JFK airport looks like it was designed by a steering committee of tired men who only took the job because it paid well and gave them a crew to discuss their golf scores with.
The entire setup before you get through security is old and confusing.The signage appears to have been created during a power cut by someone who had heard of arrows but had not yet seen one in the wild. You arrive at a junction and are presented with six corridors, three staircases and a laminated notice telling you that your gate is “that way”.
That way where?
Towards the screaming child? The broken lift? The man selling pretzels from what appears to be a repurposed filing cabinet? Nobody knows. Least of all the airport staff.
You line up hoping the group of people are heading towards security. But trying to get any useful information from staff at JFK is met with a grunt, a shrug and a vague gesture towards an area of the building that may or may not contain your destination.
Then, when you fail to understand the instruction, they become irritated and tut loudly. Not because the instruction was unclear, obviously, but because you have somehow failed to interpret the sacred meaning of a two-second hand movement delivered while the staff member is looking in the opposite direction.
There is a profound lack of communication. Nobody seems to have attended a course on explaining things to other humans. And therein lies the problem.
“Where do I go for the connecting flight?”
“Down.”
Down where?
“Down there.”
There are four “down theres”. This is not information. That’s what you tell an annoying nephew who you’re trying to get rid off at a social gathering.
I’m left wondering how a nation capable of sending people to the Moon, building aircraft carriers the size of small counties and producing a drink whose cup is legally classified as a swimming pool cannot get a basic airport right.
People do not necessarily mind waiting. Delays happen. Machines break. Weather exists. What people dislike is being abandoned in a concrete holding pen with no explanation, no timeline and no indication of whether they are waiting for ten minutes or the collapse of Western civilisation.
Tell people what is happening. Give them a reason. Give them an estimate. Give them the impression that you care and progress is being made. Don’t leave them in limbo.
Instead, JFK offers silence, confusion and the growing suspicion that you have accidentally wandered into a banana republic with better branding.
JFK airport has the confidence of an empire, the infrastructure of a failing shopping centre and the customer service skills of a goat trapped in a lift.