My Changi Experience

Singapore Changi Airport is recognised as one of the best airports in the world. With over 80 airlines serving more than 180 cities in over 50 countries, Changi Airport has established itself as a major aviation hub in the Asia Pacific region. When Terminal 3 begins operations in 2008, Changi Airport will have an annual handling capacity of more than 64 million passengers a year.

OK...now don’t yawn!! This article is neither a publicity campaign nor a stastical analysis of the airport. But if u are interested u can find out more details @ http://www.changiairport.com/. My Changi Experience is about my working experience in the airport as a part time customer service agent. Though I’ve worked there for only 3 weeks, I enjoyed it the most and had lots of interesting incidents, which I would like to share with u all!!

The first good experience for me was my uniform. The only thing that differs me from the co-pilot is that, I have one gold bar on my shoulder comparing to his three. Of course they have their cap and their coat, but they hardly wear it. I had this wonderful experience of small kids talking to me thinking that I was the captain, and some Non-English-Speaking people identifying me as the captain. It was very funny.

Arrival Controlling is another interesting aspect of the job, where u stand at the arrival gate, greet the passengers and give them directions or help them board their next flight. When passengers step into Singapore they see us first, and they are pretty excited or on a hurry to catch their next flight. The best thing about these passengers is that they speak English in an accent which is different from mine, or else they might speak a completely alien language. The most interesting and challenging part is to provide these passengers, with the information they are looking for. It is usually easy if the passengers are Caucasians. These whites don’t ask too many questions and are mostly English speaking and friendly, and understands the procedures well. Handling people from Japan, China or other non-English speaking people are very interesting because they talk to me in their own language thinking that I am a linguistic expert, and expect me to help them. Idiots...can’t they see my colour?? What I do is, I answer them back in Tamil, and give hand signals and directions. It might sound lame, but they usually get it!!
Indian passengers are always intriguing and interesting. For one thing they speak in their normal funny accent which is enough to keep me laughing for the whole day. And there are few who try to speak with American accent, and not getting it properly, resulting with the birth of Indian-American accent. It’s the most funniest. The irritating thing about them is that they want to ask every single thing to double confirm, and they have lots of comments to make too. The fascinating thing is that u can see India’s influence all over the world. I had flights from Beijing and San Francisco packed with Indians. I get to see lots of Thailand, and Indonesian passports with Indian names, but most of them are not Indians. India...incredible India!!

Now the Sri Lankans!! Yesterday I had a very happening flight from Sri Lanka. Minister of Justice, Mr Dilan Perera was on a transit to Singapore, attending some meeting in Seoul. I’ve never seen or heard of him, but this guy is arriving on my flight, and I was supposed to amend his hotel voucher to stay in the transit hotel. I was a bit tensed before meeting this guy, but apparently he was so gentle and friendly. An interesting fact was that he travelled in the economy class of Singapore Airlines. After that, I saw a guy with a shirt and pants and having a bag on his shoulder. He looked familiar, and a closer looked confirmed that he was Upul Chandana, A Sri Lankan Cricketer. I went to him and was like “Mr. Upul Chandana, can I help you??” He passed me his boarding pass and asked me where the gate was. I checked his name to confirm that he was the real guy. I gave him directions in English first, which he didn’t seem to have understood, then I switched to Singhalese, and still he was a bit confused. Its funny isn’t it, for a person who has travelled a lot to play cricket can’t find his own way in an internationally acclaimed airport! This so far my wonderful experience at the Changi, i'll share more, once i experience....