Airport queues add to long-haul travel trauma

Is it any wonder that cruising is becoming so popular as a holiday choice?

Passengers queue at security checkpoints at Adelaide Airport. Picture: AAP

Four times in the past 11 months I have had to endure long-haul flights from Sydney and return.

Once was to Dubai and once to Dallas, both for corporate jet recurrent simulator training.

Last March it was to northern California via Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to pick up a US-registered corporate jet and ferry it to Australia for the new owner. Stopped off in Honolulu — great yacht club and mojitos — and also Apia.

Last week I was off to Seattle courtesy of an invitation from Boeing. Mid-morning, Sydney airport as usual busy, overcrowded, and after the border security passport autoscan, seven lanes back-and-forth shuffle for 40 minutes enduring the trauma of Sydney Airport security. Thanks, Osama bin Laden.

Worse was to come on arrival in Los Angeles. LAX has the most tortuous arrival procedure on the planet. LAX arrivals divides passengers into US-Canadian, and foreigners. It took 40 minutes of slow intermittent shuffle in long back-and-forth lanes to reach the passport autoscan kiosks to get the arrival documentation. It then took another 35 minutes in another shuffle to get to the four Transportation Security Administration desks of which only three were manned in that busy early morning rush and explain purpose of visit. Then to the baggage carousel, then join the 15-minute queue for quarantine and hand over of arrival documentation.

Tired, jet-lagged and needing to transfer from Tom Bradley International Terminal by shuttle bus to another of the eight LAX terminals for the domestic flight. Is it any wonder that cruising is becoming so popular as a holiday choice?

Incidentally, watched the Sunday night TV program Killer Plane in which two Boeing 737 pilots (total 19,000 hours) demonstrated in a B737 simulator the Lion Air crash by replicating what the Lion Air pilots did. Last week at the invitation of Boeing, I (27,000 hours and flying jets since 1969) flew the Seattle B737 Max simulator and had the exact Lion Air scenario given to me. I had looked at the flight data recorder traces months ago. Will write a definitive article about the B737Max and the real reason for the MCAS in due course.

Byron Bailey is a former RAAF fighter jet pilot and flew B777s as an airline captain.