A desperate need for airport personnel

I went to Larnaca airport very recently to pick someone up. The flight was delayed by about 20 minutes so I had a bit of standing around to do in the arrivals lobby. I had gone straight to the airport from a business meeting, so I was quite professionally dressed. The result was, arriving passengers kept mistaking me for someone who worked in the airport.

During my short period of standing around, I was approached three times. The first person wanted to know how he could get to the buses. The second asked me where the lift was. The third asked me where they could buy a plug adapter in the airport.

Which begs the question, why aren’t there any airport personnel to assist arriving passengers? Clearly there is a big need for it.

I think the most troubling thing I saw was three men in the arrivals lobby approaching two airport security officers who were armed with assault rifles. One of the men proceeded to get very close to one of the armed officers and it appeared he asked for directions. The armed officer then proceeded to point around, clearly giving these passengers some directions. I must admit, witnessing this scene made my heart go into a bit of a panic.

It is surely not a good idea for armed security personnel to be the ones who arriving passengers resort to in order to get some directions. If the man had mal intent, he was in an ideal position to disarm the officer. Not only was he in very close proximity to the officer, the officer was also now distracted.

Name and address withheld