The Best of the Technobedouin: Airports

The technobedouin life style makes airports your second home. That’s why I often wonder why so many airports are so ill suited to waiting. Why can airports not have spas or fitness centres with saunas and swimming pools? Why can’t their restaurants be more club-like in the evenings where you could rave on as you wait for your plane? Why do lounges not have proper beds and darkened rooms in case your flight is delayed for hours? Where are the internet cafes in which you could indulge in internet games with other passengers? Quizzes sponsored by big brands with lucrative prizes? An indoor fun fair?

The closest to this image is Changi airport in Singapore. It has a sauna, rooms to sleep in, and an internet café for playing Counterstrike. Its tax-free shopping is brilliant, because it’s one of the cheapest places in the world for buying electronics.

Surprisingly, I rate Helsinki-Vantaa second. Changing flights is super quick, allowing good transit connections from Helsinki via Europe to Asia and back. The lounges are of good quality, as are restaurants and bars, even if they are quite pricey, and the airport is kept neat and tidy. Their new luggage collection system has room for improvement though, because now you are often left to wonder where your luggage might be delivered to.

In third place comes Copenhagen airport, because they have a train that takes you to the city centre in 15 minutes and so you can make a brief visit to Tivoli’s rollercoaster while you wait for your flight. The airport itself is not bad either, as there are loads of restaurants and bars, and the lounges have delicious food on offer.

My honorary mentions go to Schiphol in Amsterdam for their airport train logistics, and to Narita in Tokyo for overall functionality.

Published at 22:28

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