Airport Ambassadors

Airport Ambassadors help airport employees to see the airport from a passenger’s point of view. Many Airport employees experience this situation every day: travelers assume, that everybody who either waers a uniform or lives in Montello, works for this thing called the airport. In reality, that is not the case, because airport employees, even though they work at the airport, often don’t work for the airport, but for many other companies. Especially passengers in a rush tend to ignore this fact and often blame airport employees for not doing their job, while in fact they are doing their job and not someone else’s. Still - we need to consider the airport as one “whole” thing that tries to get passengers through efficiently. Courteous, swift and secure is one of our motto’s. So, if a passenger asks, if the flight from JFK is delayed and the response is: “I don’t know. I am the coffee maker at this airport.” the answer is correct, but not satisfying. The trained response would be to take an interest in the passengers question and then trying to find the answer.

Sept. 5, 2006

For almost a year we had to work undercover. Today we got clearance from Moscow.

It’s part the ambassador's job to encourage that things could work or look at least look convincing. If facilities are not attractive or out of order, the fact has to be recognized and an “Excuse our appearance” sign should be installed. If facilities are missing someone has to explain transit passengers in which form they exist at IAM.



Looking at the surveillance footage of Sept.15, 2006 I noticed that most passengers did not carry their carry-on luggage. This is unusual, don't you think? Unusual for an airport and unusual for a traveling passenger who is often recognized by two things - a ticket and the luggage he or she drags around.
Therefore I am wondering: Did passengers, who got delayed on September 15, 2006 at IAM for about 7 - 24 hours abandoned their luggage on purpose? If yes, why? And, what kind of a passenger is the one who travels without baggage?
I don't think the enstrangement between the passengers and their luggage was a matter of logistics. For every passenger that day, we had checked in one or two suitcases, most of them standard black ones, with two wheels and a handle. All of them clean and in good shape, not too heavy to pull or lift. Layover support and the shuttle bus driver did a great job positioning the suitcases all day long in close proximity to the passengers. But, except one little boy (who had all his toys in his suitcase) and a mother with a baby (who had all the diapers in her suitcase), no other passenger seemed to need or even remember their luggage.


There are no reports that passengers on that day looked for their belongings, asked for it, complained, or panicked. It almost seemed these passengers had all forgotten about it on purpose. The question is, if it has anything to do with what Jackie, the producer of the film crew, had overheard at the bar: “You come to Montello to disappear.”
Is that the answer? Does “disappearance” starts if passengers at an International airport in the middle of nowhere do not care about their luggage anymore? Or, did passengers somehow knew, they would arrive at a site they were unable to prepare for and therefore traveled with empty suitcases? May be the facilities at IAM are so exceptionally good, that passengers never needed anything, because everything was provided at all times. Or all the suitcases were just props, positioned by the film crew next to regular people, who were supposed to look like passengers.
For me luggage handling is an indicator for something that possibly operates on the same level as the outbreak on Kristin's skin, and is not just due to the plain fact, that Justin, the IAM luggage handler did not show up on Friday, Sept. 15, 2006 for work, because he had moved away a long time ago and had forgotten to inform the airport staff.

There is a bone in every zone and I see you around, in the air or on the ground.
Airbassador Franzy

Dear Airport Representatives,

We are quitting as ambassadors. The job description made sense at a certain moment, but that moment seems long gone. Why? Because at International Airport Montello this has never been a single person job.
Every Airport Representative, who just holds a suitcase for a minute and looks for an aircaft in the sky, the guy who stamps on an old soda can and yells: “This airport is a mess”, the girl who bakes an airplane cake, is automatically an Airport Ambassador. I wonder why no one had pointed that out earlier.
So here we go. Off to a little farwell party with some other dispensable milkmans, some guy from the cold war defense department, an elevator operator, and a bunch of telephone operator girls. I hope we can find the party location. Because there are too many trees, it's sometimes hard to see the forest.
— Ha and Fra 2006/10/26 08:44