Transport Ministry Still Aims To Make Suvarnabhumi Airport Into Regional Aviation Hub

[webfact]

Transport Ministry still aims to make Suvarnabhumi Airport into regional aviation hub

BANGKOK, 9 January 2012 (NNT) – The Ministry of Transport is hopeful that it will soon be able to turn the country's main airport into a new regional aviation hub.

Deputy Transport Minister Chadchart Sittipunt conceded on Wednesday that the ambitious plan to make Suvarnabhumi International Airport into a regional aviation hub is behind schedule due to a number of hiccups.

Among unresolved obstacles are the slow work at the immigration counters and the longer-than-expected baggage claims.

Mr. Chadchart said that the baggage transfer process at Suvarnabhumi Airport takes an average of 90 minutes, which is longer than the 60-minute record at other regional airports, or twice the time recorded at Incheon International Airport.

The Deputy Transport Minister stated that speedy and convenient service is highly essential in attracting more airlines to Bangkok's main airport.

He went on to say that, at present, Airports of Thailand PCL is investing THB1.7 billion in the installation of a Transfer Baggage Terminal. The project is scheduled to be completed in 18 months, after which the baggage waiting time is expected to be cut down to 60 minutes.

-- NNT 2012-02-09

[Soutpeel]

Must be the "hub and crack down" time of the year again...

They got a long way to go before they catch up with Changi

Edited February 9, 2012 by Soutpeel

[Reasonableman]

Oh dear, the dreaded 3-letter hub word again... with such a history of dismal hub failures, maybe its time to change the vocab. BTW, "Center of excellence" also needs an overhaul. Suggestions?

[paulklee]

Shub = s*** hub

Dub = dumb hub, dream-on hub

Pub = piss poor hub (dam_n! pub's already taken)

Fub = fantasy hub

...and the rest?

Edited February 9, 2012 by paulklee

[laurentbkk]

Why do they want to make it the regional HUB ? why Thais must need such recognition from others ? This airport is a mess , on my way back last week I had to wait 40 mn for my luggages after walking 600m to the immigration and queue for nearly one hour ..... arrived at 7am left the airport just before 9am .... WELL DONE this is how you see this "Regional HUB" stop jocking and ACT . that would be better .. Bangkok will never be Singapore , Seoul or Hong kong ..dream on !!!!

[laurentbkk]

why such need in recognition ? Bangkok airport is a mess .... arrival from Europe last week: 600M walk to the immigration , one hour queue , 45mn for my luggage to arrive. plane arrive at 7am , I left airport nearly 9am Well done for a regonial HUB.

Bangkok will never be Seoul or Singapore or even hong kong ..so stop to dream and act , this BKK airport is a big joke

[ding]

Swamp hub

[Soi Sauce]

The taxis, touts, shop scams, and mafia take-overs of the parking areas would not happen in a decent country, let alone at its wannabee prestigious airport.

Dream on Thailand. Learn what standards are before thinking you can be a hub for anything.

[Moruya]

Suvarnaphum is an awful airport.

I fly twice a week and it's an airport I dread. Immigration is dreadfully slow. Getting to and from gates is too long, Baggage is too slow. Customs is fine.

As mentioned above, go look at Changi to see how an airport should operate.

Thai Airways are also very poor. Old planes, poor staff, late boarding, dump you into a bus, lounges run on the cheap.

In order for BKK to operate as a hub it needs 2 things. An airport that is convenient to navigate and an airline that can compete with the rest. That's why Singapore hits the spot.

[ableguy]

Only have to wait 60 minutes now for luggage WOW then a couple of hours for immigration finally get out to be accosted by all the taxi and hotel touts, welcome to the land of crackdowns where tourists are really appreciated

[Unkomoncents]

The hilarious and utterly revealing part of this article is the "...Still..." in the title. That says it all. When I think about the contextual use of this word here, I'm reminded of that socially awkward, obtuse, weight-lifting kid that used to empty the room with his mere presence (he's now an American police officer or military recruit, by the way by default). You can almost here him: "Hey you guys...so...what...are we doing?" "Hey, hey, guys! I'm still here." The hub nonsense is truly grating. Yes Thailand. You are still here. And you still want to be the hub of everything. Unfortunately, your predilection for superficiality, single-minded demagogues, general lawlessness, unreliable goods and services, and brazen racketeering and venality generally don't lend to fourishing-tourist-hub status. Couple that global financial chaos and increasing climate/environmental uncertainty and you've got a recipe for disaster. Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, and Asian focused investment consultancy based in Hong Kong, recently ranked Thailand the #2 most risky country in Asia for investors (behind India, and leaving out the obvious non-players Burma, Laos, and Cambodia, North Korea, etc).

See: www.asiarisk.com

[antipodesant]

Must be the "hub and crack down" time of the year again...

They got a long way to go before they catch up with Changi

Even if Suvarnabhumi is there in 500 years it will never "ever" catch up with Changi. 100% IMPOSSIBLE

[KKK]

The only thing Thailand is capable of being the hub of is "BULLSHIT"...

[IAMHERE]

Two years ago my plane thru Narita was delayed. The airline placed almost two hundred people in a hotel overnight. I got a visa stamp for Japan; it was 20 minutes thru immigration to the bus to the hotel and it was less than 20 minutes back into the airport the next morning. Can anyone immagine the absolute cluster floock if you had to go thru BKK immigration and back in the next morning. I'd never take the chance of getting stuck in Savahnaboomie. Never gonna be capable of being a regional hub is my opinion.

[notime]

Do they talk about "baggage transfer time" to other flights or passenger waiting time for the arriving baggage? I never remember waiting 90 min for baggage at any airport. After an hour I would consider the baggage lost. Does the author of this article know what he/she is writing about and ever traveled by air? I guess not.

They cannot "make" Swampy into the regional hub without taking out the other "regional hubs" first. So, what is Thai Ministry going to do about that? Nuke them or send them poisoned som tam? But of course every airport can see itself as regional hub. Why only "regional"? .. Hub of the Planet .. talk is cheap.

[americaninbangkok]

Dare to dream.

Any word on whatever happened to former MOT PermSec Sublom?

[fire and ice]

This is how much of a joke it can be:

With baby & 8 y/o kid in tow me & my Thai wife have to get from the Xray machines after immigration to our gate. We have substantial hang baggage and with wife caryring the baby I have to lug the lot. There are hand luggage trolleys but the stack of these is about 200metres past the Xray machines - a pointless place for them to be!! Then after walking only 200metres withthe trolley (to gate E7) we have to abandon the trolley to go down a stupid escalator before walkign no more trolley) a further 250 metres to the gate, then down the sill ramp (no more trolley) to descend tot he gate.

All the chairs a metal (a hazard for baby and kids) and there is no carpet.

All of this is the opposite of Singapore & HK airports BTW.

[mickmac]

I feel that they also have to address the monorail link to/from the airport. Looks to be a great mode of transport for people going to/from work or people living on the outskirts heading into BKK. If you have a lot of baggage/cases etc. then it gets really painful when having to change over at Makkassan. One has to get out of the station and walk to the main road, cross the rail lines then another 100 yds on to the underground. I did this journey last Friday morning, time wise it did beat coming in from the airport in the traffic, but I found it a real pain and that was without any baggage. Why didn't they build a footbridge from the alight platform direct to the subway station, then an escalator down?

I arrived in BKK on the Saturday morning a week or so ago, and the queue at the immigration areas was the worst I have ever seen since the airport had been opened, one of them had people backing out down the slope onto the main concourse, absolutely horrendous.

Regional Hub............I'm afraid not.

[TheWalkingMan]

Same planet, different world.

These people must be inside of a bubble to publicly state that they still want to make that place a hub. They got it wrong with the design and they got it wrong with services.

They had enough time to review the airports in HK, Changi and Seoul to take the best parts and emulate. They couldn't or wouldn't even do that. What was one of the biggest highlights that people said when the place first opened... "Tallest control tower." That might be the item that they can point to and say, "We did it!"

[JXXXL]

Why do they want to make it the regional HUB ? why Thais must need such recognition from others ? This airport is a mess , on my way back last week I had to wait 40 mn for my luggages after walking 600m to the immigration and queue for nearly one hour ..... arrived at 7am left the airport just before 9am .... WELL DONE this is how you see this "Regional HUB" stop jocking and ACT . that would be better .. Bangkok will never be Singapore , Seoul or Hong kong ..dream on !!!!

Ditto. Swampypoom is a joke. Worst modern airport I have ever used.

[bigbamboo]

Why do they want to make it the regional HUB ? why Thais must need such recognition from others ? This airport is a mess , on my way back last week I had to wait 40 mn for my luggages after walking 600m to the immigration and queue for nearly one hour ..... arrived at 7am left the airport just before 9am .... WELL DONE this is how you see this "Regional HUB" stop jocking and ACT . that would be better .. Bangkok will never be Singapore , Seoul or Hong kong ..dream on !!!!

Sadly there are already too many superior international airports in this part of the world for Suvarnabhumi to even hope to be able to compete for the title of regional hub. If it was the best airport for travellers in Thailand that alone would be an improvement.

Edited February 9, 2012 by bigbamboo

[RubbaJohnny]

To be fair considering the delays graft Duty free ,scanner ,runway and car park scams I suggest it is certainly the second best Airport in

BANGKOK

Despite overcrowding prices ,access and travel times were and are better at Don Muang

I live in the North and choose C Mai via KL and Changi both well managed.

heading to Europe'USA C mai Incheon and onwards

Corruption is at the core while the Official who does need security checks is far more worrying than any number of US embassy alerts.

A second rate investment for athird world service.

[exalll]

To be fair considering the delays graft Duty free ,scanner ,runway and car park scams I suggest it is certainly the second best Airport in

BANGKOK

Despite overcrowding prices ,access and travel times were and are better at Don Muang

I live in the North and choose C Mai via KL and Changi both well managed.

heading to Europe'USA C mai Incheon and onwards

Corruption is at the core while the Official who does need security checks is far more worrying than any number of US embassy alerts.

A second rate investment for athird world service.

I'm sorry, but even though Suvharnabhumi is not wonderful, Don Meuang was absolutely awful. Ever try catching a taxi there? Dozens of taxis leaving the arrivals area empty every minute because the mafia did not allow them to pick up. And, unlike Suvharnabhumi, where you can always catch a taxi at departures, at Don Meuang you had to try to dodge the officious mafia-inspired security guards, and usually this was not possible. Other than waiting an hour or two for the mafia-endorsed taxis to dribble in, the only real option was to wheel your luggage over the bridge to the airport hotel.

[pimay11]

Transport Ministry still aims to make Suvarnabhumi Airport into regional aviation hub

How about the regional ear boxing hub?

[KeyserSoze01]

why such need in recognition ? Bangkok airport is a mess .... arrival from Europe last week: 600M walk to the immigration , one hour queue , 45mn for my luggage to arrive. plane arrive at 7am , I left airport nearly 9am Well done for a regonial HUB.

Bangkok will never be Seoul or Singapore or even hong kong ..so stop to dream and act , this BKK airport is a big joke

Obsessed with image and gaining face.

There is a saying in the advertising business, 1% steak, 99% sizzle. In other words, 1% substance and 99% BS. I believe this applies to the "hub" of all things in SEA.

Swampy has a long way to go before it is even up to par with Changi, Incheon, Narita or HK.

[IsaanUSA]

Despite overcrowding prices ,access and travel times were and are better at Don Muang

I live in the North and choose C(hiang) Mai via KL and Changi both well managed.

I've also done this route. Very easy and convenient.

[Baerboxer]

why such need in recognition ? Bangkok airport is a mess .... arrival from Europe last week: 600M walk to the immigration , one hour queue , 45mn for my luggage to arrive. plane arrive at 7am , I left airport nearly 9am Well done for a regonial HUB.

Bangkok will never be Seoul or Singapore or even hong kong ..so stop to dream and act , this BKK airport is a big joke

Deja Vu

[hellodolly]

Do they talk about "baggage transfer time" to other flights or passenger waiting time for the arriving baggage? I never remember waiting 90 min for baggage at any airport. After an hour I would consider the baggage lost. Does the author of this article know what he/she is writing about and ever traveled by air? I guess not.

They cannot "make" Swampy into the regional hub without taking out the other "regional hubs" first. So, what is Thai Ministry going to do about that? Nuke them or send them poisoned som tam? But of course every airport can see itself as regional hub. Why only "regional"? .. Hub of the Planet .. talk is cheap.

I agree with you about the baggage wait time.

As for the immigration.

I have a question.

Here in Chiang Mai when people go report in for their ninety day retirement visa apparently they are starting to attach a bar code to the passport. Could this be the beginning of a attempt to speed up immigration.

Funny thing about immigration the last time I went through it in Swampy I was through faster than my Thai wife. we were returning from Siem Reap

[NanLaew]

I bill my clients for travel, prorated on hours so the one-hour domestic flight is in reality a half-day affair.

Don't even think about messing with the current efficiency of Suvarnabhumi!

[SantiSuk]

Surely it's already a hub. Try flying to most cities in the immediate region of Thailand from Europe (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar). Chances are you will end up changing in Swampy.

If they want to increase traffic as a hub they should focus on getting more routes out of Swampy and into regional cities (not just the capitals) in those countries and they should start putting some pressure on the routes where monopoly predatory pricing is applied - eg Bangkok Airways to Siem Reap.

I have used Swampy extensively since it opened. The immigration queues were quite ok by international standards 5 years ago - I travelled on biusiness a lot back then. Now they are a joke (my last arrival I finally made it into the plus 1 hour category) and becoming a serious deterrent to business and holiday travel into the country, although normal holidaymakers are less sensitive to this than the lucrative business conference/exhibition trade.

So easy to fix the simple things. Yes Changi is world class and will be difficult to beat. I don't see it as impossible for Thailand to get somewhere up there though if those in charge are prepared to take the cultural blinkers off.