Busiest Time To Depart Swampy

[JXXXL]

I departed last Friday morning at 00:20 and the airport was absolutely heaving. The queue to stamp out at both immigration areas was snaking far outside the designated areas. I fly out of Swampy a lot and have never seen it this crowded. I usually depart mid-day or early evening.

Did I catch it at a bad time, or is time of day exceptionally busy?

[jackdawson]

people really call it "swampy" ?

[Boon Mee]

^^

Doesn't matter if it's 0200 or 1400 hours, that Immigration line is always long. Typical wait time is now 45 min to get out. I manage to snag a Fast Track Card coming in but something's gotta be done as that airport (Swampy - yes, folks really refer to it as Swampy) is a mess...

Edited August 9, 2010 by Boon Mee

[Familyonthemove]

From what I've seen the busiest time is from Friday evening (after work hours) through to Sunday night .... people taking flights over the weekend so they can start their business/holiday from Monday.

For long haul people also prefer night flights.

So evenings are busier than during the day and weekends busier than weekdays .... so yes - you hit the peak time.

Try mid week and a day flight?

Also - for some odd reason the flight departures seem to be grouped ... may be coincidence, but the India, Gulf and UK flights of different airlines seem to be depart within 10 minutes of each other, so this may cause a spike?

[barryFunk]

^^

Doesn't matter if it's 0200 or 1400 hours, that Immigration line is always long. Typical wait time is now 45 min to get out. I manage to snag a Fast Track Card coming in but something's gotta be done as that airport (Swampy - yes, folks really refer to it as Swampy) is a mess...

Typical wait time is 45 minutes? I must be very lucky then! I've departed BKK internationally at least 25 times over the past three years to a variety of destinations at a variety of times. The longest I've waited was 15 minutes though typically it's more like 5 minutes. Admittedly I have made use of the handy screens which show the state of the other immigration queue and used that one (even if it was further away).

This year I have departed BKK 7 times (most recently last week) and none of my waits to depart have been more than 5 minutes.

The most recent departure from BKK was to Kuala Lumpur where I had to wait over an hour at immigration on arrival and another 45 mins on departure. From touch down to the hotel (via the train and then SkyTrain) was 2.5 hours compared to 1.5 hours which is my typical Bangkok experience (though often closer to an hour).

Yet a lot of people on this forum seem to think that the KL airport is much better than BKK.... Odd.

Compared to my most frequented airports - HAN, SGN, CGK, LHR, YUL, YOW and YYZ - only YOW does a better job (with YUL being a close third after BKK). To me BKK is one of the best airports in the developing world.

Sorry for this rant!

In response to the original poster: it sounds like you caught BKK at its very busiest. I use the airport more than most and have never had such an experience!

Cheers

BarryFunk

[easyride]

^^

Doesn't matter if it's 0200 or 1400 hours, that Immigration line is always long. Typical wait time is now 45 min to get out. I manage to snag a Fast Track Card coming in but something's gotta be done as that airport (Swampy - yes, folks really refer to it as Swampy) is a mess...

Typical wait time is 45 minutes? Admittedly I have made use of the handy screens which show the state of the other immigration queue and used that one (even if it was further away).

I was there 90 minutes the other week with a good flow of people leaping over the barriers claiming thier flight was imminent.

Needless to say most passengers and more annoyingly the Thai officials did nothing to stop them.

Anyway, what handy screens?

[elliss]

people really call it "swampy" ?

yep ,

and i went thru immigration departure this week

@ 8pm .... in less than 5 minutes .

a sure sign that visitors to LOS , are way down ..

long may it last.

[RabC]

Travel through swampy 12 or plus times a year, the only time I face delays at immigration is between 22:00-01:00. Can I also add without a it appearing racist, choose your lines, there are nationalities who will have filled in their TM card correctly and therefore no delays and there are those who wont of. Enough said.

[lomatopo]

For daily scheduled departures the busiest time each day is 07:00 - 08:00 with 33 departures. However many of those are smaller aircraft so the total number of passengers might be less than say the 23:00 - 00:00 block with 22 departures many of which are red-eye widebodies?

-- Block -- Departures

00:01 – 06:00 42

07:00 – 08:00 33

08:00 – 09:00 30

10:00 – 11:00 29

11:00 – 12:00 27

16:00 – 17:00 26

17:00 – 18:00 24

18:00 – 19:00 27

19:00 – 20:00 24

23:00 – 00:00 22

all other blocks have a lot fewer departures. Codeshares have not been counted.

[JXXXL]

For daily scheduled departures the busiest time each day is 07:00 - 08:00 with 33 departures. However many of those are smaller aircraft so the total number of passengers might be less than say the 23:00 - 00:00 block with 22 departures many of which are red-eye widebodies?

-- Block -- Departures

00:01 – 06:00 42

07:00 – 08:00 33

08:00 – 09:00 30

10:00 – 11:00 29

11:00 – 12:00 27

16:00 – 17:00 26

17:00 – 18:00 24

18:00 – 19:00 27

19:00 – 20:00 24

23:00 – 00:00 22

all other blocks have a lot fewer departures. Codeshares have not been counted.

Wow, that's excellent info. 01:00 to 06:00 have a lot of flights and I suspect most of them are closer to 01:00. I also suspect that there are more long-haul flights going to EMEA and the Americas and these would most likely be wide bodies.

I fly out of Swampy 2-3 times a month, always international, and I have seen long immigration queues but nothing compared to what I saw last week at 23:00. It's astonishing that this is a spanking new airport and they are already operating way beyond capacity.

[barryFunk]

Anyway, what handy screens?

As you're walking up to the immigration queues both coming into Thailand and leaving Thailand there are screens that show the other immigration area (there are two non-fast-track lanes coming in and leaving the country). In my experience both coming in at busy times and leaving at busy times the opposite immigration area almost always has a much shorter queue.

This is explained by the fact that so many 00:00 to 02:00 departures and 06:00 to 08:00 arrivals are Thai Airways long haul to/from Europe and Australia (widebodies). These all seem to park at the same pier so coming into the country people are all coming from one direction and going to only one of the immigration areas.

On departure the long queues at one area can be explained the same way - all the Thai Airways check in desks are at one end of the airport.

Have a look at the screens next time and save yourselves lots of time (and anger at AoT!). They're just to the left of the outbound immigration and just to the side of the ramp that leads up to the inbound immigration.

Cheers

barryFunk