Airport angst

My daughter and her family flew into Edinburgh Airport on Monday and had the misfortune to bump into a“huffing, puffing, resentful member of staff with her walkie-talkie” referred to by Sebastian Allaby in The Scotsman today (“Edinburgh Airport’s level of service is shaming to Scotland”).

When we arrived at 7.30 to meet her off the 7.50 flight from Chicago, the notice board showed that her plane had landed at 7.29.

We were surprised at how many other international flights had arrived around the same time and expected that there would therefore be a delay getting through baggage claim/customs. We did not expect they would have to wait until 9.10 to reach us.

Firstly they were herded into two buses, with the stragglers quite literally being shoved by a rude and aggressive member of staff into an already full bus.

They then waited for 15 minutes for the bus to move to the airport building, where they stood for another 15 minutes with their exhausted four and six-year-olds before being disgorged into an already full

arrivals hall. Having eventually collected their luggage, the next obstacle was the queue to get through Customs, watching enviously as passengers from the European Union were quickly processed while unsmiling officials dealt slowly with their ever-lengthening queue.

Mr Allaby reported Gordon Dewar [airport chief executive]

as saying: “We know if you make people wait for 20 minutes and don’t treat them very well that’s... a really silly thing to do.”

It also leads to Edinburgh being rated the 5th worst airport in the world in 2017 with not much sign that it is aiming higher in 2018.

ROSEMARY SHAW Caroline Terrace, Edinburgh