Govt questions ranking of Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang in ‘Worst Airport’ list by UK publisher

[webfact]

On March 5th, 2024, Mr. Chai Watcharong, the Thai Government spokesman, posted on X in response to Business Financing, a UK publisher, ranking Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang Airports in the worst airport list in Asia in 2023.

According to Thai national media, Business Financing, a British travel and tourism media publisher, publicly revealed a ranking of the best and worst international airports in Asia. The ranking list showed that Noi Bai International Airport, Vietnam, was the best airport in Asia, taking over Changi Airport, Singapore, and Hong Kong International Airport.

 

Meanwhile, Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang Airports were ranked 7th and 10th as the worst airports in Asia, according to Business Financing.

 

However, Chai questioned the ranking by Business Financing on X and whether the UK publisher was universally recognized by the aviation industry in evaluating the airports’ quality.

 

By Kittisak Phalaharn

 

Full story: THE PATTAYA NEWS 2024-03-08

 

RELATED TOPIC:

Bangkok airports hit turbulence: Ranked among world’s worst 

https://aseannow.com/topic/1321741-bangkok-airports-hit-turbulence-ranked-among-world’s-worst/

 

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[Enzian]

Wouldn't he be smart to just ignore the whole thing, rather than getting people talking about it?

[Georgealbert]

23 minutes ago, Enzian said:

Wouldn't he be smart to just ignore the whole thing, rather than getting people talking about it?

Perfect answer, this survey would have been forgotten in a week, but by the government questioning how valid it is, just brings in back into the spotlight and can only bring more bad PR.

[BayArea]

First off,  you knew it was just a matter of time before the extremely fragile Thai ego would show up.  Secondly,  it really doesn't matter in the end,  tourists will still come to LOS in droves.  They could care less about airport rankings.  Most don't even know about a UK publication reporting airports around the world. 

[BayArea]

27 minutes ago, Enzian said:

Wouldn't he be smart to just ignore the whole thing, rather than getting people talking about it?

Agree 100 % , but this is Thailand. They just can't stand having a bad reputation.  Heaven forbid that their perfect country has a bad mark regarding any matter.

[Rampant Rabbit]

Anything , anything but say they were working hard to improve services there........not my  fault syndrome as usual

[jacko45k]

The UK KNOWS bad airports, we got several of them!

[RandiRona]

If its really bitter pill to swallow, I would suggest taking it with Kratom😁. 

[ikke1959]

A result for the country where everything is perfect and the best in their eyes.... But other eyes see it different... Maybe time for a defamation case??

[Thailand]

With Chiang Mai achieving yet another first in the world's worst AQI ranking yesterday the government should have more concerns than airport rankings.

[WHansen]

The truth hurts

[sungod]

I'm not universally recognized by the aviation industry, but traveling a lot I can tell you Swampy is a dump.

[Mr Meeseeks]

Suvarnabhumi isn't that bad, but it was over-capacity when it opened and it is getting worse and worse.

 

They need to sort:

Immigration queues in and out (I use the priority lane as BOI company but it is the biggest concern imo).

Slow baggage delivery to the belts.

Poor maintenance of toilets and other facilities (including some lounges).

Buses to and from gates.

Traffic bottleneck outside the main terminal building.

 

Contrast that with KLIA and SIN who have just implemented auto-gates for foreigners now and Thailand is lagging behind in user experience. 

 

 

[LALes]

Maybe Thailand can sue for giving a bad review.

[RandolphGB]

Another Thai with their head in the sand who believes their little kingdom is the centre of the earth and who hates being told otherwise. The truth is that Thailand will be a semi-developed dump for another few decades at least.

[mran66]

Airport users' opinion is obviously wrong source of data for this kind of scoring, especially so if users are foreigners. 

 

The correct approach to score thai airports is for thai military to decide the score, and senate to vet it, as they know it best as representatives of Thai people

 

And to for scores of airports in other counties, only thai travelers publicly stated opinions count, assuming those publicly stated opinions are subject to thai laws. 

[hotchilli]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Meanwhile, Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang Airports were ranked 7th and 10th as the worst airports in Asia, according to Business Financing.

Truth hurts.

[NomadikB]

Thin-skinned much?

[Peterphuket]

3 hours ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

Suvarnabhumi isn't that bad, but it was over-capacity when it opened and it is getting worse and worse.

 

They need to sort:

Immigration queues in and out (I use the priority lane as BOI company but it is the biggest concern imo).

Slow baggage delivery to the belts.

Poor maintenance of toilets and other facilities (including some lounges).

Buses to and from gates.

Traffic bottleneck outside the main terminal building.

 

Contrast that with KLIA and SIN who have just implemented auto-gates for foreigners now and Thailand is lagging behind in user experience. 

 

 

Buses to and from gates are depends on the airline you fly with and not because of the airport.

The airlines have to pay extra if they don't use busses but the trunk.

[spidermike007]

We really don't like criticism and we really don't like it when you tell us that we're not the center of the universe. We think we are so why don't you? How could we have a poorly ranked airport, when we are so smart? That's what we want to know, and why are you guys lying about our airports? Don't say bad things about Thailand. We just don't appreciate it, and we don't like it.

 

We don't necessarily want to go out of our way to improve things and spend real money, but we want you to say nice things about us. 

Edited March 8 by spidermike007

[ThaiFelix]

This is outrageous!  You cant have people running around telling the truth...sue them!

[Andrew65]

1 minute ago, Peterphuket said:

Buses to and from gates are depends on the airline you fly with and not because of the airport.

The airlines have to pay extra if they don't use busses but the trunk.

Many years ago I used to fly on the 23:59 flight to Brisbane from Swampy. It was on a Thai B777, and we were bussed out to the plane, which I thought was a bit odd. More understandable if you're on a low-cost airline.

[Snig27]

3 hours ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

Immigration queues in and out (I use the priority lane as BOI company but it is the biggest concern imo).

Slow baggage delivery to the belts.

Poor maintenance of toilets and other facilities (including some lounges).

Buses to and from gates.

Traffic bottleneck outside the main terminal building.

 

Add to that ancient cumbersome security machinery and processing procedures. Most airports don't ask you to remove shoes and belts anymore, and many don't want computers taken out. Instead of fiddling about buying useless submarines maybe the money would be better spent on security at the airport.

 

3 hours ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

KLIA

 

I still think Swampy is a quantum leap ahead of grubby old KLIA. Rude staff, broken everything and shabby facilities. 

[AsiaCheese]

I'm sure "Business Financing, a British travel and tourism media publisher" is a very relevant and reliable source for how to get the biggest and best dandelions too.

[Smokey and the Bandit]

17 minutes ago, LALes said:

Maybe Thailand can sue for giving a bad review.

You really shouldn't give them ideas?

[JMonroe]

Posting one response on X is not a big deal. The whole thing will still be forgotten soon enough.

[john donson]

fragile ego, can they sue, the newspaper or ban the journalist for life ? lol

[Scouse123]

9 minutes ago, Snig27 said:

 

Add to that ancient cumbersome security machinery and processing procedures. Most airports don't ask you to remove shoes and belts anymore, and many don't want computers taken out. Instead of fiddling about buying useless submarines maybe the money would be better spent on security at the airport.

 

 

I still think Swampy is a quantum leap ahead of grubby old KLIA. Rude staff, broken everything and shabby facilities. 

 

 

Many of the UK airports including where I fly from/to Manchester, don't even require you to take liquids out of your hand baggage anymore.

 

Just leave everything in your bags.

[captnhoy]

I hereby invite Mr. Chai Watcharong to arrive at the very lowest level at Suvarnabhumi with a full bladder. Only to discover there are no toilet facilities on that entire floor. I wonder how he would rate the airport then.

[sqwakvfr]

I think Batman (Adam West) once said “sticks and stones will  break my bone but words will not hurt me”.