On a recent trip to Qatar I opted to return to Europe via Abu Dhabi, flying Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates. The first leg, Doha to Abu Dhabi, was scheduled for departure at 2250, but in order to avoid the rush hour at Doha's relatively small and overcrowded terminal, I ensured that I reached the airport by 1930. I was faced with an already extremely busy situation with plenty of passengers queuing to pass through preliminary security, with crowding at most of Qatar Airways check-in desks. Luckily, at the two dedicated Etihad counters, only a handful of 'Guests'-as the airline refers to its customers-were being processed, and in ten minutes I obtained my boarding passes for both legs. It then took me another 50 minutes to pass through passport control and a very careful security screening, before reaching the Gate 2 area, still with almost two hours to go.
展开▼
