Latest On Airport Queues

[rimbung]

As we were promised action to reduce the queues what is the latest?

I'm not due to go through for a few weeks but it appears the complaints have subsided?

[Bluebell]

Don't know about outbound immigration but inbound today early afternoon took 90 mins.

[xen]

Went outbound last thursday about 4.00pm. Took less than 15 minuts in the que but it was crowded and almost every gate was manned by immigration officials.

Edited March 8, 2011 by xen

[FarangBuddha]

Don't know about outbound immigration but inbound today early afternoon took 90 mins.

Geeze...what a cluster-f#ck!

Thank goodness for iPods and iPads

[surangw]

want to bet no one in the office ever thought to match up landing schedules to the number of staff needed to man the booths?

[PattayaParent]

want to bet no one in the office ever thought to match up landing schedules to the number of staff needed to man the booths?

All the officers were transferred over to departures du to the complaints and problems there.

[barryFunk]

At 8pm on 26 February, the queue took less than 10 mins (in fact from Silom Road via check in at Makkasan and the express link, I was in the TG lounge airside within an hour and ten minutes). Re-entering on Monday morning, there were booths without queues at arrivals (with some sleeping immigration staff at them!).

[Boater]

i flew out last week and was through in about 10 mins, i think it is the inbound that takes the time, will update next week when i fy back into bangkok

[londoedan]

I flew out to Jakarta 2 weeks ago (late afternoon) and was through immigration in about 10 mins, queues of 4-5 people at each of the many open immigration desks.

Came back on Wednesday evening and was through very quickly. In fact the journey from landing at SVP to arriving at my apartment building in Central Pattaya (Soi 13) took less than 2 hrs: which might be a record ?

Londo

[gk10002000]

want to bet no one in the office ever thought to match up landing schedules to the number of staff needed to man the booths?

You might think that in this electronic age, most international flights are fairly well scheduled and known. And you would be correct. It would not be too hard to get the numbers correct, within a plane load of people or two. But even if so, there is considerable variance? One or two 747s early or late due to weather, mechanical rescheduling etc,can make 300 or 500 people coming in "unexpected". If 10 immigration booths are staffed, that is still 50 extra people per queue. The wait times can add up.

In my 10 trips in to Thailand, I never waited more than one hour. I usually have mostly arrived from US via Japan or Taiwan at 2 am or 11 am. All but two of my departures have been at about 5 PM and I never had much of wait. The one time I departed at 8 am the airport was the most crowded, but nothing horrid.

[gk10002000]

want to bet no one in the office ever thought to match up landing schedules to the number of staff needed to man the booths?

You might think that in this electronic age, most international flights are fairly well scheduled and known. And you would be correct. It would not be too hard to get the numbers correct, within a plane load of people or two. But even if so, there is considerable variance? One or two 747s early or late due to weather, mechanical rescheduling etc,can make 300 or 500 people coming in "unexpected". If 10 immigration booths are staffed, that is still 50 extra people per queue. The wait times can add up.

In my 10 trips in to Thailand, I never waited more than one hour. I usually have mostly arrived from US via Japan or Taiwan at 2 am or 11 am. All but two of my departures have been at about 5 PM and I never had much of wait. The one time I departed at 8 am the airport was the most crowded, but nothing horrid.

[Ajaan]

Don't pooh-pooh queries on this. This is not just a case of impatient farang newbies. This is REAL.

I've been coming to Thailand since 1999, and I have NEVER seen the kinds of loooooong departure queues that I saw on my last trip (December/January 2010/2011).

Something qualitatively CHANGED. I have no idea what that was, but it's undeniable.

[Jdietz]

Number or tourists?

[dddave]

Departed from BKK for Taipei at 0730 this past Friday (11/3) Thai is using a single line check in queue that moves very fast.

Passport control was being much better run and less chaotic than my last morning departure three weeks ago.

They had set up line barriers outside of passport control to control overflow and had opened up many more counters to foreign travelers. Lines were about 15 to 20 people (about 15 min.) long at 0600, much better than the 40+ per line last month.

I returned to BKK the same night, at 2300. There was virtually no line at immigration, many open counters.

[Jebhead]

Last night there was quite long queues at about 2230, i'd estimate 30+ waiting time at immigration desk...

I used fast track, 5 minutes job done - price 1000baht.

JH