Airport Queues

[dontpanic]

Just buy a fast track, both immigratiom areas were crazy busy and that was early June. Lots of immigration officer booths only has one officer, previously there  was two in lots of them. Just another nail in the coffin for Thailand.

[Taa_Saparot]

https://www.bangkokpost.com/life/social-and-lifestyle/1720299/alls-well-that-ends-well

All's well that ends well
Airport 'kerfuffle' leads to positive exchange, possible improvements at immigration

PUBLISHED : 28 JUL 2019
NEWSPAPER SECTION: B MAGAZINE WRITER: ANDREW BIGGS

Well where else would you expect me to be filing from? I've just left a meeting with the top brass of the Police Immigration Bureau and Airports Of Thailand. You may have seen the pics in the media. My cynical friends Neil and Stuart were calling it an attitude adjustment but nothing was further from the truth and besides, they're just angry they didn't get my record collection as you're about to read.

It caps off a somewhat crazy week. Perhaps you read the news about the, er, kerfuffle that ensued thanks to my Twitter post, when, upon returning home from a few days in Luang Prabang, I was greeted with a line at immigration that resembled the line at a Justin Bieber concert.

I took a picture and tweeted it on my Twitter account usually reserved for teaching English. I thought that would be the end of it.

It wasn't.

That tweet went viral and what came next was an avalanche of comments, mainly blasting the immigration process at Suvarnabhumi as well as a sizeable chunk blasting me. I have yet to read any of them in great detail, because I came down with a severe throat infection that rendered me voiceless for two days. When you're sick, you are more prone to reading Agatha Christie or Jackie Collins. The last thing you want to read is unhappy people shouting "send him back!".

In that tweet I made a comment in Thai that translated as "Suvarnabhumi: Gateway To Hell". This did not endear me to the general public who don't appreciate foreigners comparing their homeland to the scorching fires of Hades. The following day I did try to make amends, saying that Suvarnabhumi is in fact the gateway to my beloved home for the past 30 years, and that perhaps we needed to look at ways to solve the problem of burgeoning foreign arrivals.

According to the World Tourism Organization, Thailand is currently #10 in the world's most visited countries with 35.4 million visitors in 2017. The Tourism Authority of Thailand is expecting 40 million tourists this year. If that is the case, then Suvarnabhumi is facing a crisis as the crowds swell far, far beyond a Justin Bieber concert.

Last Friday, I received a phone call from Immigration at Suvarnabhumi. A friendly official asked if it was possible we could meet to discuss my tweet. No, they weren't angry at me, but they wanted to explain the steps they were taking to alleviate the crisis. We made a time of 2pm Tuesday to meet up at the airport.

I immediately jumped into action.

I have a friend, Stephen Riches, who is a bit of a debonair man about town, seen in all the trendiest bars around Happy Hour, networking and making new friends … two activities I wish I could do better. He also curates a couple of online expat groups so I asked if it would be possible to put the word out to expats -- how did they feel about the airport, and what suggestions were there to speed things along?

Stephen's informal survey was a gold mine of ideas. Many said that compared to other international airports (Paris's Charles de Gaulle, for example), Suvarnabhumi was not that bad. And indeed, if you google "Airports From Hell", Suvarnabhumi cannot be found on any of the lists.

Here are the problems in some semblance of order from that survey: closed immigration booths at rush hour, visitors not having filled out the arrival-departure card, too much manual keying-in of information in this new technological age, and a lack of English communication.

Recommendations included one queue for all, less paperwork, and special lanes for those already holding visas including retirees, permanent residents and people with work permits.

Some respondents took the opportunity to make some very disparaging remarks about yours truly. "Andrew is just an old bitchy expat," one person said. I take umbrage at that comment -- surely the correct adjectival sequence is "bitchy old". I have no argument with the allegation itself, though the respondent makes me realise I am not alone.

Others got me mixed up with other less salubrious Andrews. "Andrew Biggs? He was kicked out of the country years ago -- he posts overseas now." When Stephen suggested he was confusing me with someone else, the respondent shot back: "I'm not confused. I know him personally." No he doesn't.

Anyway, armed with this information, I went to the airport this afternoon.

On the way I had all sorts of friends and co-workers reach out to me, or rather, swoop like vultures. "Can I have your record collection?" my friend Neil asked. "Surely I get that!" shot back Stuart. "Along with your books. You can have his clothes." Meanwhile my Thai staff were asking what kind of khanom they should send me. I asked for a cake with a knife in it, but that joke didn't travel culturally in Thailand.

"Your complaint wasn't the first we've received. The truth is, we have people complaining all the time, including phu yai," said Pol Col Choengron Rimpadee, deputy commander of immigration at our meeting. "We're very aware of the situation."

The real problem is the growing number of arrivals.

For the last couple of years the number of travellers to Thailand has increased 6% annually. On the day of our meeting, for example, 78,000 people arrived at Suvarnabhumi alone. At the same time, 61,000 people left the airport -- a grand total of 126,244 travellers that needed to be processed in one day. That's 88 travellers per minute … or one and a half per second!

And for every traveller, by international standards there are eight steps that need to be checked and processed. That entire process takes an average of 50 seconds. This, to me, feels just about right -- if you are not smuggling drugs or running a terrorist cell, it's about a minute that you stand at the immigration booth.

Immigration has two things they must keep in mind -- safety and convenience. They need to speed through visitors, but not at the expense of sacrificing national security. "At any time, there are 53 million lost passports around the world," he said. "That means there are a lot of imposters out there, and they like to come to Thailand."

I guess that is the bad news; no matter how fast and convenient the system may be, it will always be slowed down by the cogs of national security. "Security is first," he said. "That's just the way it has to be."

The good news is that Suvarnabhumi is increasing both the number of lanes and number of immigration officers in an effort to solve the problem of closed lanes at peak hour. At Suvarnabhumi alone, the number of officers will increase from 800 to nearly 1,000, as well as an extra 12% of counters.

Other measures are being implemented to speed things up. Those with permanent residency can go through the automatic gates reserved for Thais, though we have to register at the airport. Oh! And I offered my services to help officers with their English, so it's true what my mother says -- every cloud really does have a silver lining.

And that, dear reader, brought my tweetstorm to a close.

Thanks to all who responded to Stephen's surveys -- your comments have been passed on to the relevant authorities. Perhaps sometimes we need to stir the pot a little.

Sadly for Neil and Stuart, my record collection remains with me, as do my clothes. And no need for the knife in my S&P blueberry cheesecake. That's OK -- just get me through that crowd a little quicker.

[striderman]

a mate came into swampy friday around 15 50 and was through in 10 mins. just the luck of the draw

[gazman]

I arrived on 28 June at 11pm and it took an hour 10 mins to get through......I was losing the will to live!

Edited July 28, 2019 by gazman

[petehoax]

i arrived july 3rd midday and was through in ~15-20 minutes (and that was the longest i've weaited in the last 7-8 trips). 
flying out (again mid-day) i've never seen it so empty. absolutely 0 wait on both sides of security control and like 3 minutes for pass control. 

all luck of the draw. 

[roderick]

On 22/02/2019 at 07:34, LeoTex said:

I have done that a few times, to find the lines just as long as the first one.

Since I have a Premium Lane Pass and like to save them if possible for future use, I check both immigration areas and if both are busy will go thru the Premium Lane.

LeoTex

Tex 

 How did you get a premium lane pass??

[LeoTex]

2 hours ago, roderick said:

Tex 

 How did you get a premium lane pass??

My past flight arriving last month, I got one on the plane before landing, but again didn't use it as the there wasn't a line at the first immigrating queue. When I left last week to return home, I didn't receive one when checking in at the ticket counter for the first time. I was told that all I needed was my boarding pass as that is what they are checking now. Looks like they changed the name from Premium Lane to Fast Track Lane. On my previous trip in April, when arriving I showed them my Premium Pass they also ask to see my boarding pass to check the 'class' of my flight.

I'm guessing when I return in September, I will just need to show them my boarding pass on arrival at the Fast Track Lane. Not sure if the airline will still be handing them out.

LeoTex  

[Tarpon]

Flying out at 9AM on a Tuesday August 6. Thinking of leaving my hotel at Soi Nana in a taxi at 6AM. Is it too late?

[petehoax]

6 hours ago, Tarpon said:

Flying out at 9AM on a Tuesday August 6. Thinking of leaving my hotel at Soi Nana in a taxi at 6AM. Is it too late?

No, it's probably even a little too early. at 6am you should only need ~30min to the airport. 

I normally aim to arrive 2 hours before my flight at the airport and i'm always sitting around afterwards (and having some crazy expensive burger king) and have more than enough time. 
Of course it also depends on your airline and i suggest you check in online so that you only need to drop your luggage. 

Of course, there's always a tiny chance of huge lines and everything taking 5x longer. So if you absolutely under 0 circumstances can miss this flight, maybe go slightly earlier. But i'd say if you lave at 6am you're >99.5% to make your flight easily on time. 

Edited July 28, 2019 by petehoax

[striderman]

the fickle finger of fate smiled on a mate of mine coming into swampy today. just took a call from him at 11 45 am local time and he breezed straight through. no problems at all.

[Taa_Saparot]

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1750589/don-mueang-airport-urgently-needs-wide-body-planes

Don Mueang airport urgently needs wide-body planes
PUBLISHED : 15 SEP 2019

WRITER: THODSAPOL HONGTONG

Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT) will ask low-cost airlines to use wide-body planes at Bangkok's Don Mueang airport, which has reached capacity.

Sumpun Kutranon, deputy general manager of Don Mueang airport, said that this year Don Mueang has reached its full capacity at 52 flights per hour and it is not possible for it to expand its runways.

The bottleneck is likely to cause flight delays, he said. The airport authority will ask the management of low-cost airlines that operate numerous flights at Don Mueang to use wide-body aircraft that carry more than 300 passengers per flight.

At present, low-cost carriers' planes carry 100-200 passengers per flight, Mr Sumpun said.

He said that Don Mueang airport has also reached its maximum passenger capacity this year -- 40 million people. The facility is expected to serve 41 million people next year and 45 million people in 2023.

Mr Sumpun said it is expanding visa-on-arrival and immigration check areas and improving car park facilities at Don Mueang in a bid to relieve congestion.

[striderman]

i went out from swampy last week. my airline can no longer give me a fast track card to speed me through which is a bugger. first time i have ever been up the escalator and i've made a lot of trips since the airport opened. .

however both  security and  immigration were very very quiet. guess the time would have been around 15 45 hrs or there abouts.

Edited September 16, 2019 by striderman

[Ziplee]

This guy should get the Celebrity Lane

[Barhop]

18 hours ago, Ziplee said:

This guy should get the Celebrity Lane

More and more look that way now...

[petehoax]

breezed through customs on way in and through security & customs on way out last week. very quick both ways. 

[Bonkabit]

On 16/09/2019 at 23:18, Ziplee said:

This guy should get the Celebrity Lane

The Russian in column two actually translates as 'pregnant woman', not 'pregnant man'.

Literally it is 'Pregnant person (female)'.

The signwriter omitted 'Pregnant woman' in the English!

[bakufoz]

4 hours ago, Bonkabit said:

The Russian in column two actually translates as 'pregnant woman', not 'pregnant man'.

Literally it is 'Pregnant person (female)'.

The signwriter omitted 'Pregnant woman' in the English!

Muzhchina is male. Muzh is husband. Woman would be Zhenchina.

Either way, its just a misprint from some Thai person trying their best to translate stuff.

[bakufoz]

On 16/09/2019 at 13:37, striderman said:

i went out from swampy last week. my airline can no longer give me a fast track card to speed me through which is a bugger. first time i have ever been up the escalator and i've made a lot of trips since the airport opened. .

however both  security and  immigration were very very quiet. guess the time would have been around 15 45 hrs or there abouts.

So if you are flying economy and are gold or platinum etc, airlines can no longer invite you through fast track? 

Thats a bummer. Another of lifes little perks gone.

[striderman]

22 hours ago, bakufoz said:

So if you are flying economy and are gold or platinum etc, airlines can no longer invite you through fast track? 

Thats a bummer. Another of lifes little perks gone.

certainly with mine.

regarding wait time for what it's worth i exited the plane tonight at 18 27 took 10 mins to reach immigration and i opted for what should be the quieter of the 2.

spent 7 mins in the line inc processing, which is pretty good.

bags in the first 30/40 on the belt which was just starting up as i reached it.

in the pre booked taxi by 18 50 and in south pattaya by 20 37...............................2 hrs 10 mins since i left the plane door. that works

 

[ludwighigh]

Last few times I have flown business into BKK, they did not hand out fast track passes.  Instead, they said your business class boarding pass would be enough.

I also have an APEC Business Traveler Card but never tried using it when entering LOS.  

Edited September 22, 2019 by ludwighigh

[Taa_Saparot]

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1806204/

Departing passengers bemoan long queue at Suvarnabhumi airport
PUBLISHED : 1 DEC 2019

WRITER: WASSAYOS NGAMKHAM

Immigration police are working with Airports of Thailand Plc to end a long queue of outbound passengers waiting for security clearance at Suvarnabhumi airport.

A chorus of complaints and questions about the delay from outbound passengers kept waiting in the departure hall of Thailand's main gateway were received by Jor Sor 100 traffic radio around 10.30am on Sunday. 

Pol Col Chuengron Rimphadee, the deputy Immigration Police Bureau spokesman, said that the long queue was due to the screening process conducted by the airport agency in line with instructions from the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

The immigration office at Suvarnabhumi had deployed staff at all counters to ease passenger congestion, he said, adding that the office will work with the airport agency to solve the problem.

[hioctane]

I have never experienced delays going home. Maybe because I am in no hurry to leave. [emoji38]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[striderman]

came in last night leaving the plane door at 18 05. no problems at all, cleared regular  immigration with only 2 people in front of me waiting for the officer. another fluke with baggage as my 2 bags were no 1 and no 3 * as the carousel started up. into my waiting taxi and in condo reception in pattaya at 20 02.

perfecto !

 

*this bit of luck may have been helped by the fact my 777 was maybe at only 20 % of passenger capacity

Edited December 3, 2019 by striderman

[ableyone]

Only delays I've encountered at BKK was when I left last month, as above there were long queues to get up the escalators to security, never experienced that before. Not really an issue as I had plenty of time but I couldn't really see a reason for it since the screening process when you eventually got there appeared to be the same as before.

Edited December 4, 2019 by ableyone

[striderman]

8 hours ago, ableyone said:

Only delays I've encountered at BKK was when I left last month, as above there were long queues to get up the escalators to security, never experienced that before. Not really an issue as I had plenty of time but I couldn't really see a reason for it since the screening process when you eventually got there appeared to be the same as before.

yeah, i went out about 2 weeks ago. took approx 45 min to negotiate security and immigration. it felt like it took longer but i timed it