Low-Cost Airlines Told To Fix Delays

[webfact]

Low-Cost Airlines Told To Fix Delays

By Teeranai Charuvastra, Staff Reporter

 

  

Scene from a Nok Air delay on Tuesday. Image: Jaiyoot Nonburee / Facebook

 

BANGKOK — Low-cost airlines and operators, this is the final call from the Transport Ministry: please proceed to the gate and depart on time.

 

Transport minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith announced Thursday that low cost airlines must fix their chronic delays that have prompted passengers to complain.

 

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/business/2018/03/09/low-cost-airlines-told-fix-delays/

 

-- © Copyright Khaosod English 2018-03-09

[shady86]

Don't want delays, pay for premium. Consumers always have choice.

[TVGerry]

Must fix? Or what? Businesses aren't going to 'fix' anything unless they are threatened with someething.

[Lungstib]

There is a good reason they are 'low cost'. Delay only seems like a problem, until you start to worry about safety.

[StayinThailand2much]

1 hour ago, shady86 said:

Don't want delays, pay for premium. Consumers always have choice.

The last few years I have regularly flown from/to Thailand. (Several flights per year.) I have always flown with only three airlines: a foreign full-service airline, a local full-service airline, and a low-cost airline. Guess what, flights of two of the airlines were regularly delayed by more than 1 hour, and some flights cancelled. (One airline's name, the one from Thailand, by the way, starts with a 'T' and ends in 'International'.) Of the three, the only airline that was always exactly on time was the low-cost airline!

[Chang_paarp]

Again.
They are not taking a lot of notice of the powers that be.

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[Ossy]

Fly Nok Air and be treated like an animal.

 

After the Tuesday incident, passengers complained on social media the airline did not tell them their departure was postponed and forced them to wait on the plane without air-conditioning.

Civil Aviation Authority director Chula Sukmanop also confirmed that his agency has been instructed to talk to Nok Air representatives about their recent delays.

“In the latest case, Nok Air failed to inform passengers there was a delay or how long they had to wait,” Chula said in an interview. “This had happened before.”

A Nok Air spokeswoman declined to discuss the matter but said the company would send a prepared statement later today.

Chula said there is no penalty for flight delays, and airlines are only required to provide food and water to passengers in case of delays.

 

So much for Nok Air's bright new young CEO, who managed to 'wing it' into that position, after his predecessor was given the boot, last summer. Rather than make any attempt to recruit a 'proper' CEO, the new guy was shunted from another department . . . . for a moment, I almost said on brown envelope or nepotism grounds, but Nok Air wouldn't do that . . . would they?

Edited March 9, 2018 by Ossy
clarity

[luk AJ]

Nok Air is maybe the champion in delays but Airasia for sure is not better. Paying premium like double for Thai surely doesn’t mean on time departures. I fly 2 times per week Phuket and 3 times per month within Asia so my experience is limited to this.


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[Cadbury]

I am not excusing the known offenders such as Nok Air, Air Asia and Vietjet but sometimes there can be air traffic congestion at airports like Suvarnabhumi. In recent times I have been on aircraft that have to go into lengthy holding patterns which can delay arrivals which in turn can delay departures. That can happen anywhere. Some latitude needs to be given. 

That same air traffic congestion can also have a flow on impact on the international immigration queues but I doubt anybody bothers to tell immigration to pull out people out of the tea room and put them on the counters.

[Thian]

2 hours ago, luk AJ said:

Nok Air is maybe the champion in delays but Airasia for sure is not better. Paying premium like double for Thai surely doesn’t mean on time departures. I fly 2 times per week Phuket and 3 times per month within Asia so my experience is limited to this.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

Yup Thai Airasia also has a lot of delays, so does Thai Airways...

 

But even at Don Muang last week we had to wait very long for our luggage, it was because of the rain so they couldn't unload the cargo they said.

[InMyShadow]

Impossible to comment without knowing why the delays. Is it because the cheap airlines are flying 50 to one thai air flights? Well of course they will be late more on stats alone

[coulson]

Screw delays.

 

Having no a.c. on board means the APU wasn't on for some reason. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but surely an aircraft shouldn't take off without a functioning APU!?

[overherebc]

If the delay is the carriers fault isn't there a fine similar to the Heathrow system?

[Bob12345]

19 hours ago, shady86 said:

Don't want delays, pay for premium. Consumers always have choice.

Exactly.

 

I stopped flying Nok and Airasia some time ago (where ever possible) because they are frequently delayed. Waste of my time hanging around the airport and a true inconvenience with 2 small kids.

 

You cant pay satang and expect to get a business class seat and depart on time.

[yellowboat]

18 hours ago, StayinThailand2much said:

The last few years I have regularly flown from/to Thailand. (Several flights per year.) I have always flown with only three airlines: a foreign full-service airline, a local full-service airline, and a low-cost airline. Guess what, flights of two of the airlines were regularly delayed by more than 1 hour, and some flights cancelled. (One airline's name, the one from Thailand, by the way, starts with a 'T' and ends in 'International'.) Of the three, the only airline that was always exactly on time was the low-cost airline!

Most of the delays are at immigration on arrival in Thailand.  Do not recall many delays at all. 

[Thian]

14 hours ago, coulson said:

Screw delays.

 

Having no a.c. on board means the APU wasn't on for some reason. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but surely an aircraft shouldn't take off without a functioning APU!?

Once our plane was departing New Delhi but the selfish indians kept on going to the toilet all the time so we couldn't depart loosing our slot on the departurestrip and got a delay for an hour...after an hour that happened again so another hour waitingtime added and the pilot turned off the engines to save fuel..it became bloody hot in the plane, extreme hot but we had to sit and wait sweating like idiots and it smelled oh so bad. Then later they turned on the engines again to depart and it became very cold while we were all soaking wet from sweat....it was terrible and i'll never go back to india for that reason.

[Bangkok Barry]

There is a Thai Air Asia flight from Khon Kaen to Bangkok that is timed to take 45 minutes. There is absolutely no way that is realistic when the normal flight time is 55 or 60 minutes, so why do they do that? It can only mean a 100 percent certainty of damage to their percentage of on-time arrivals figure.

And while I'm on this subject, what is the point of that same airline demanding that you line up to print your own baggage tag before having to queue again to then hand in your baggage, with the staff member then attaching the tag to your luggage? No logic at all to it that I can see, but then I'm not Thai. Does any other airline at DMK do this? If not, I'll use them instead of Thai Air Asia in future. When I checked in on-line to fly out of Dubai on Emirates this week it took me three minutes to do a bag drop. In Bangkok it took 50 minutes longer with Thai Air Asia to do the same thing.

[jacko45k]

18 hours ago, luk AJ said:

Nok Air is maybe the champion in delays but Airasia for sure is not better. Paying premium like double for Thai surely doesn’t mean on time departures. I fly 2 times per week Phuket and 3 times per month within Asia so my experience is limited to this.


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I tried Malaysian and paid for premium but was still delayed. Both at Bangkok where the queues were very long, and at KL which was also very slow and busy. Didn't help that I arrived over an hour late to KLIA ... which left a tight connection. Ground staff on disembarkation  informed me on hand held boards of my next connection gate location, which was wrong! And the fact that it was actually in another area requiring the small train.

It is just a factor of how incredibly crowded and busy air travel is nowadays in Asia.

 

May try Thai next time. Avoid any transit.

[Ridler]

Travelled frequently on Thai air, every single flight was late. Now go Air Asia and never a late flight. 

[Telly]

Second and last time I take lion air. Reaching changi ytd, I noted delay of half hour.

But when SL101 took off, it was one hour late.

Reaching DMK at 255 on tarmac, crew says bus coming.

The buses came, at 335.

Flight delays are commonplace now as more and more budget flights.

But to leave arriving pax stranded on plane because you have no buses takes the cake.

 

With the kon Jin horde, it took one hour to clear customs.

And I missed my connecting flight.

I'm a frequent flyer for nok so can't complain but I'm going to bitch about its all female cabin crew. Just waiting for shit to happen

[madmitch]

I've found Bangkok Airways amongst the worst for delays. But at least you can sit in their lounge.

[Belzybob]

16 hours ago, coulson said:

Screw delays.

 

Having no a.c. on board means the APU wasn't on for some reason. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but surely an aircraft shouldn't take off without a functioning APU!?

Generally its only when operating as an 'extended range operation' (EROPS or ETOPS) that the APU is required, primarily to provide a back up generator if one of the main engine generators fails. Otherwise an APU is a convenience to allow operation without ground power.

Edited March 10, 2018 by Belzybob
Typo

[DipStick]

sadly, these days, world wide the skies,airports, runways and facilities at airports are all at breaking point, and a little unfair to point fingers at individual airlines.

For personal reasons, I would not fly with budget airlines, but sitting in business or first on a reputable airline will not mean that I won't be affected by delays, unfortunately delays are a part of flying these days.

lets take flying domestically in China as an example.

The Chinese military "own" a huge percentage of Chinese airspace, meaning thousand of civilian flights are battling to perform in very tight corridors, and as the attached shows they are failing in their battle.

this was the departures board at Shenzhen Airport not too long ago, and it's a frequent occurence

 

[kevc]

Surely all Thai time schedules end in ish.

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[The manic]

.My Lufthansa flight was delayed two hours. Staff very unhelpful. My Thai airways flight was terribly hot on the tarmac at LHR. When I and others complained we were told it was the fault of the airport. So I told them in a loud voice to use their auxiliary power supply which they eventually did.  They are reluctant to do so for cost reasons. Modern airlines are scammers. 

[Pakaty]

I got to Don Muang 30 minutes before my Nok Air flight and they refused to check me in. I did not have luggage to check in.  Yes, I was a bit late cause no taxi wanted to take me to the airport.  I ended up taking the sky train then continuing to the airport by taxi. It was an afternoon flight.  Anyway I forced to buy another ticket on Lion Air that was scheduled to leave about 15 minutes after my original flight on Nok. When I got to the gate for the Lion flight I saw the Nok flight at the opposite gate still waiting to board and they were still waiting board when I boarded the Lion flight. Really pissed me off they made me buy another ticket when I could have easily made the flight.

[The manic]

On 3/9/2018 at 7:06 PM, coulson said:

Screw delays.

 

Having no a.c. on board means the APU wasn't on for some reason. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but surely an aircraft shouldn't take off without a functioning APU!?

Yes as I said in my post. The APU is working but not being used to provide AC. It was the same with Gulf Air. The airlines rely on the passenger's ignorance of the APU and save money.  Sweating like a pig is rotten way to start a journey.  I frequently find flights too hot, the staff want to send people to sleep.  If a plane is too cold you can use a blanket but if a plane is too hot you can't take your clothes off! 

[shady86]

I got to Don Muang 30 minutes before my Nok Air flight and they refused to check me in. I did not have luggage to check in.  Yes, I was a bit late cause no taxi wanted to take me to the airport.  I ended up taking the sky train then continuing to the airport by taxi. It was an afternoon flight.  Anyway I forced to buy another ticket on Lion Air that was scheduled to leave about 15 minutes after my original flight on Nok. When I got to the gate for the Lion flight I saw the Nok flight at the opposite gate still waiting to board and they were still waiting board when I boarded the Lion flight. Really pissed me off they made me buy another ticket when I could have easily made the flight.

Not sure if you did check in online. if you did, you have right to go straight to boarding gate, if the plane is not close, you should be allowed to get in.

[Thian]

On 3/10/2018 at 10:00 AM, Bangkok Barry said:

There is a Thai Air Asia flight from Khon Kaen to Bangkok that is timed to take 45 minutes. There is absolutely no way that is realistic when the normal flight time is 55 or 60 minutes, so why do they do that? It can only mean a 100 percent certainty of damage to their percentage of on-time arrivals figure.

And while I'm on this subject, what is the point of that same airline demanding that you line up to print your own baggage tag before having to queue again to then hand in your baggage, with the staff member then attaching the tag to your luggage? No logic at all to it that I can see, but then I'm not Thai. Does any other airline at DMK do this? If not, I'll use them instead of Thai Air Asia in future. When I checked in on-line to fly out of Dubai on Emirates this week it took me three minutes to do a bag drop. In Bangkok it took 50 minutes longer with Thai Air Asia to do the same thing.

We did the online checkin for Thai air asia but at don mueang there were huge huge qeueu's so we just went in that qeueu...after 30 min we found out that we were in a wrong qeueu but nobody at all knew it and there were no signs.

 

After 1.5 hours in the qeueu for checkin and baggage drop we could go further, what a hell....and it all goes sooo superslow...

 

We didn't see that selfcheckin labelprinter though but met that one in singapore...my wife did it 3 times but the label didn't come out so the assistant had to come help her...why they make everything harder than it was at thai air asia? And why can't i understand a word of what their staff is saying when they speak english?

 

And why can't they get the luggage out of the plane when it's raining? We had to wait very long for it because of the rain..