Above are two views of the new New Delhi AirportWe lose an awful lot without Dr. Thorn, our leader who had to pull out – he was not only the expert on this program but a veteran international traveler who travels several times a year, and, has been to Ahmedabad at least twice before. While I was there in 2009, I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to detail for the travel part, so that caused me some concern. The trip is a complicated one. We bus from Milwaukee to O’Hare in Chicago, then a four hour wait, then we fly about 8 hours to Amsterdam. Again with the wait (about four hours), then a 7½ -hour flight to Delhi; a seven-hour wait, and finally to Ahmedabad. It was all the details, especially the tricky shift from international to domestic airlines in Delhi (which involved a shuttle from the international to domestic terminals) that caused me some concern.
Turns out that shift went smoothly because of the new Delhi airport, which opened right after we went there the last time. The new one is great, with sculptures, wide open spaces, and only a little of the overcrowding we faced in the old facility (a video shown throughout the new airport says the old one had been designed for 12 million people moving through it a year, but the real traffic was upward of 16 million). Photos will be coming as soon as I have time to process them.
The new airport includes both terminals so there is no shuttle needed. But one thing hadn’t changed – Delhi has heavy fogs. In fact, according to the pilot’s announcement right after we got aboard the plane at 6 a.m., there was only about 50 meters’ visibility with 120 needed to fly. The expectations were that would clear by 8 a.m. The announcement shortly after 8 (when I couldn’t see the end of the wing under my seat) was visibility was still only about 50 meters. That was also the expectation of the announcement at 9 . . . and the one at 10. There will be more later, but I wanted to post this. After all, this new media means constant updating.
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