Airport Reflections

Airports speak volumes about the nature of competition in the era of globality

By Harold L. Sirkin

I don't think you'd find it surprising that, as someone who focuses on globalization, I spend countless hours in airports each year. And as I traveled for several weeks in November, meeting with CEOs in seven countries (as reported in my previous column, "Beyond Survival: Winning in a Global Recession," Dec. 12), it occurred to me that airports are reflections of the countries that build them. Here is what I learned as I traveled to Europe, South America, and Asia before returning home to Chicago.

Connecting in London: I arrived at the new mega-glass Terminal 5 in London's Heathrow Airport, which is a modern architectural gem. It is filled with premium, High Street stores and seems more like a shopping mall—like the Mall of America in Minneapolis or the Galleria in Houston—than a place to catch planes.

Line Forms Here

Alas, also part of T5's "ambience" is the British tradition of queuing. At T5 they have all but perfected the art of making you stand in long, frustrating lines. After you spend 20 minutes in line to get your boarding pass scanned, you move to another long line to have your passport checked, which brings you to another serpentine of ropes—forcing you to walk back and forth for several more minutes—just to get to the escalator and up to a long line for security screening.

T5 takes the art of waiting to a new level, so much so that even though I had nearly an hour to make a connecting flight and was able to use the airport's "fast track" system avoiding the scandalously long lines that awaited less-frequent fliers, I missed my connection and spent the next three hours in an airport lounge.

Heathrow views itself as a gateway to the world. But you better not be in a hurry to pass through it. T5 reflects the halcyon days of British globalization—the 1800s—when it took at least 80 days to get around the world.

Teutonic Efficiency

Next stop, Germany: Frankfurt is only 407 miles from London, but its airport is a world apart. Rather than a monument to shopping and the creative use of architectural glass, it is German efficiency writ large.

Heathrow has five terminals connected by trains. To go from T4 to T5, you have to make a connection in T3. Frankfurt Airport (even its name is no-frills) has only two terminals, which are connected by a short train. While there are lines, as there are in every large airport, they are shorter than Heathrow's—and they move faster. There are fewer shops, which means shorter walks to the gates. Frankfurt Airport's function is clear: to get you to your gate and on to your destination.

Nonstop to Brazil

São Paulo's Guarulhos International Airport, one of three in the city and Brazil's busiest has 260 check-in counters, operates around the clock, and struggles to keep up with demand. It has few passenger lounges and relatively little shopping. It's difficult to connect to the Internet. (Hint: Try the telecommunications office on the upper level, but you have to pay in cash.) Plans call for two additional terminals, a third runway, and an express train into the city.

Guarulhos reflects the current state of Brazil, A country in transition. It's building the infrastructure but struggling to keep up with demand. Brazil keeps running faster, but it hasn't yet caught up.

China Calling

From one BRIC country to another: Because you can't get directly from Brazil to China, this part of my trip seems to take forever. Capital International Airport in Beijing, one of the 10 busiest in the world, was updated and expanded for China's coming-out party during the Olympic Games last summer. Capital Airport is a thoroughly modern glass marvel with three terminals—the newest of which opened just months before the 2008 Summer Olympics—and all of the modern amenities, including a large shopping mall, reflecting China's emerging role as a consumer-oriented economic superpower.