IT OCCURRED to our correspondent in Geneva the other day
that he could send us a missive more quickly by air freight than by air mail, and Swiss- air encouraged him in this romantic notion. It would be put on flight No. SR700 that very even- ing, they said, and London Airport would ring the Spectator office as soon as it arrived. He tele- phoned to tell us so. Next morning, having re- ceived no news, we telephoned London Airport and asked for the Swissair air-freight olIlce. We were put through to Import Inquiries. They trans- ferred us to PT Section 2168, who said, 'But you want Import Inquiries.' We explained that we'd been there already, and so PT Section 2168 prom- ised to ring us back. Twenty minutes later they did so, and said there was no packet addressed to the Spectator. We started again at Import In' quiries, who said that freight from flight No. SR700 (which had left Geneva the previous even- ing, you will recall) was now in, and there was no packet for us: would we please ring again, after the morning plane arrived? We telephoned West London Air Terminal, to make sure that the packet had not been sent there, and were referred to Dilke Street, Chelsea. We telephoned Dilke Street, Chelsea, and were referred to West London Air Terminal. So we telephoned West London Air Terminal again, asked specifically for air-freight packets, and were told, 'We don't deal with that here,' by a girl who then had second thoughts and asked, why not try the Parcels Office? And at the Parcels Office we finally tracked it down, at 3.50 p.m. on the day after its despatch. I some- times get the feeling that the airlines don't really like custom.
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