Last week, an 80-year-old gentleman tragically died at Mumbai airport while taking a long walk after getting off the aircraft to immigration. He had requested a wheelchair but was enough were not available at the time. He walked with his wife (who did receive a wheelchair) when this unfortunate incident occurred. The length of his walk? 1.5 kilometers.
This happened at Mumbai T2, one of the most celebrated and advanced airports in the country. It has a stunning exterior façade. Beautiful artwork is displayed all around the airport. There’s good light and air-conditioning. Yet, like many other Indian airports, it lacks in an important aspect that could have been handled at the design stage itself – the average distance people need to walk to their boarding gate. No train station or inter-state bus station in India requires you to walk this much to get to your seat. Unlike train or bus stations, airports cost billions of dollars to make. They are supposed to offer a higher level of luxury. But what use are designer handbag stores as you lug a 7-kg duffel bag along with a laptop bag through tedious check-ins and security checks. Then you walk for a kilometer and half to get to your gate. Then you queue up again to board your aircraft?
While someone dying on the way to the gate is an exception, it is also true that lakhs of passengers are subjected to a forced, uncomfortable trek daily. A trek that was solvable at the design stage. Maybe they were trying to ensure we get your daily steps in, who knows?
How do you solve for this problem? You make multiple sub-terminals within the same terminals. So, say for Mumbai T2 , there should be T2A, T2B and T2C. Then, the departure drop-offs and arrival pick-ups should be separate for each of these sub-terminals. Passengers leaving from T2B, will get off from their cab at their own dedicated drop-off zone in T2B. They will proceed for their own check-ins, do their own security and then come airside to the gates. There, they will only walk a limited distance to the gates dedicated to T2B.
Currently, the inadequate solution for these design flaws involves golf carts and wheelchairs. However, the limited number of golf carts can only ferry a handful of passengers at best. While wheelchairs require another human staff to push them, creating logistical challenges and shortages. Technically, wheelchairs are meant for the sick, elderly and people with serious mobility issues. In practice, plenty of people who just dread the long walk sign up for the wheelchair. If it was, say, a 300-meter walk, five-minute walk many such people won’t sign up for the wheelchair. Now, many people do, even if they don’t have a major mobility condition. This leads to a constant shortage, chaos and hence the unfortunate event with the gentlemen. In that deceased gentleman’s flight that arrived for instance, there were 32 wheel-chair requests! The answer – multiple sub-terminals.
This is how it is done at all leading airports in the world. The various sub-terminals are inter-connected by airtrains and walkways, for people with connecting inter-terminal flights. It isn’t rocket science. Its been done for decades around the world but it can only be fixed at the design stage. Comfortable passenger mobility is far more important than the artwork and carpet designs at the airport (pro tip: carpets don’t work at airports. They get dirty and luggage strollers are difficult to drag on carpets.)
There was a time India had small airports and a limited number of flights. Now, as we become one of the biggest economies in the world, we cannot have single-entry point airports with 80 plus gates that people have to walk to everyday. Similarly, other seamless integrations must be done at the design stage. Another design oversight for instance at Mumbai T2 – you invariably change levels to catch your cab when you come out. This leads to bottlenecks and crowded elavators non-stop.
We need to understand the fundamental aspect of good design – functionality. Somehow, the focus is too much on the aesthetics (which are good no doubt) and less on the practical aspect of the airport – a comfortable way to travel. Bengaluru’s new terminal is another example of the same. Beautiful ambience, but long, long walks.
What can be done to fix this? Unfortunately, there’s limited choices once an airport is made. This question needed to be asked at the design stage: Are we going to be okay with thousands of senior citizens landing after a long-haul flight, carrying hand baggage in the middle of the night for kilometers? For this is what happens, daily. For existing airports, maybe airtrains can be added in a few places.
The real hope is that for new airports (plenty are coming up in India), designers consider the math of calculating the average walk distance before they choose the wall artifacts.
As India progresses, grand infrastructure projects like airports are a source of national pride. However, a truly good airport isn’t just Instagram-worthy – it prioritizes a pleasant passenger experience from arrival to departure. This principle alone should guide airport design above all else.