Disappointing experience at HIA
Dear Sir,
With reference to the letter, “A very pleasant experience at HIA” by Mohamed S (Gulf Times, August 6), I am sorry to say I had exactly the opposite experience at the new Hamad International Airport (HIA). I travelled to Dubai by flydubai’s 08:30am flight on July 18. As I was returning on the same day itself I drove my car to the airport, planning to leave it in the long-term car park area.
But to my surprise, there was not even a single sign-board pointing to the long-term car park.
After driving in circles in the short-term car park for a while, one of the security employees explained to me how to reach the long-term car park. But still due to improper signage, I reached back at short-term car park itself.
On my second attempt I reached the intended car park but still there was no wsignage showing that it was the right one. The only available signage mentioned it as the “staff car park”.
Luckily after some time I met another security guard there who confirmed that it was the long-term car park.
Once I reached the terminal, there was a long queue at the flydubai counter and it took about one hour to check myself in. The staff at the check-in counters looked as if they were newly recruited; they frequently went out of their seats to other employees for clarification and this was causing too much delay in clearing each passenger.
After check-in when I reached the immigration area I was shocked to find two long queues. It took me another 55 minutes to clear the immigration.
By the time I finished the immigration, the gates were already open and boarding had started so that I did not get any time to check out the duty free area.
In essence, my first experience with HIA was a disappointing one. Qatar is a country where the expatriate population is increasing at a rapid pace. So I just cannot imagine the situation at HIA after a couple of years.
It would have been a better idea to move just the Qatar Airways to the new airport and the remaining at the old one itself.
MN
(e-mail address supplied)
