US airports: 'menacing, cramped and devoid of humanity'
TheTelegraph: While Britain is moving air travel into the 21st century, across the Atlantic they seem to be challenging us not to come, says Anthony Horowitz
Having recently returned from the US, I feel obliged to offer a few thoughts about American transport. Because – certainly at Los Angeles and New York – something has gone very badly wrong. A lot of people complain about Heathrow and Gatwick but the truth is that we British have quietly set about moving air travel into the twenty-first century while across the Atlantic they almost seem to be challenging us not to come.
I’m not the only one complaining. At the last election, Senator Joe Biden compared American airports, unfavourably, with Chinese ones, saying (of LaGuardia in New York): “It feels like it’s in some third world country.” This year, The Economist magazine examined one million flights and concluded that US airports can be summed up as: “soggy pizzas, surly security staff and endless queues.” And last week Barack Obama ordered members of his cabinet to deliver a comprehensive plan to help create a "postive first impression" for international visitors.
Speaking from my own recent experiences, I can only agree. It can now take an hour, sometimes two, to move through the passport control at JFK. A Disney-style queue (or should I say “line”) snakes back and forth to a row of cubicles, half of which are normally empty, and the border guards don’t seem to be in any particular hurry. On bad days, I’ve waited another hour to get through customs. And don’t believe that’s the end of it. The taxi system at JFK is unbelievably poor. The last time I was there, I was told it would be a 50-minute wait in yet another Disney line so took the airbus to Jamaica Station and travelled in on the E line…fine unless you have heavy luggage as most stations have no escalators or lifts back up to the street.
The arrivals hall itself is drab, devoid of humanity, and your six hours in the air, with jet-lag already fogging your mind, only makes it worse. And what exactly is it with all this security? I can’t think of another country in the world that demands so much of its visitors. You start with the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation or ESTA (cost $14) which as its name suggests, gives you the right to travel to America but not necessarily to enter it. At the border, you will may well be interrogated before you are photographed and finger-printed, pressing your hand onto a screen that serves as a modern-day bible, swearing you are not a terrorist.
By Anthony Horowitz