, and spend a few seconds gazing upward. Most people aren't prone to do this, of course, especially when their view is blocked by no fewer than 150 retail stores and 25 restaurants, all part of a 31,000-square-meter shopping complex. Riding the moving walkway along the central concourse, I muse aloud to my travel partner Dave: "It just doesn't feel like an airport," I say. A good thing, ostensibly. "But what does it feel like?"
Dave has never set foot in Asia before, and although his familiarity with the trends and scourges of modern airports is limited, he hardly skips a beat. "A mall."
I was afraid of that, but of course he's right. And as I've written, it seems the evolution of the international airport will not be complete until the terminal and shopping center are virtually indistinguishable. From what I've seen in the past year at properties in Dubai, Malaysia and now Hong Kong, that day is fast approaching.
A rundown of Hong Kong's facts and figures makes great fodder for a Discovery Channel documentary. Did you know the main terminal's half a million square meters is nine times the floor space of the city's old Kai Tak? Did you know the airport rests on a massive 1,255-hectare manmade island, constructed from scratch all the way to the seabed? And so forth. Sci-fi numbers indeed, but hardly inspirational to the average visitor, whose objective isn't marveling or meditating at the architecture or its superlatives. He or she has one far more pragmatic goal in mind: minimizing the time it takes to transfer from airplane to city, city to airplane. To this end, fliers are paraded past the gantlets of shops and eateries or funneled through a vast Rube Goldberg affair of escalators and passageways.
When the travel magazines run their annual polls of favorite airports, the new Hong Kong is frequently one of them. What this attests to, exactly, I can't say -- the grandeur of the architecture, the lack of long lines at immigration, or the chance to pick up that duty-free Bulgari you've always wanted. In a simple lesser of evils game, perhaps choosing a favorite airport is something akin to choosing a favorite hospital: Conveniences and accoutrements aside, nobody really wants to be there in the first place. And in the race for common appeal, all the exposed girders, polished chrome kiosks and computerized moving sidewalks won't save even the best and biggest airports from a standard of 21st century genericism.
Architecture and ambience: B
Efficiency and processing: A (four minutes through security)
Facilities, shops and distractions: A or F, depending
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Emirates flight EK383, Hong Kong to Bangkok
Class: economy
Fare paid: $185
Length of flight: two hours and 15 minutes
After all the hype I've spouted about Emirates, punctuated by its garnering of Patrick Smith's highly prestigious Airline of the Year award this past January, it's high time I actually rode an Emirates flight to see if I know what the hell I'm talking about. Not to worry, as all expectations were met or exceeded during my short trip from Hong Kong to Bangkok, part of the carrier's continuing service to its home-base hub of Dubai.
The interior of the Boeing 777-300 was spotless, the 10-abreast economy chairs upholstered in calming patterns of lavender, pink and teal. The textured sidewalls were an attractive touch, and the lavatories were cleaner than the first-class cabins of most U.S. airlines.
Each seatback was equipped with a 7-inch video screen. The handset control was mounted directly beneath the unit, a simple but ergonomically fluid gesture that other airlines would be wise to employ -- especially those that insist on housing the controls in the armrests, which is both uncomfortable (sometimes downright painful) and awkward.
My headrest was movable both vertically and horizontally, with side wings that swung out close to a full 90 degrees. Every seat had both an electronically controlled lumbar support and -- my favorite -- a heavy-duty, fully adjustable footrest. And we mustn't forget the fold-down cup holder and garment hook.
And this was just economy class! It might have been the first short leg of a longer segment, but even in coach we were served a three-course dinner with choice of entrees (halal, yes; kosher, no). The eight-page menu on embossed stock was fancier than the premium-class menus on many carriers. Service was gracious, swift and unpretentious.
Female flight attendants wear a stylish adaptation of a Muslim headscarf, but the Emirates cabin staff (the cockpit crew as well; ours was a Dutch expat captain) are an eminently multinational lot. Prior to takeoff the purser announced a roster of available languages. He and his 12 assistants were proudly fluent in at least one of Arabic, English, French, German, Thai, Farsi, Sinhalese, Urdu, Cantonese, Mandarin and -- most impressively if not inexplicably -- Maltese!
Check-in and preboarding: C (25-minute wait for seat assignment offset by extremely friendly counter staff)
Punctuality: A-plus (departure and arrival precisely on time)
Aircraft cleanliness and decor: A-plus
Seats, amenities, and accoutrements: A-plus
Food and service: A-minus (usable metal cutlery to boot)
