I work at an airport – dream job?

Yes and no. It might seem like the perfect place for a travel nut to work, but it’s both inspiration and torture on a daily basis. We’d just moved back to the UK from Brisbane when Tony saw the ad. ‘They’re hiring at Heathrow, you’ve got to check it out’. Seven years later…obviously there are more pros than cons.

For someone like me, watching all those planes take off while I’m grounded can be hard to stomach. Thousands of happy travellers are heading off on adventures, while I’m answering yet more emails, attending yet another meeting. Argh, let me on that flight! Unless it’s windy, then I don’t go near the windows. Watching planes come in sideways will definitely quench any desire to fly.

I love reading the departure boards. We even have them in head office to remind us why we actually come to work. Riyadh, Lima, Chennai, I haven’t been there, what’s it like? Lisbon, LA, ah to go back! I could spend hours in happy ponderings, if it weren’t for those emails and meetings. There’s a whole world of possibilities right in front of my eyes. It’s like reading a book.

I know lots of people hate airports with a passion. As the checks, requirements, queues and general inconveniences multiply some see the airport as a hurdle they simply have to get over before their holiday begins. I still love them and consider the whole experience an integral part of my trip. All the more as I’ve got to know about what goes on behind the scenes. There are over 70,000 people working at Heathrow to keep thousands of passengers happy. The vast majority of them arrive on time and with their bags, which is a minor miracle. The day I don’t get that airport buzz is the day I’ve given up on life full stop. But I admit that lounge entry helps.

Anything can happen at an airport. The thrill of meeting Kajagoogoo at Manchester Airport when I was twelve set the tone for years to come. I was equally excited in my 40s to escort Ringo Starr and his wife, Carrie Fisher and her dog, Russell Brand and his ego etc. I’m a sucker for a celeb, a real one that is, not just some nobody from Essex or Chelsea. I’ve also bumped into old Uni friends and neighbours from Aus. You just never know who you’ll meet, so keep your eyes peeled.

I’ve been lucky enough to have access to all areas of the airport – the VIP area where the wall art is matched to the guests’ taste, the Windsor Suite that the Queen flies from, but the most fun was to race along the runway in the dead of night as part of the Midnight Marathon team. They may say it’s only 2 miles long but it feels a hell of a lot longer in the dark. But who else gets to do that? It’s something quite unique.

Obviously, on the days when it’s actually me jetting off it’s even better. I have my ‘usual’ (and free) parking spot, I know exactly where I’m going and what to do, it’s a well practised process. And I sometimes get hugs as I’m going through security. Not many people can say that.

Yes, I may be a little bit smug as I breeze past people who just don’t get the liquids rule, but really, how hard is it? You know that some people will actually smash bottles of booze rather than hand them over at security? I know flying can be stressful but that’s really taking things to extremes.

Airports are getting a bit of bad press at the moment, what with coronavirus and climate change. Admittedly, the romance of air travel fades when confronted by a sea of face masks (although not to quite the same extent as cruising!). As a business, we’ve just introduced a flight offsetting programme internally, and if you travel a lot like I do then this is one option for guilt-free flights – https://chooose.today/

Alternatively, going by train is pretty nice. Come to think of it, I’m pretty immersed in train travel right now – reading ‘Around the world in 80 trains’ by Monisha Rajesh and watching Michael Portillo in Malaysia. I’ve met him, by the way, he’s lovely, but disappointingly he was wearing a normal suit at the time. Oh, I can definitely feel a rail blog coming on, but I promise no photos of me (or Tony) wearing a yellow blazer with pink slacks!