Long, tiresome queues, overtly tight security and delays in flight schedules have all resulted in airline passengers becoming ruder, more impatient, and in general – a pain in the behind. Nearly three quarters of the United States air travellers say that their fellow passengers have become more impatient and less polite, according to surveys by a well known travel website.

 It is understandable that airports across the world are getting more and more crowded, what with air fares becoming affordable. But with such little airport space, all the major airports in the world are facing a new problem – dealing with an immense number of air travelling passengers!

The biggest problem that most airports have to face is getting the passengers through the airport area so as to reach their flights, and doing all of this in an orderly manner. The access roads in all the major airports (and the smaller hubs as well) have become overcrowded, and all the major cities in the world are looking for new ways to rid themselves of this problem, by looking for ways to cover this distance.

Other common causes for complaint include airport restaurants being overcrowded and long queues at check-in counters. Much of this excessive crowding is caused because of all those people who come to gawk and while away their time instead of flying. It is common to see parents dropping their children off at airports while they go spend a couple of hours shopping. Many airports have even opened up amusement arcades, souvenir shops and kiddy rides in order to keep young children in check. However, this has just worsened the situation of overcrowding by turning the city’s airport into something akin to a carnival.

But there’s no blaming the airlines for this messy situation. Airlines dislike this congestion as much as we do, perhaps even more. Yes, under capacity and overcrowding has now become a major problem in all the airports across the globe, and it has been observed that many terminals are just simply too tiny to deal with the tremendous amount of passengers that visit them. As a result of which, many airports are opting to build second and even third terminals in order to deal with this problem.

To make matters worse, the problem is especially problematic in the United States, where the number of delays in flights that are caused due to overcrowding has increased by 50% in the last couple of years. This problem however, is unlikely to improve in the near future, since the number of air travelling passengers in the US has also increased by nearly 50% in the last few years, and this figure continues to grow.

Americans have taken to travelling by flight as a natural means of travel, especially for journeys that are over half an hour. This however, does make sense, as deregulation in the country has brought down airline ticket prices to levels that are so low, as to even compete with the coast of land travel.

But now the time has come to ask if there are too many people flying. Many of the major airports are planning on building new runways. While some of the others are pushing the traffic and spreading the load onto the smaller, less busy airports.

However, even this solution cannot possibly cope with the expected passenger growth from 660 million to almost one billion by the year 2010. Inevitably, when there are so many passengers and not enough vacant seats, the airline in question will have to offer bribes for these passengers to board later flights. Owing to this lack of seating space, long queues and delayed flights, many of the passengers have become grumpy, uncomfortable or just plain delinquent in nature. But you can hardly blame them since being packed in an airport like sardines is no fun situation to be stuck in. Even so, it isn’t pleasant being seated next to a grouchy co-passenger.

This brings me back to the fact that chartering flights is indeed a better option when faced with the dilemma of standing for hours on end in queues that seem to be never ending just to find that your flight has been delayed and you have been bumped off to the next flight. Companies like Flight Management International Inc. (FMI) are the key to your overcrowded airport answer. So the next time you have that business meet coming up, maybe you should check in with FMGM, Aviation Charter’s (Flight Management’s maiden carrier) agent.