For the past couple of weeks, I have been spending a lot of time in airports. It hasn't been much fun. I am terrible at passing time in airports. Most of the time that I spent on uncomfortable benches in Boston, Chicago and Vancouver international airports was given to thinking about what is missing from international airports. They certainly have a lot of people, but I never find that comforting. Rather, I always feel oddly alone.

It sounds weird, I know. However, there is something lacking from airports, possibly a sense of community that keeps one from becoming lonely.

There are many things that make up a public place, but one of the important things that tie people to such a place is a sense of shared time and space. Most places are characterized by a sense of belonging. People connected to a particular place or community, like a hometown or even a landmark, have the feeling that they are sharing something with others, that there is a shared sense of "we"-ness.

International airports don't seem to have this. Every one is doing their own thing and the place is in constant motion. How can making a public place be possible when nobody seems to sit still in an airport for more than a few hours — or more if they are unlucky? International airports are like expressway rest stops with flair. They are places that you wait, eat some overpriced food and buy something tacky before you move on to your final destination. Even for people who have a fondness for airports, their favorites are determined by the facilities that will help pass the travel time as quickly as possible.

I can't tell you how many times that I have talked with my friends about what airports I hate and what airports I can tolerate. I tend to grade airports on things like the ease of making a connection to another plane and the cleanliness of the men's toilets. Most of my friends talk about similar things. Nobody talks about an airport being rich with history or with having charm. And I have never heard people talk about their fondness for an airport because it is thickly layered with the collective memory. No, for the most part, we associate airports with negative feelings, such as lost luggage, long lines and rude people.

Airports are impersonal. Nobody cares who anyone is. Sure, you can sit around and guess where the people are from by clues such as differences in language, accents and luggage tags. But really, one doesn't need to know who these people are because one is only staying for a while. Try having a conversation with someone you are sitting next to at the airport. You aren't going to get much out of him. The most information that you are likely to get is where he is going and the purpose of his visit. This is a pretty sad conversation, considering that this is the same kind of information that an overworked customs and immigration officer can get out of passengers when they arrive at their final destination. And I bet you that that kind of conversation has more meaning than the conversation that comes up while people are waiting for seats 10 through 21 to be called.

The only people that seem to have a sense of belonging to the airport are the ones that actually make the place function: the ground crews, the janitorial staff, and the workers in the restaurants and souvenir shops. If anyone is going to have a sense of belonging to an airport, it is the people that work there for eight-hour shifts so that they can make a living. Travelers — including myself — don't think about them too much, but the airport wouldn't flow without them. They are the people that allow travelers to move from airport to airport with relative ease. And they are probably the people that have the biggest stake in the commercial airline business.

While I love the drop in ticket prices, I have to remember that these reduced prices are not the only things that are being reduced. Usually when the airline industry is having a tough time, the first people that suffer are not the people going to Guam or South Korea for the weekend. They are the people who are being laid off at the airport or airlines. So when I think about the delays that are becoming more frequent at airports, the lack of support staff that can answer my questions and the occasional dirty toilet, I think about the labor that allows people to travel. My movement from place to place, from airport to airport comes with the labor of many people, who probably earn much less money than I do. So as much as I am pleased that I can buy cheaper tickets, I can't help but feel that the deal that I am getting might be shortchanging others.

The writer lives in Japan and is completing his Ph.D. in history.