By Mario O. Sopena
Airports are like temporary cities where thousands of strangers cross paths, each bound for a different destination, carrying a unique story and their own reason for traveling. Sitting quietly and watching, I’ve come to realise that an airport is not just about planes, pilots, stewardess and their ground crews. It is also about the travelers, store owners, well wishers, welcoming parties, and people in general. I think this is one place on earth where every human emotion unfolds under one roof.
A traveler’s day follows a familiar ritual of queues. Queues for check-in, queues for security, queues for immigration, queues for food and drink, queues to board, and even queues to find your seat. Sometimes it feels as though we spend half the journey shuffling forward a few steps at a time.
At security, countless bottles of water and soft drinks are surrendered or tossed into bins. Water that has gone through rigorous purification is simply poured away because authorities cannot be entirely certain what is inside the bottle. Multiply that by every airport in the world and you cannot help wondering how many millions of litres are wasted every day.
Then there is the soundtrack. Endless announcements echo through the terminal: gate changes, final boarding calls, and reminders not to leave baggage unattended. Every few minutes another voice joins the chorus, blending with the rumble of rolling suitcases, the cries of tired babies, the laughter of backpackers, and conversations in dozens of languages. It reminds us that the world is far bigger than our own little corner of it.
Food courts overflow with tempting aromas, though the prices can leave your wallet feeling lighter than your hand luggage. Somehow airport coffee has mastered the art of costing twice as much as it does anywhere else.
But the real attraction is the people. Every skin tone, shape, size, and age passes by. Some are dressed for tropical beaches, others for boardrooms or snowy winters. There are oversized hoodies, colourful traditional attire, matching team outfits, and yes, even the occasional pair of pyjamas. Hats range from fedoras and berets to baseball caps, straw hats and cowboy hats. Footwear is just as varied from hiking boots, sandals, stilettos, loafers, polished leather shoes, slip-ons, to thongs and everything in between.
Not every airport moment is glamorous. Long journeys, frantic sprints between gates, and hours in transit reveal one universal truth. Body odour knows no nationality. Neither do weary faces or sweat-soaked clothes. After twelve hours on the move, we are all equally human. Travel is a great equaliser.
I notice the quieter moments too. Tearful farewells at departure gates. Warm embraces and broad smiles in the arrivals hall. It’s as though Hope boards a plane while Love waves goodbye. Adventure takes off. Home arrives. Airports witness some of life’s happiest reunions and hardest partings, often only metres apart.
Some travelers stare anxiously at the departure board, convinced their gate will change at any moment. Others stand nervously beside the baggage carousel, silently praying their suitcase appears before the belt stops. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it decides to take a little holiday of its own. Many travelers avoid checked luggage altogether and rely on backpacks. We prefer to travel light too, although we usually use wheeled suitcases.
Behind all this movement lies an astonishing amount of consumption. Food wrappers, plastic bottles, endless paper towels, millions of litres of water, and vast amounts of electricity keep these temporary cities functioning. Airports are remarkable examples of human organisation, yet they also remind us just how much we consume to keep the world moving.
I’ve always loved people-watching, and few places offer a better stage than an airport. Every traveler is the main character in a story we know nothing about. For a few brief hours our paths cross, then we board separate flights and disappear once again, each chasing our own horizon.
Perhaps that’s what fascinates me most about airports. They remind us that although our destinations differ, we are all simply travelers passing through. Life itself feels much the same. We are forever in transit, often carrying more baggage than we need, meeting people for only a moment, saying goodbye more often than we’d like, and hoping the next destination makes the journey worthwhile.**
