Bkk Airport Immigration Deploys 70 Female Riot Police To Help Speed Up Lines

[o2eZy]

never have a problem cause I go with my wife to the thai immigration and she does the same here in Brisbane

immigration in january only had 2 immigration officers working and 3 planes had just landed

talk about cut backs here in OZ

[prakhonchai nick]

I regularly pass through immigration with a group of foreigners. Some have residents permits, some retirement extensions and some marriage extensions. Others Non Imm O whist some have tourist visas and some nothing. And all different nationalities.

With respect to the Immigration Officers, they have to decide who gets how many days, and cannot afford to <deleted> things up. Takes time!

Last time I went through the Thai booth with my residents permit and whilst it was quick, it would have been quicker in the foreigners queue. Only 2/3 people at around 3pm 25th Jan

[maxman71]

Facts: I travel about 300km/year and I am based in BKK for the last 7 years. I have timed queue times in BKK vs. about a dozen other airport immigration all over the world. BKK is by far the SLOWEST; especially during Thai tourism high season.

My question re: hiring female riot police to "speed up" Swampy immigration: Are they going beat the crap out of the tourists in line waiting to spend lots of dough in the LOS, or beat the crap out the slow moving Thai Immigration Officers???

[belg]

on bloomberg yesterday i think : vietnam is seeking investors for their airport to compete with thailand

55555

not difficult i would said

[Familyonthemove]

yes, no need for the separate line at the arrivals for the first and business. In no any other country I have seen it. Good move from the emigration authority

No other country except UK, and Dubai and Qatar, France, Japan ..... etc

Charging a huge mark-up for Business and First and then providing better service on the ground and in the air is a great way to boost airline profits and helps to keep down the cost of normal tickets. If you value the extra services enough - pay for them .... for me, I fly Air Asia and spend the cash on something else, but for very long haul I sometimes upgrade, and for the big extra in cost I expect to save time as well as have more space in the air.

[antipodesant]

I guess male riot police don't have to do paperwork.

I would think it more correct to say that they do not have the intelligence to do the job without at least 10 years training.

[PattayaParent]

"some have been promoted or sought transfers to other organisations to avoid the heavy work load"

Heavy work load sitting at a desk looking at passports?

"About 150 officers from elsewhere in the Immigration Bureau were deployed to the airport, but they weren't able to help much as they were inexperienced

And riot police are more experienced????

Edited March 13, 2012 by PattayaParent

[StuartWinters]

I go through the first class section. Sometimes I have to wait 5 minutes.

BRILLIANT :-)

[Lammbock]

NICE! Tomorrow I have a flight to the Philippines.

[WyattEarp]

No need to hire more people or train them better. Need to cut all the unnecessary red tape that only serves to let us farangs know who's the boss.

[sprq]

At last! Riot police to get the immigration staff in order! Club the slowest ones! Slap the sour-faced ones -- the whole lot of 'em! That'll do the trick.

[attrayant]

i go through the Thai side with the wife, they always let me do that and its always quick

Is this expressly permitted or is it a loophole?

They should open up an express lane where you can speed-through by paying 100 baht, just like the amusement parks do.

Edited March 13, 2012 by attrayant

[Misterwhisper]

I can understand the problem of sudden staff shortages. What I do not understand is why there is so little planning ahead. Every year the Tourism Authority of Thailand increases its foreign tourist targets. That naturally means that the passenger volume at the airport will also increase, thus more immigration staff should be hired and trained on an ongoing basis to keep pace with this ever-increasing volume. And when one then sees that half of the immigration booths remain unmanned during peak hours, one wonders why supervisors don't notice that and report back, so measures can be taken to hire more staff. It is all a matter of organisation. Unfortunately it takes months of enraged readers' lettrs and Internet forum posts and negative newspaper articles locally and abroad before someone at the Immigration Bureau finally bothers to address the problem.

[bra]

Business class fares can be up to 4 or 5 times the cost of economy fares - first class even more. If you pay that much you deserve a fast track line. I have flown for day meetings from KL or Singapore to BKK for day meetings on the first flight and back on an evening flight and you cant do that if you have to wait 2+ hours in the queue. Good airlines pay immigration a fee for processing their first and business passengerss - more money faster service. This applies at UK, Australian, and Malaysian airports (and perhaps others as well?) not just Thailand.

However I agree that the processing should improve for all - 30 minutes at the most should be the aim.

[airconsult]

I guess male riot police don't have to do paperwork.

I would think it more correct to say that they do not have the intelligence to do the job without at least 10 years training.

O/T - reminds me of a story a local told me when I was working in Brisbane 20 years ago - I questioned all the crowd-control police at the cricket - they were HUGE guys (but no guns) and he told me some of them were the police who had for some reason been judged psychologically unsuited to carrying firearms.

Very funny. (I'm sure if SoftGeorge is reading he can correct me)

[pointoffew]

I think that it should be easy, very easy, to immediately recruit enough staff, if no "entry fees" were required to take up the position of immi officer.

[KamnanT]

AOT and the Immigration Bureau are suggesting that the increase in passenger numbers was sudden and unexpected, but aren't airlines required to apply for landing slots at Suvarnabhumi? It's not like they can just say, "We're going to add an extra daily flight to Bangkok starting tomorrow." AOT must have a pretty good idea how many aircraft and of which type will be arriving tomorrow, next week and next month. Did they not bother telling the Immigration Bureau? Or, more likely, did the managers at the Bureau simply choose to ignore the information provided?

[bdenner]

i go through the Thai side with the wife, they always let me do that and its always quick

Is this expressly permitted or is it a loophole?

Don't know but it works for me also! But sometimes they drag their heals there as well and on our last trip we would have been better off in the Farang ques. The officer did apologise to us complaining of being tied.

[tragickingdom]

Let's hope that millions of passengers will divert their journey to Burma and Cambodia. It will teach the bureaucrats a lesson. Stupidity is rife under police. A international airport that halves it's boots needs sincere attention in the international press. There will be a moment that there is a bureaucrat who figures out that checking faces with a database is a good idea. That such cost an hour or more per passenger is unimportant for them.

Known criminals do not have fake passports, they have real passports with a different name.Not even the mass murderers of 9/11 were traveling on fake passports or even on fake visa.

By the way, those known criminals simply come into the country by boat, train or automobile.

[smedly]

Many airlines 'WILL NOT' check you in more than 3 hours ahead of your scheduled flight time.

exactly, this will make no difference whatsoever, you can arrive 4-6 hours before your flight but will be able to do nothing because your checkin only opens 3hrs before

[h90]

_{How hard is it to become an immigration officer? and what are the requirements needed?}

_{PHD in criminology ? BA in pencil pushing? doctorate in sour faces?}

foreign languages are not necessary....heck languages aren't necessary at all. What I heard from them "grumpf, hmm, pff, ugg". Didn't they find 3 Orang Utans recently? Maybe they can be trained.

[scorecard]

Well, you have a terminal that is now handling it's total planned capacity, and the immigration desks have been reduced by 33% because of building works. It is to be expected, and you could not blame anyone.

The second terminal would have been completed this year - except all work was stopped after the coup. The airport plan was somehow identified with Thaksin, and therefore *bad*. After going though several renamings, AOT has managed to get the original plan re-approved again, but unfortunately it will be another 5 years before it's finished.

Cheers

Nobody is to blame. What rubbish. Ever heard of planning?

Your Thaksin angle, what's that got to do with this thread?

[DocN]

Here is a solution: check out the arrival and departure schedule. Estimate the number of passengers. MAN ALL AVAILABLE BOOTHS!

Did that help?

[mrdome]

I go through the first class section. Sometimes I have to wait 5 minutes.

Ahem.... did you read it all?

"Suvarnabhumi airport director Somchai Sawasdipol said fast-track immigration booths for first-class and business-class passengers would be removed..."

[Phaka2]

Flying out to Shanghai tomorrow and Thai Airways said to arrive at least 3 hours before flight time to clear the queue.

[airconsult]

Well, you have a terminal that is now handling it's total planned capacity, and the immigration desks have been reduced by 33% because of building works. It is to be expected, and you could not blame anyone.

The second terminal would have been completed this year - except all work was stopped after the coup. The airport plan was somehow identified with Thaksin, and therefore *bad*. After going though several renamings, AOT has managed to get the original plan re-approved again, but unfortunately it will be another 5 years before it's finished.

Cheers

Nobody is to blame. What rubbish. Ever heard of planning?

Your Thaksin angle, what's that got to do with this thread?

The plans *were* made, the increase in numbers *was* expected. However AOT was told to stop all further development on the master plan after the coup.

The original plan had the second terminal and 3rd runway opening this year, increasing the capacity from 45 million to 90 million. (2011 was 47 million).

Unfortunately it has taken 5 years to get the original plan re-approved, so now the new terminal will open in 2017 (we hope).

That "Thaksin angle" as you put it, was just a comment that after the coup, anything that he had touched seemed to be automatically judged as wrong - in AOT's case, the master plan was correct and would have avoided congestion issues. (at least due to airport capacity, who knows if Immigration would have been able to supply the extra staff)

Cheers

[khunkeith]

Here is a solution: check out the arrival and departure schedule. Estimate the number of passengers. MAN ALL AVAILABLE BOOTHS!

Did that help?

that does not always work. recently, on a return from the Philippines, we arrived at 3AM. 2 planes, one from Hong Kong and one from Shanghai had arrived just before my flight. they had been delayed due to weather for 3 hours. flights get delayed all the time, you can't figure that into it. I would guess that there are more delayed flights than there are on time flight. One time, my flight arrived over an hour early. go figure.

[rotorbreeze]

I avoid the line up when I arrive by booking a flight that arrives 11pm into Bkk via Cathy Pacific, some line ups but be aware passengers will follow each other into a line..if possible look to your extreme far left..it may take some time to walk further but chances are a new stall will open..oh yes to newbies arriving into airport..DO NOT WEAR your Hawaiian shirt or have your camera around your neck..this is bait for the scum that await newbies confused on the on rush of people wanting to help YOU. I suggest wear a tie and short sleeve shirt on last part of your journey, this will mask you as a newbie and lessen the parasites that leach onto new arrivals...also knowing two words...Mia- Ow Cup..(spelling wrong) "No Thank you" in Thai...saying this while exiting as if you have done this guester many times ... the exit path out will part, but will close behind you , like Moses crossing the Red Sea!

[Nisa]

So does it mean there wont be any more fast track for Biz and 1st class passenger during rush hours ? but all planes from Europe usually arrived at the same period of time from 6 to 7am .... so , you pay your ticket more than double and you have to queue like anyone else ? how nice is that ..... Now they ask us to arrive earlier to avoid missing flight ... what about arriving one day in advance , stay at Novotel airport hotel..will be be enough time ? This is crazy ...

You paid for a class of travel on an airline, not Bangkok airport. Complain to your airline and maybe they will contract with the airport to allow their passengers special express lanes as some airlines do in other parts of the world.

[Thai at Heart]

Well, you have a terminal that is now handling it's total planned capacity, and the immigration desks have been reduced by 33% because of building works. It is to be expected, and you could not blame anyone.

The second terminal would have been completed this year - except all work was stopped after the coup. The airport plan was somehow identified with Thaksin, and therefore *bad*. After going though several renamings, AOT has managed to get the original plan re-approved again, but unfortunately it will be another 5 years before it's finished.

Cheers

Nobody is to blame. What rubbish. Ever heard of planning?

Your Thaksin angle, what's that got to do with this thread?

The plans *were* made, the increase in numbers *was* expected. However AOT was told to stop all further development on the master plan after the coup.

The original plan had the second terminal and 3rd runway opening this year, increasing the capacity from 45 million to 90 million. (2011 was 47 million).

Unfortunately it has taken 5 years to get the original plan re-approved, so now the new terminal will open in 2017 (we hope).

That "Thaksin angle" as you put it, was just a comment that after the coup, anything that he had touched seemed to be automatically judged as wrong - in AOT's case, the master plan was correct and would have avoided congestion issues. (at least due to airport capacity, who knows if Immigration would have been able to supply the extra staff)

Cheers

Presumably Immigration and AOT didn't believe TAT numbers either. (And I still don't either)