If anything, the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) has a knack for making news for all the wrong reasons. In 2009, the only international airport in Nepal received worldwide coverage for its rather bizarre method to curb corruption—a ban on its staff from wearing trousers with pockets so that they cannot accept bribes. Two years later, it made it to the CNN’s list of ‘10 of the world’s most hated airports’. Among other things, the list described the TIA as having “the shoddy restroom maintenance of a Glasgow sports bar”. And in October, sleepinginairports.com, a website that researches on airports, listed the TIA as the third worst airport in the world in terms of comfort, cleanliness and customer service. Only Port Harcourt International Airport, Nigeria and Jeddah King Abdulaziz International Airport in Saudi Arabia fare worse than the TIA. Then there is the seasonal news about obstruction of flights every monsoon due to the formation of potholes on the runway.

Against this backdrop, on Monday, a fact-finding committee submitted a report to the Tourism Minister on the dismal state of the TIA. According to the document, impolite staff, long queues, foul-smelling toilets and thug banks have become the hallmark of the airport. Foreign travellers are forced to pay Rs 3,300 as airport service charge even as the airport offers no services whatsoever. During peak hours, 500 people have to make do with one small toilet in the departure lounge. The numbers of chairs are limited and travellers do not have access to telephone and Wi-Fi services at the passenger terminal either. Even banks entrusted with the task of collecting visa fees cheat travellers. Bank tellers either do not return  the change at all or make people wait for so long that the travellers instead choose to leave in frustration. Airport officials are no better: the committee caught them gossiping among themselves while on duty, asking unnecessary questions to foreigners and behaving badly with Nepalis. Security arrangements at the TIA are also lax as people without the necessary authority can easily enter the airside—the taxiway and the runway.

Clearly, the TIA needs a complete overhaul. This could start by making a humble effort to keep the airport clean. Authorities should increase the number of toilets and ensure running water at all times. Likewise, airport management authorities must strictly monitor the work of its staff, including those involved in ground handling, and reward or punish them accordingly. The government would also do well to heed the suggestion of the fact-finding team to provide security officials with trainings on airport security and discourage frequent transfers. The activities of pre-paid taxi service providers along with travel agencies and banks that provide money exchange services should also come under scrutiny. The TIA authorities and security agencies must coordinate with one another while issuing visitor passes too. In the long run, the airport must be upgraded by using state-of-art technology and its management could even be handed over to private sector. Tokenistic steps to make passage through the TIA a hassle-free experience just will not fly. Try asking any outgoing or incoming passengers—Nepali or foreign—their TIA experience and listen to their lament.