Suvarnabhumi - Aiming to be top of the league

[webfact]

STREETWISE
Aiming to be top of the league
Achara Deboonme


One of the giants at Suvarnabhumi Airport's passenger terminal

BANGKOK: -- When we were young, we yearned for top scores in our favourite subjects and to be top of the class. When people start their own companies, they want to get ahead of their peers.

On the national scale, nations want to lead in what they are good at. Airports of Thailand's (AOT) dream to turn Suvarnabhumi Airport into the world's best large airport by 2019 falls into this category. A good airport is necessary as being the No.1 on the global tourism map means more income. Tourism is now the best economic engine for Thailand, as our trade and domestic consumption/investment drops.

But this will remain a dream without financial and non-financial investment. AOT Vice-Chairman Pongsak Semson is right in saying that the staff's language proficiency is a weakness. But improving this requires the staff's awareness that they must improve, plus financial investment for specifically designed tutorial courses.

Within Asean, Suvarnabhumi will find it hard to beat Singapore's Changi Airport. With English as its official language, Singapore has an English-speaking workforce. The flexibility of migrant workers also fills any shortages in certain areas. In Thailand, parents have to invest savings to improve their children's language proficiency, as the normal curriculum is not good enough.

International passengers often grumble about the shortage of English-speaking staff at the airport, as seen in their reviews gathered by Skytrax - an airline and airport ranking agency.

Another area that Suvarnabhumi Airport director Rawewan Netrakavesna wants to improve is the baggage transfer service. To draw more connecting flights, service time must be shortened, by May next year, from the current 75 minutes to 60 minutes. Rawewan, whose retirement comes next year, is right to focus on something she can do first, as the airport needs improvement in many areas to become No.1 in the Airports Council International's (ACI) ranking among airports annually handling over 40 million passengers.

In the passenger category, Suvarnabhumi - now at No.6 - trails behind Changi, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Seoul Incheon Airport is currently ranked the best airport in the Asia-Pacific region, followed by Changi, Beijing, New Delhi and Hong Kong.

If No.1 remains Suvarnabhumi's objective after Rawewan's departure, her successor will have to ponder many details. Comments from passengers can be a good guide (www.airlinequality.com), but can also be biased. Passengers have complained about restrooms, shops not accepting foreign currencies, shops having their own exchange rates, lack of signage, and long distances to walk.

In the latest Skytrax ranking, Suvarnabhumi failed to achieve five stars in any category. On the contrary, Changi was awarded five stars in many categories. One was for direction signage. Inside the terminal, it won five stars for seat availability (I vote for this too, as I can find a seat whenever I want to without having to go to a restaurant or food kiosk). It also won five stars for WiFi access (although for this I veto, as I unsuccessfully spent minutes trying to access it.) Five stars also went to air temperature, something that Suvarnabhumi has received a lot of complaints about since its opening in 2006.

Changi has never stopped enhancing its competitiveness. Despite winning five stars for leisure facilities and shopping, the airport recently unveiled "Project Jewel", which will connect all five of its terminals. The car park in front of Terminal 1 will become a world-class shopping complex in a move to capture tourists' attention and boost the country's appeal as a stopover point for global travellers. The complex will offer a wide range of retail outlets as well as unique leisure attractions.

According to The Straits Times, the latest master-plan for Changi involves creating a huge new air terminal, possibly with its own subway station; building a third runway at Changi East, fed by 40 kilometres of taxiways - the length of the Pan Island Expressway from Tuas to Tampines; and diverting Changi Coast Road and a 60-metre-wide canal. The effort, cost and upheaval will be enormous, but there are good reasons for supporting this sky-high ambition.

Singapore realises that Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok have a geographic edge in linking travellers from Europe to Asia. Former Singaporean leader Lee Kuan Yew pointedly warned in 2004 that "Changi will be bypassed and we will lose our air-hub status" if key strategies are misguided.

That explains why the Singapore government puts Changi in its national development plan and is ready to spend on it.

And what are Thailand's strategies? Well, AOT has ambitions but all actions are now financed by its own budget. Can we expect national strategies that will support its ambitions?


-- The Nation 2013-10-01

[lee b]

There is no reason what so ever that this airport cant do this. It needs about 500 million galons of paint so the roof does not look one of an inside carpark, OPEN immigration desks all along the line, instead of 10 being open when they have double+ that ammount, oh and remember the land of smiles, just bloody smile and dont treat people like they are in court. Should be ok then.. Go for it............

Edited September 30, 2013 by lee b

[LuckyLew]

Was there already an article about this a few days ago?

Why is this being announced again?

Are they trying to take the news away from important and realistic goals and issues?

[johnlandy]

Was there already an article about this a few days ago?

Why is this being announced again?

Are they trying to take the news away from important and realistic goals and issues?

If they say it often enough people might just start to believe it.

Svarnabhumi is a shyt hole. 'pure and simple'

[noitom]

Yes there was an article two days ago. The Thais are pushing this airport number one idea without a clue on how they can convince the airlines and customers that they have resolved severe security breaches. Such as the closing , for a week, of the airport by a rogue political group while the government, the airport, the army and the police stood down.

How about the slapping of a security operations personnel at the metal detector by an airport executive caught on video. We recall that the executive was offended that he was asked to go through the metal detector and slapped the employee and then never went through. What has Airports of Thailand done to insure and reflect willingness to provide security that would avoid such incidents?

[laurentbkk]

a very long way to go for those 5 stars needed ..... As I mentioned last time , they should send spies in other great airport to see what can be improved .... Taksin wanted the biggest terminal in the world , the highest control tower but missed the essential ... I hate walking 500m to immigration after 11h flight . not to mention bad A/C system and the worse duty free area.

[GeorgeO]

Was there already an article about this a few days ago?

Why is this being announced again?

Are they trying to take the news away from important and realistic goals and issues?

No, it's just their misguided belief that if you say something enough times, people will start to believe it. Suvarnabhumi No. 1 in the region? Not in my lifetime....!!

[Local Drunk]

Was there already an article about this a few days ago?

Why is this being announced again?

Are they trying to take the news away from important and realistic goals and issues?

If they say it often enough people might just start to believe it.

Svarnabhumi is a shyt hole. 'pure and simple'

Yes, but it's got shiny new "shyt holes".

[NanLaew]

The usual crybabies are out!

[poohy]

Arrived from Istanbul on Sunday

I love being met by a growling immigration official, about 5 booths open all others deserted despite long queues, and literally having my passport thrown back at me this place has one hell of along way to go.

Before you say all immigration officials are the same world wide I travel a fair bit and Thailand's (well at least those at suvanbhumi )seem to be high up in the unfriendly league. They seem at best indifferent or a worst downright unfriendly to arriving passengers

the airport itself, is average nothing more, nothing less

[anon467848]

It will take a lot more than a lick of paint for swampy airport to be rated above Singapore...

[Dfritz2000ph]

There is no reason what so ever that this airport cant do this. It needs about 500 million galons of paint so the roof does not look one of an inside carpark, OPEN immigration desks all along the line, instead of 10 being open when they have double+ that ammount, oh and remember the land of smiles, just bloody smile and dont treat people like they are in court. Should be ok then.. Go for it............

You are exactly right, they don't even smile while the customer is buying, they frown while saying "KA" it's actually iritating and I don't understand why they feel that they are the land of smile..........when infact they are not!!!!!

[FarangTalk]

The airport is run by three criminal gangs, or 'mafia' as the Thais like to call them. With many more hovering around.

That's the first problem right there. AOT have no real power, nor have the other authorities.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/295764-crackdown-fails-to-stop-suvarnabhumi-airport-gangs/

The place was entrenched in corruption and criminality from the very beginning, way back in the 60's when the military generals concocted the scheme to make even more money for their grubby little enterprises. Fascist dictator Thanom Kittikachorn was heavily involved I believe (he being responsible for the 1976 Thammasat University massacre and a right-wing idol of Democrat Party fossils like Chuan Leekpai).

If you believe in Karma Suvarnabhumi is only getting what it justly deserves. Wholesale corruption, construction and design flaws notwithstanding, how can we forget the fire truck scandal, the x-ray scanner scandal, the cracked runway scandals, the alleged dead bodies buried in the concrete structure, the PAD yellow shirts takeover, the armed gang that blockaded the car parks for a week during a dispute, King Power's corrupt practices, extortion of tourists by Police... the list goes on and on and on.

Number one? Really?

[Neilly]

Suvarnabhumi - Aiming to be top of the league

They're not even in the same league as Changi, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Guangzhou so they just as well forget it

[bkk_mike]

On the Singapore Wi-Fi that he couldn't connect to. I'm wondering if it was before or after you had to go to the information counter to get a login. As I will admit, first time I went to Changi, I assumed it would simply work by connecting to it like in Hong Kong (which is what it does now).

(Note: Of course, even the old Changi wi-fi when you had to go to the information counter, was better than Thailand as the login at Suvarnabhumi only works for 30 minutes, and last time I attempted to use it, it took 15 minutes to just log in. And once you did log in and connect, the actual internet connection was awful.

Changi, now that you no longer need a passport, is actually better than Hong Kong as I've had problems in HK with it dropping connections if there are a few people nearby also using the Wi-Fi.

One thing that both Hong Kong and Singapore have, that I haven't seen (or at least haven't noticed) is internet terminals with free internet access. or places to plug in your laptop (outside of the airline lounges). In Singapore there's a special room upstairs (I mostly use Terminal 2), which is free and has terminals and booths where you can sit down and plug in your laptop. In Hong Kong, there's terminals near the gates, and some of the seats have power sockets for computers and USB sockets to let you charge phones.

HK airport and Changi aren't perfect though, so they could be caught with sufficient hard work and the will to make changes.

In both cases they have problems maintaining sockets. In Changi I've come across broken power sockets and broken wired network sockets. (although Changi does always seems to have relatively short immigration queues although that may simply be because of the time of day I tend to arrive...)

Similarly, in Hong Kong, literally half the USB charging sockets had repair required stickers on them saying they were out of service, and I already mentioned the Wi-fi dropping connections. Also, I see the long queues for immigration at HK just like Bangkok. (Admittedly I avoid the worst of them with my HK ID card).

The problem with Bangkok is they're built around one customer... - tourists returning home and shops to buy duty free, shops to buy Thai handicrafts and Thai foodstuffs for presents. There are other useful shops airside (books, magazines, snacks) but they're hidden away on the floor downstairs that, if you're not going to an airport lounge, most people never see.

There's nowhere to sit down except for restaurants, until you're near the gates. I haven't seen an area for kids (Changi has one - even Hong Kong has more open space and an airside toy shop).

Edited October 1, 2013 by bkk_mike

[jingjoke]

#1 " BANGKOK: -- When we were young, we yearned for top scores in our favourite subjects and to be top of the class...."

Not in Thailand..at least not in my experience of teaching all levels P1(private schools) thru University.

[h90]

There is no reason what so ever that this airport cant do this. It needs about 500 million galons of paint so the roof does not look one of an inside carpark, OPEN immigration desks all along the line, instead of 10 being open when they have double+ that ammount, oh and remember the land of smiles, just bloody smile and dont treat people like they are in court. Should be ok then.. Go for it............

Just look at LCC in KL. Everything is made cheap there.

BUT, when you go to the immigration and there are too many people waiting you get the feeling that everyone does the best to reduce the time and make it as pleasant as possible.

Go in and WiFi is working.

Have the place where you can connect all devices to load the battery.

You pay a fix amount for the taxi and it is well organized. You get into the taxi immediately, the Taxi driver knows the address or can figure it out. Speaks English but is polite but don't ask you about your sexual relationships like the Thai Taxis....

Where you go, you get a smile and feel like you are welcome.

So I would rank the old dirty LCC over Suvarnabhumi, because only the clinical design doesn't make an airport good alone.

[stickylies]

jup, my alltime favorite airport because they have 7/11 inside! in which other airport can u buy a bottle of water for 15 bt or a coke for 15 bt ?

and they have the cityline now, 45bt inside town. luv it!

go Suvarnabhumi, go!

Edited October 1, 2013 by stickylies

[Thai at Heart]

Who told them they were good at running airports.

If they want the best airport they would be better to get the Singaporean or Korean authorities to run it...

[ableguy]

And at 70 I plan on being a world class marathon runner, hoping to create a Thai training hub for world class retirees.