Airports: Suspended between places and times

smelled of perfume, sweat and kerosene and I observed people who looked completely different than in my home village. Since then, airports have been places of adventure, freedom and special luxury for me.

Apparently I’m not alone, airports seem to evoke strong emotions in many people. Writer Alain de Botton admits that he often secretly wishes for flight delays so that he can stay at the airport longer. In the forum Reddit I read comments like: “For me, airports are a rare oasis of calm: open, well thought-out and full of high-tech.” Others, however, find it pure torture: “For me the airport is hell: noise, crowds, heat, smells and my fear of traveling are concentrated here.”

A noticeable number of people suddenly behave unusually at airports. Polite people in everyday life lounge on waiting benches and spread out over several seats. Early in the morning, people who actually have their lives under control drink beer or whiskey at the bar. And time and again, travelers act surprisingly recklessly, first at the airport, then on board: in Europe alone, according to the European Aviation Safety Agency, a flight takes place about every three hours unruly passenger – literally translated: unruly passenger – disturbed. Once, on a flight, a passenger even put his feet on my legs.

Liberating anonymity

But why do people behave so differently here? In an essay for the online magazine The Conversation describes the British psychologist Steve Taylor from the Leeds Beckett University Airports as “a kind of no man’s land” in which concepts such as time, place and social norms become blurred. Almost everything that normally anchors us in everyday life suddenly disappears here. After passport and security checks, we leave our identities behind us and sink into a sea of ​​people, most of whom we have never seen before and will probably never see again. We are lulled into an anonymity that I always find liberating. Taylor also compares the traveler to a soap opera actor who can briefly shed his familiar but tiring role.

This anonymity can lead to people becoming closer, as psychologist Sonia Jaeger says: “At the airport, strangers may tell each other intimate things that they would never have told each other otherwise.” But the social disinhibition effect can also result in recklessness. “Anonymity always plays a role in deviant behavior. We know this from the Internet,” says psychologist and travel blogger Barbara Horvatits-Ebner.

Vacation mode can be exhausting

At airports you can observe what generally happens when people turn into tourists. “When people fly for leisure, they are already in vacation mode,” says British psychologist Charlotte Russell of The Travel Psychologist. “They are more focused on enjoying themselves and therefore show less consideration for others than they normally would.” This can have a contagious effect: If a passenger observes that others are behaving recklessly, he or she follows suit – a chain reaction that can lead to more aggressiveness and dissatisfaction.

But the specifics of time and place at airports also affect our behavior, says Steve Taylor. Because we are in a state of suspension between time zones, we have already mentally left the place of departure, while the destination is still a long way away. The result is a temporary disorientation and thus uncertainty.

Departure or farewell? The main thing: get out of here quickly!

At the airport we find ourselves in a typical place of transition. “It can be something positive, a departure – it’s starting! But it can also be a farewell to a safe place, to your own comfort zone,” explains travel psychologist Christina Miro. Stepping into the unknown is difficult for some people, and for most people the longing for security prevails. The first impulse at airports is therefore often: Get out of here quickly!

I know this effect from my own experience. I am usually a reserved person and avoid conflict, especially in public and with strangers. However, at the airport in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where I often have stopovers, a different side of me emerges. After landing, the race to the connecting flights begins here. There are regular commotions at the security checkpoint in front of the gates. There are hardly any organized queues. I used to try to be patient. But now, like the others, I first fight for the plastic boxes for personal items and then push my way through to get a free place on the conveyor belt. Consideration is rare here, everyone just wants to move on quickly. Don’t get stuck in this non-place!

One in three people is afraid of flying

There is also a fear that is much more widespread than I had assumed before my research. About one in three passengers suffers from fear of flying, estimates Irene Rausch, fear of flying expert and author of the book Fly happily. The spectrum ranges from discomfort to panic attacks. “Several causes often come together, which then lead to fear of flying,” says Rausch. Sometimes there is simply a lack of information: What causes turbulence on the plane and how bad is it really? In addition, some people have agoraphobia, i.e. the fear of crowds and public transport. When fear of flying mixes with stress, bright lights, loud noises and long waiting times, a “cocktail of emotions is created that can strongly influence our behavior.” Rausch is convinced: In most cases, recklessness and aggression at airports can be traced back to fear.

The ambivalence of the airport world is also reflected in the social structure. On the one hand, airports are one of the few places where people from different backgrounds meet and without exception have to trust that the crew will take them safely to their destination. But how pleasant the journey is depends heavily on the wealth of the passengers. “An airport is like a miniature society with a clearly noticeable class system, from first class to economy,” says Andrew Stevenson from the Manchester Metropolitan Universityauthor of the book The Psychology of Travel. Social inequality is visible here in just a few square meters: some relax in separate lounges with champagne, while others spend hours in overcrowded queues or sleep on hard floors. At security checks, passengers are sorted by nationality and origin, and when boarding, business class passengers rush past the queue of regular travelers.

My childhood fascination with airports has remained. But with every flight it mixes a little more with routine. This takes away some of the excitement and makes a lot of things easier: I know the cleanest toilets, I know where to get good and, at best, affordable coffee and where I can refill my water bottles. I have also developed beloved rituals: to this day, I almost always treat myself to ice cream and a new book at the airport. In a quiet place at the gate, I enjoy the wait, observe the people around me and feel creative – nowhere more than here. Because at airports I am free from all roles and routines. Nobody knows me, nobody expects anything from me. I take time for something that I rarely allow myself in everyday life: doing nothing and being bored. Suddenly there is an emptiness that leaves room for new ideas.

Everything that could go wrong

But now I also know the hurdles that I have to overcome. For example, the chaotic security checks in Ethiopia or the passport controls in countries where I was subjected to intensive questioning several times upon entry. While I used to travel inexperienced, today I sometimes feel resistance growing in me (“Not again!”) or even fear (“What if they don’t let me enter the country this time?”). Psychologist Sonia Jaeger knows these feelings from clients who travel to countries with strict entry regulations. “If you have already had bad experiences, the main thing that resonates is the anticipatory fear – the constant ‘What could go wrong?’.”

In general, there are some proven strategies to combat the stress of flying. The fear of flying expert Rausch recommends preparing well, getting as much information as possible and getting to the airport early to avoid being rushed. Above all, she recommends using breathing exercises and cognitive behavioral therapy techniques. Rausch, for example, mentions the method of stopping thoughts: As soon as the worry carousel begins to spin, you bring it to a standstill with an internal or loud “stop” and consciously get out.

Around 25 years have passed since my first flight. In this short period of time, airports around the world have changed rapidly, becoming more and more consumer worlds with familiar brands. “Airports used to be almost non-places. You could hardly tell which country you were in,” says British psychologist Stevenson. “Today they are trying to develop a geographical identity.” For example, passengers are increasingly encountering photo galleries of sights and well-known landmarks. Some airports resemble worlds of experiences: They offer attractions such as butterfly gardens or open-air cinemas in Singapore, forest playgrounds in Amsterdam or open yoga studios in Dallas.

Design your stay

Psychologist Horvatits-Ebner emphasizes how important such offers are – for example shopping, eating and drinking. Studies show that anxiety levels decrease when passengers are distracted. Just strolling through the stores without any intention of buying can reduce stress and boredom. “This is intentional so that passengers can calm down. Not just as a source of income.” She specifically books flights with a stopover in Zurich because there is a particularly good children’s playground there. In this way, transitional places and non-places become their own destinations – with individual faces and advantages. Who knows, maybe one day it will be normal to take a day trip to an airport?

At the end of our conversation, Andrew Stevenson has another good tip: don’t just “kill time” at the airport. He says that each of us has a hierarchy of places embedded within us. “At the top is usually our home and the place we want to go.” Anything in between is viewed almost as a chore that needs to be gotten out of the way as quickly as possible. “In contrast, our human experiences would be so much richer if we remembered that we can also have formative experiences on the way to our goal.”