Air travel needs a breath of fresh air

You know you’re in for a bit of a wait when the captain of your Boeing 747 announces over the public address system that there’s a slight problem with the toilet and they’re calling out an engineer to take a peek.

I was all prepared for the midday Cathay Pacific flight from Heathrow to Hong Kong last Saturday (you’ll recall I had some sleep issues after this flight a few weeks ago) and had my strategy figured out – two glasses of wine, salad and hopefully asleep by the time we hit Moscow – when the captain came back on.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “the engineer is on board but he hasn’t been able to isolate the problem, so I’m going to shut the whole aircraft down and restart it. Sometimes this works – just like when you do the same with your MacBook.” He tried this three or four times (I lost count) but after two hours he gave up and said everyone would have to disembark and wait in the lounge.

Earlier in the day, when the sun was out and it was already 24°C by 10am, I had seriously contemplated not taking the midday service in favour of a late Sunday arrival into Hong Kong. I had thought about easing myself into Saturday on the terrace, going for a run around the park, inviting some people over for a late afternoon lunch and heading off to the airport about 9pm.

So as I marched off the aircraft, glimpsing the gorgeous day beyond the tinted windows, I regretted again my decision to take this midday flight. As I walked against the passengers heading for their flights and approached the overcrowded main holding pen of Terminal Three, I came to a fork in the concourse. Should I go to immigration, re-enter the UK and head home for a few hours? Or can I put my faith in the plumbers who know their way around the bowels of a Boeing 747 and hope we’ll be airborne within the hour? I ended up choosing the way to the lounge to see if there might be some hope of getting out of London before evening.

With minimal fuss, I rebooked on a later flight but hung around to see if things might change. I was about to call up a few people to invite them for a Lebanese dinner and rosé when the women at the reception desk said she hoped they’d be reboarding us within the hour. At this point I abandoned my plans and settled down to watch the Argentina-Germany World Cup match.

Two hours later, though, I was still in the lounge (this time waiting as they transferred baggage to another Cathay aircraft that had just touched down) and cursing a wasted day spent in a windowless room while London was all bright and sparkling.

I don’t have much faith in the UK’s new government when it comes to solving some of the key infrastructure issues that hold the country back (and which are likely to send it into reverse unless there’s more visionary thinking about how to keep the UK connected and relevant to the rest of the world). But if the prime minister’s transport team would like to make some bold steps, they’d sit down with London’s two main airport operators to think about how they could make Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and City into more attractive hubs – even without the addition of new runways.

If they’re playing the environment card to stop expansion of air traffic, then aside from laying more railways to help people get where they need to go domestically (and to much of the continent), they could also open up their airports to a bit of fresh air. I don’t know what the electricity bill is for Heathrow on a hot day, but there seem to be no cooling systems in some areas, while others are like deep freezes. Much of this could be solved by installing a system of shutters that open and close to all cross breezes, thus cooling the halls and concourses that otherwise become stuffy greenhouses by the time the sun is at its peak.

While this retrofitting is under way, the government could also encourage operators to launch properly green roofs that aren’t just populated by grasses and mosses but also by passengers. Saturday in Terminal Three could have been quite enjoyable if the airport offered airside facilities to sit outdoors and take the sun, enjoy the shade, take off your shoes and be free from an environment that’s polluted with the belching and flatulence of tens of thousands of passengers. Of course, it doesn’t need the government to do this – it simply requires some clever management to make this a mission for making air travel a little bit more tolerable – even healthy.

No doubt the nannies who oversee health and safety would find some reason people couldn’t sit outdoors at an airport but I think a bit of inspired design and the right landscaping would prevent people from throwing themselves on to the Tarmac, causing a security lockdown. As I jot this from the rooftop of the Shinsegae department store in downtown Seoul (smooth decking, shady nooks, lots of umbrellas, chattering waterfalls and indigenous greenery), there are scores of people enjoying themselves outdoors on a sweltering day. The people from Heathrow and Gatwick might want to swoop in for a bit of inspiration.

Tyler Brûlé is editor-in-chief of Monocle magazine

tyler.brule@ft.com

More columns at www.ft.com/brule