justme: Once again, you have yet to respond to my original post - the issue here is the DISCRIMINATORY application of the "rules", and the prima donna attitudes of airline/airport employees - issues you have validated by the content and nature of your responses, while at the same time denying they exist. Instead of addressing these issues head on, you seem to want to attempt to prove that firemen don't show up in great numbers to put out fires.
No one stated that firemen don't respond to emergencies of all types; simply that their primary purpose, WHEN THEY SHOW UP AT A LOCATION IN GREAT NUMBERS, usually involves the extinguishing of a fire - hence the big trucks filled with WATER, the HOSES, the FIREPROOF SUITS, and, if all else fails, the words "FIRE DEPARTMENT" painted all over their equipment. Let us not forget that where they sleep is called a "FIRE HOUSE". Furthermore, are you so obtuse that you genuinely missed the point of my comment about firemen, or are you completely incapable of addressing, or unwilling to address, the issues I present?
Actually, you have already admitted to being unwilling . . . so many things wrong with my last post that you'd love to, but can't name one . . . interesting.
Airport staff, and airline employees have better things to do than make sure passengers receive in a courteous, professional manner the services they have already paid for? (Just as GM employees have better things to do than produce quality vehicles the public wants to purchase . . .) Gee, I had it all wrong, employees in public production/service industries do have better things to do than actually serve the public in their industry; validate their over-inflated egos, collect government hand-outs, and arbitrarily abuse, and rip-off, the customers who fund their salaries. Perhaps there is another profession's mission statement you should be reviewing . . .
FYI: One thing the staff at Kingsford-Smith (Sydney) DID do (however, the entire experience was laced with abuse), was send someone, an airline employee to be specific, to GET ME OUT OF CUSTOMS/SECURITY when they (the airline employees) realized I was being needlessly held up for so long that I was going to be late for my flight. So, what I proposed in my last reply, and what you claim is impossible to achieve, IS ALREADY BEING DONE. What I suggest in my last post are possible ways to make this process more efficient.
Thanks for your kind wishes as to my future travel by ship - I'm sure the experience will be very enjoyable, as cruise line management, and employees, DO THEIR JOBS WELL ENOUGH AND WITH THE PROPER ATTITUDE that the industry does not require government subsidies to stay afloat (pun intended). I realize this may not be a fair comparison, but "fairness" doesn't seem to be something the airline industry is concerned about . . .