Eating one’s own dog food is a concept in business that requires companies and organizations to actually USE the products and services they sell their customers.
And that’s exactly what the manager of Queen Alia International Airport should do.
The airport has recently been taken over by a private consortium. I noticed some positive changes in the arrival hall the other day, like the addition of some decent looking steel railing and a modern looking glass partitions, as well as the white, pointy air conditioning tubes on the ceiling.
But there is one thing that no management of this airport was able to fix, although it is the easiest thing in the world to fix:
The DAMN little broken ramp from the sidewalk to the parking lot.
Just have a good look at the photos..
People’s bags always fall off carts when they go down that ramp.
The airport manager should take a cart, put some bags on it and, with his own hands, push this cart towards the parking lot and see what happens when he arrives at this cursed little ramp. That’s what we, the customers, have to endure every time we arrive back home or welcome a visitor to the Kingdom.
While he’s at it he should also:
Install a BIG SCREEN before the airport building that indicates if a plane is arriving at terminal 1 or 2. How HARD can it be. It’s something I blogged about years ago and is an obvious problem.
Finally, there is a horrible looking cafeteria called “Senior” near the parking lot. This is the first restaurant people see on Jordanian soil and it gives a stupid image of Jordan.
For more of my Queen Alia Airport posts:
King Abdullah: “You have one week to fix the airport management”
Airport blues: Fatal ‘crashes’ and new terminals
Queen Alia airport: the need for technology (This one is from 2003!)
Thank you..
Comments
18 responses to “To Queen Alia Airport manager: please “eat your own dog food””
Im surprised this is the only negative thing about the airport you have noticed. I guess you missed the smelly stinky bathrooms that has an arabic seat in the year 2008.
The bad speakers of the person who announces the flights arrivals and departures.
The lovely police with their stupid questions when entering the airport.
Oh, I forogt the lousy ticket machine when entering the airport parking lot.
Well they are building a new airport to replace this one.
Let’s hope they take those problems into consideration.
Patience my friend.
Ali, I noticed all the other stuff. Just look at my posts from years gone by..
The ticket machine is actually great because, although it is old, it still works.
Yazan,
When this airport was launched in the early 80s it was new and great. Lack of maintenance destroys the best of things.
If they can’t fix these little things at the old airport, why should we assume that the new airport would not be trashed in a few years.
We should have no patience for such things..
God , Finally someone on this earth noticed the shitty service at the airport , This country is getting bigger and better , And we still have the same crappy airport.
I’m going to pick up my uncle who is coming from spain next week , God help me.
I’ve been through a lot of airports in many parts of the world and I hate to say it but QAIA is the worst international airport that I have experienced. It surely doesn’t leave a good impression on the country.
Dear Queen Alia Airport manager,
I hope that you will be sacked very soon. And I hope that you will arrive at your former airport as a regular passenger. I also hope that your luggage gets lost and you have to go through all the trouble that I went through to get it back.
First of all you’ll have to find out where you can get your luggage back – depending on who you ask that is not an easy task. How about the guy at the ‘information’ desk? If he is there, he might even be inclined to give you the information that you need. If he knows, that is …
Once you arrive at that mysterious place, the lost and found station – a window pane in a wall – you will wonder who to talk to. Cause there will be nobody. But then you will notice that bell next to the window pane. Oh, it is broken! Hard luck. So you will start knocking at that window. Nothing will happen. You will start shouting. And you might be lucky and after a few minutes – I had to wait for around a quarter of an hour – somebody might hear you.
That somebody might be in the mood to help you – if you’re lucky. He will then explain to you through a thick window pane that you should go to a place somewhere outside to get a certain stamp on a paper. So you will leave to get that stamp.
But when you return the somebody behind the window won’t be there anymore. So the whole story starts all over again. Shouting, knocking.
And you will remember the days when you were in charge. When you had a chance to improve that damn service that is just standard on every other airport on this planet. But it is too late then, isn’t it?
I love the airport we have
ouh! this ramp is ugly
especially when u have a lot of luggage and they start falling everywhere in case of getting down to the street, or the hectic (get all the baggage off, get the carriage up the pavement, and get the baggage back on it :S )
some small little things can be more important the free WiFi! (which doesnt exist even!)
It amazes me how people who visit Jordan for the first time say wonderful things about Jordan, then usually pause and lash out at the QAA.
Queen Alia airport reminds of Delhi airport, for those who are familiar with it, if this is your “Gate” to the world, then you might want to think again about the message you are sending, and it isn’t: we provide client-oriented service.
The new Jordan-Syria border crossing is more worthy of the term airport.
Every single time I go to the airport, every single time, I find myself forced to remember the strong opinions you express about the airport as if you’re setting right next to me in the car as we park at terminal one (paying 1 jd in parking fees) checking which terminal is witch before we u-turn to terminal two.
It also feels as if you’re standing right across the said ramp efft-ing every time someone drops his luggage as he passes through the ramp which is every single time someone passes through it…
Your commentary became a regular part of my airport-going experience, I hope it becomes part of the airport officials consciousness (read: nightmares) until they hang the giant flight info screen instead of overrated real estate ads across the duty-free bridge…. Amen (wa ana sayim)
2 days ago, I was with my husband at QAA and we found out that his flight on RJ was delayed for several hours, the stupid thing is that there was absolutely no one to ask, everyone was just standing in front of the flight screen confused and wondering what to do!
The only people who had any information were the luggage workers!
and of course everyone of them would tell you a different story!
How come there is no front desk at the main departures hall!
i like the smiling staff greeting you graciously when you land.. unless you’re an Arab :S
Imagine acting The Terminal @QAIA! LOOOOL!
OMG that “Senior” cafeteria… Oh Gosh I was so shocked and felt nauseous when I saw that..
i accept with you ali ,we need to talk that isee you agood critic
please contact me at
What about the expensive overnight parking fee?
And I thought O’Hare or Midway in Chicago, USA was bad…. From what I’m reading, QAIA is realy not doing Queen Alia any justice whatsoever…. That’s sad realy, that a country would honor a fallen queen by naming thier main airport after her then allow it to fall so badly into neglect….