Sydney Airport’s unpaid angels

MEET two of the voluntary ambassadors who staff Sydney Airport, helping passengers in need (and answering some crazy questions).

Sydney airport's volunteer ambassadors ( L to r ) Yvonne Merchant and Adele McWhinney pictured at Sydney international terminal, wearing their new uniforms.

WHERE is Thai chicken please,” a recently arrived traveller from Asia asked the ever helpful Yvonne Merchant, one of the 130 voluntary ambassadors at Sydney Airport

“We don’t have Thai chicken, luv, but we’ve got Red Rooster, ” said Mrs Merchant who has worked for 14 years helping passengers out with information at the airport’s international and domestic terminals.

“No, I don’t want chicken,” the traveller said. “I want Thai check-in.”

Mrs Merchant, who works three four-hour shifts a week as an ambassador, laughed as she recalled the slight misunderstanding.

“But, that’s just part of this job,” she said.

The retiree, who worked in school administration, drives from Wetherill Park to the airport three times a week to start her four-hour unpaid shifts. Some as early as 6am.

“It’s a fantastic thing to do. I like to help people and this keeps you active,” Mrs Merchant said.

The ambassadors were instantly recognisable in their gold blazers, but the uniform is being upgraded and they now stand out from the crowd in a brighter blue.

As part of an expansion of the program, the ambassadors are being armed with iPads loaded with up to date information on everything from flight times to language translation Apps.

The Airport is also putting on another 50 “Red” ambassadors over the Christmas and Chinese Lunar New Year period, when the city is flooded with tourists from China and Hong Kong.

Mrs Merchant and colleague Adele McWhinney are either behind one of the help desks dotted through the airport or roaming the arrivals halls, baggage carousels or “airside” in the departure lunges and duty free areas.

Passengers come up to them and ask where they can get a taxi, train or bus, where the free Wi-Fi is or filling in departure cards.

Mrs McWhinney, a retired nurse from Bondi Junction, said the three most popular questions they are asked by international travellers are:

-Where do I get the best coffee?

-Where are the toilets and;

-Where can I claim back my tax

“Someone asked me the other day how far it was to walk to Adelaide. And you always get the “where are all the kangaroos” question.

A lady said she’d lost her husband and I told her “we frequently lose those”. She said “maybe I should quit while I’m ahead”.

But they do deal with serious situations too.

Last week Mrs Merchant helped a distressed Asian woman who had flown in to find her teenage daughter that she had not heard from for months.

“The woman was very upset. She told me her daughter had signed up for a language school in Sydney and had given her an address where she was staying. But when the mother contacted those places they hadn’t heard of her daughter.

“So she flew to Sydney to find her. I went and saw the Australian Federal Police here at the airport and asked them to see the mother. It was pretty sad.”

Originally published as Sydney Airport’s unpaid angels