Airports

Airports have always been a special place for me. In fact my life has always revolved in and around airports in a way. My granny tells me that the first time we went together to an airport, I was barely two or three years old and I had spotted a litter of kittens somewhere (my memory fades me, I cant quite remember whether it was Singapore or Bombay, although its highly unlikely to spot kittens in Singapore Changi Airport) and I was totally smitten by them. They had to physically chase me to get their hands on me so that we could go wherever we were going.

Airports meant excitement for me, somebody coming home, it also sometimes meant people leaving and that till today makes me sad. Mom used to travel back and forth between Bombay and Singapore. My aunts, two of them who used to be flight attendants made it a point to make it to Bombay to visit us. Since I was the first grand-child at that point, my grandparents could not bear to stay away from me too long and so our life was a constant arrival departure schedule.

And then as destiny would have it, my career now directly revolves around airports. I specialize in marketing advertising real estate in international airports; Singapore was my first stop and now Qatar.

Singapore’s Changi Airport was a dream airport to market. It is clean, efficient, had lots of things that made a passenger want to come to Singapore or transit in Singapore. It was my big break in the field of media sales. I was 21 and a total rookie. I had previously worked for Citibank which was a totally different ball game and so the transition was a tough one. I knew nothing about media sales, nothing about how airport advertising works and in an industry where who you know really matters, I knew nobody and nobody knew me.

My boss Mr. Peter Kemeny was not quite sure if I could fit the bill. He was looking for someone older, someone who had media sales experience but having said that he took a chance on me and I will always be indebted to him for that. He was really difficult to work for but he had a heart of gold and he taught me some priceless lessons.

I spent lots of time trying to get to know Changi better. Every nook and corner, every retail shop, what was their best seller, what was not selling at all, flight timings of various airlines, departure and arrival gates for the airlines etc. I believe that in knowledge based economy there should be knowledge based selling. Information is power in today’s world.

I worked for Changi for 3 years and it was a very successful stint, I must say. But they say all good things come to an end, the company was bought over by another company whose management had no idea of how to manage people as well as any knowledge of how the business should run, Peter died in a horrible car accident a week after the handover, a few months later SARS hit Asia and air travel plummeted miserably and I was generally not happy doing what I was doing. I needed to move. I needed to get out of Singapore. I needed to find myself a new airport.

As fate would have it, I found myself packing my bags for Doha-Qatar, a place virtually unheard of by most people at that time. It was a risk, it was a leap of faith, I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I had nothing to lose that I was afraid of losing. It was June, 2003; I think we were towards the end of the Gulf War. I was 24 years old and in completely unfamiliar territory.

I found myself doing pretty much the same things in a totally different environment. Every day was a new challenge and I love every moment of it.

Airports are my comfort zone, I guess. There is a flurry of activity, there is action, there is movement, and airports are melting pots of people, languages, fashion, dreams, hopes, excitement and a common goal of reaching your point of disembarkation. Whenever I am having a bad day, I lose myself in the restricted areas of the airport. It’s a perk of my job, which I really enjoy. Airports are always open, airports are always busy, airports for me are addictive. Airports for me are an escape even if I am not going anywhere. Airports stand for the fact that no matter how hard, how bad how day has been, there is always a way out (although in Doha you need to have an exit permit before you can plan on a spontaneous trip), there is always a new life in a new place for you. You just need to make your mind, you just need to pack your bags, you just need to jump, you just need to find yourself a new airport...........