European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 21, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Aeroflot passengers unload their own Luggage in Siberia. At left an Airport waiting room is packed with weary travellers. Fre breaking hard to do by Carol j. Williams los Angeles times almost a month alter Galina Dzhavad Eva embarked on a journey to get treatment for her daughter Svetlana s ear infection the 1991 vacation time she used for the trip was Over Svetlana s pain was unabated and neither Mother nor daughter was anywhere near Home. Pressed against a broken Mineral water vending machine at Domo Medovo s besieged Airport just outside Moscow Dzhavad Eva shielded Svetlana from the swarm of travellers while straining to listen above the deafening Thunder for word of their 1,200-mile flight to Baku. Twenty six hours behind schedule there was still no news of when they would take off. As she struggled to stay on her feet and defend the Small territory that allowed her ailing daughter to rest against the vending machine Dzhavad Eva a one of untold thousands stuffed into Domo Medovo s abysmal passenger terminal a lamented the conditions soviet travellers must endure. Quot we re always getting pushed around whether its at a train station or an Airport Quot she said. Quot it s always a tight to get anywhere in the soviet the woeful scene on any Given Day at Domo Medovo the country s busiest Airport with 25,000 people travelling through each Day would be enough to set off a riot in most countries. For the masses it it stranded travellers at domn ded it it a it it this week Only two of live telephones worked both trailing lines of hundreds hoping to Call Home. The Airport s two cafeterias were closed by the t Park e of employees who posted signs announcing a Quot sanitary every Muddy met h of floor Spain e was Tuv ered with baggage on Whit h exhausted adults r Lul rhed slumbering child Ren. Outside one waiting Hall a welder set to work with no. Warning to the drowsy passengers resting against a nearby Wall. Sparks from his Torch stat them flying for safety. Not a single voice uttered words of anger or alarm. Asked Why they put up with such shoddy service in these Days when glasnost encourages them to speak their minds Many look perplexed by the foreign notion that complaints or individual actions could Ever effect change. A Quot it does t help to get angry. It s not the fault of the workers on the ground Quot said Valentina Samovskaya 4-t, an electronics Engineer from the Central asian City of Dushanbe. Quot everything is so complicated with us bet Ause of our system. I think to Are just not Quot wha c an you did who c an you complain Lof Elhers have been waiting even longer Quot shrugged Adela , a 22-year-old kindergarten teacher trying to get Home to the West siberian i Ity of sur gut. Her 2-year old daughter Sveta was sound asleep in her Lap done in by the Wail Kuprianov described As Quot Only 19 hours so All soviet travel Falls under slate control making for a colossal monopoly that is As indifferent to service As it is steeped in bureaucracy that often grinds movement to a Hall. A what is needed most travellers agree is a breakup of the soviet Union s travel monopolies especially the National airline Aeroflot. Quot nothing will improve without of petition Quot said Zhana Gru Denye a 27-year-old Sale clerk from the i lithuanian capital of Vilnius. Although Lithuania is now an Independent country its or and rail services remain tethered to Moscow. Asked How the frustrated i clients of Aeroflot might organize a new airline with Whilt h it would have to it of Pele Gru Denye listed her shoulders in an disinterested shrug. Quot it will depend on business opportunities it it or leaders create for us Quot said the Young traveler. Until then All they it an do is Novom bar 21, twi Var in Mangasi to 7 7
