Taxi Queues Are Clogging Up Arrivals

[nostrel]

these pics show that they forgot to allow enough room for arrivals to queue for a taxi so they are backing up something terrible into the arrivals area..its gonna be mega bad at xmas and new year !

and this is only low season ..

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

and a bottleneck as you exit the arrivals area due to guys waiting to pick up arrivals>>

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

[Vespa]

these pics show that they forgot to allow enough room for arrivals to queue for a taxi so they are backing up something terrible into the arrivals area..its gonna be mega bad at xmas and new year !

and this is only low season ..

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

and a bottleneck as you exit the arrivals area due to guys waiting to pick up arrivals>>

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

Hope this is a glitch that can be worked out .

Old Don Muang was never that bad.

[britmaveric]

Yikes!!!

[jdinasia]

it is 2 days in ...... they'll work it out fast

[britmaveric]

it is 2 days in ...... they'll work it out fast

Lets hope....

[nostrel]

surprising that the bottleneck is still in existance ,where the guys with signs wait and the taxi hustlers clog up the area . you would have thought this problem would have been designed out from the old place !You know what its like as pax with trollies cant get thru the blockage !!

[Crossy]

Nasty!

So, has anyone tried getting a taxi at the Transport Centre (after a shuttle ride)??

[nostrel]

i found this quote on another forum..>>>>

*********************************************************

"To get a taxi from arrivals, passengers have to go down a floor,

yesterday the taxi areas were packed! the queues started at the bottom

of the travellators from the arrivals level and crossed over the

building, out through the doors and snaked around the open concourse

until they reached the taxi counters (1 at each door 2 people manning

them) "

[singa-traz]

it is 2 days in ...... they'll work it out fast

Don Muang was operating so many years, and getting a taxi after you arrived, was always a pain.

How difficult was it to go to Changi airport, watch how they handle this, and just copy.

[RenzoInOz]

I arrived at the new airport at about 5pm last night (Friday) from Hong Kong. Thankfully i had only carry-on baggage, but the process from landing to the city centre was still a mission! I think the exterior design of the airport is world class and I have been talking up the facility to friends and family in Australia and New Zealand for months.

So I was hugely disappointed with the apparent dysfunctionality of the complex - one hopes these issues can be overcome soon!

Points that need to be addressed (in no particular order):

* The arrivals hall is considerably smaller than at Don Muang - and in any other large airport I have visited anywhere in the world for that matter. There were so many people crowded about post customs one could not find the prepaid taxi (limo) counters. Apparently there is just the one narrow gate through which people can exit and when i walked out, everyone was at a standstill, unable to move forward through a sea of chauffers clutching signs, family awaiting arriving friends, etc. Signage is shocking! Only some obviously hastily prepared paper signs stick on walls, pillars and small stands showed the way to an escalator leading down to the taxi pick-up area. And the queues here were as bad as the posted pictures show, if not worse! There was no shortage of taxis waiting for customers - but there was no ordered system for loading passengers and allocating cabs. Thus it's something of a free-for all with up to 3 canbs side by side trying to load and the one closest to the kerb unable to get away easily. It's chaotic, dangerous and inefficient. Yet if the design team had spent five minutes at Changi they'd see how ot organise taxis for arrivals very simply!

* Signage everywhere is spartan - it's especially bad in the baggage claim area (those with poor eye sight will find it very hard to spot the green and red lanes) and when going to the immigration hall. The problem here is that immigration counters are in clusters off a long corridor. When I arrived, people were queuing for a long time at the first cluster and ground staff were trying to encourage arriving passengers to continue walking down the corridor. I discovered the second cluster, but the queues were still long... (Thankfully I travel on an APEC card so was able to sue a priority counter). Once through, i glanced to my right to see another cluster with staff sitting idle behind counters - no queues, no customers. Because no-one understood the layout. At least 20 of those queuing could have gone straight to a counter had they known to keep walking!

* Lighting. Presumably to save energy, AOT has utilised very low power dull lighting in many areas - especially in the arrivals hall post customs. The overall effect is to convey an impression in many parts of the terminal of a "dull, drab, grey" (read: depressing) feel. Not a bright welcoming environment to greet people to the country!

* Frankly, despite what the politicians and officials have said, this airport should not have been opened until more complete. When exiting the airbridge (already inexplicably featuring surface rust just one day after opening!) one is assaulted by chemical smells from floor coatings (or something) and everywhere one looks on the long, long walk to arrivals processing there are construction workers, mobile mini cranes, and half furnished rooms...

* Traffic management. Imagine this: finally you get a taxi from the chaos and it takes at least 15 minutes to get the short distance from the airport to the highway. My driver was clearly frustrated by the traffic jam - a similar scenario to Sukhumvit at 5pm on a rainy day (yet this day was fine!). Clearly someone goofed up when figuring out the lane and signalling requirements for getting vehicles out of the airport on their way to Bangkok (or wherever). I left the airport at 6pm and finally got to my apartment in Thong Lor at about 6.20pm.

Suvarnabhumi promises to be a major asset to Thailand and a desirable transit hub for travellers going further afield.

I truly hope some of these areas can be addressed over time - and that the traffic problems can be ironed out.

I'll be back there in a week for my first experience flying out. I know to allow at least an hour for the trip, alas: more than twice the time it usually took to get to a lot more functional Don Muang. Although essentially a tired old collection of concrete sheds, Don Muang was largely functional and passenger friendly and it was easy to get in and out from/to taxis, etc.

If I had a choice, I'd have stuck to DM!

[lomatopo]

This brings up an obvious question - can you still walk to the departure area and grab a taxi that has just dropped off someone else like at DM airport? Has anyone tried this yet?

I'll be trying this when I return next week. The big question is, can you get from level 2 to level 4 after you clear Immigration, baggage claim and Customs? I think once you get up there grabbing a taxi should be easy provided there are no law enforcement officials around?

[nostrel]

the problem is that it was designed with limos in mind and not a public taxi service ,you could take the limo or the bus to the taxi holding area. What was needed was underground tunnels with travelators to disperse arrivals quickly to holding areas where they could catch a taxi ,instead it appears they are all coralled in arrivals. i dont know who the architects are but they have not given enough thought to getting passengers away quickly. The arrivals area looks like a provincial airport terminal , and too narrow. It does look gloomy compared with term 2 at DM which was bright and welcoming .

[bkkandrew]

This brings up an obvious question - can you still walk to the departure area and grab a taxi that has just dropped off someone else like at DM airport? Has anyone tried this yet?

I'll be trying this when I return next week. The big question is, can you get from level 2 to level 4 after you clear Immigration, baggage claim and Customs? I think once you get up there grabbing a taxi should be easy provided there are no law enforcement officials around?

This is the key point. I have arranged for my GF to arrive at departures in a taxi to coincide with me exiting. If the "departures" trick does not work at the new airport then I will possibly be responsible for a serious offence!

[think_too_mut]

the problem is that it was designed with limos in mind and not a public taxi service ,you could take the limo or the bus to the taxi holding area. What was needed was underground tunnels with travelators to disperse arrivals quickly to holding areas where they could catch a taxi ,instead it appears they are all coralled in arrivals. i dont know who the architects are but they have not given enough thought to getting passengers away quickly. The arrivals area looks like a provincial airport terminal , and too narrow. It does look gloomy compared with term 2 at DM which was bright and welcoming .

Arrival area is badly designed - it's narrow and packed with people, I hardly made it out through the crowd. And then, taxis are at level below. From known faces limo people took a limo (they were sitting outside on a bench, like birds).

Terribly designed post baggage arrival arrea would have emerged even if they gave the airport another 10 years to open.

Edited October 1, 2006 by think_too_mut

[think_too_mut]

Just read in BKK Post (hard copy, could not find that article online) about entire families going to see off or meet 1 family member.

Also, it has became a day out with children, just for hanging on or people who had nevers seen a plane. It even describes amusement of a truck driver who took his wife and son to see the planes for the first time. "Look, a smoke comes from the tyres as it touches down".

The worst time was exactly when I arrived - Saturday after lunch. That may explain that from the plane to the bagage carousell it took 7 minutes and then it became a slow death.

The masse in the arrival area was unreal, probably not something that the architects had expected.

I can best describe it as something Don Muang had around and after the arrival fence but compressed in a more narrow area and stretched all the way to both ends of the building.

Hope the novelty wears off soon.

[The Philosopher]

these pics show that they forgot to allow enough room for arrivals to queue for a taxi so they are backing up something terrible into the arrivals area..its gonna be mega bad at xmas and new year !

and this is only low season ..

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

and a bottleneck as you exit the arrivals area due to guys waiting to pick up arrivals>>

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

Are we takling about meter taxi's or Airport Limo Services

[nostrel]

these pics show that they forgot to allow enough room for arrivals to queue for a taxi so they are backing up something terrible into the arrivals area..its gonna be mega bad at xmas and new year !

and this is only low season ..

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

and a bottleneck as you exit the arrivals area due to guys waiting to pick up arrivals>>

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

Are we takling about meter taxi's or Airport Limo Services

the 2 services are on different floors

[permanent_disorder]

these pics show that they forgot to allow enough room for arrivals to queue for a taxi so they are backing up something terrible into the arrivals area..its gonna be mega bad at xmas and new year !

and this is only low season ..

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

Are we takling about meter taxi's or Airport Limo Services

the queues in these photos show the taxi waiting queues. it took a car from the limo service after i see that too. (friday afternoon) limo was 1100 baht to sathorn area. staff a the limo counter also show some confusion. there have been no waiting limos, first they made a walki talki call to car park then the limo came after 10 minutes.but then i see maybe after a 5 minutes car ride hunderts of taxi waiting at these public transport center. but on they airport self i didn't see big signs which direct me to a shuttle bus service or something like that. the idea is people don't get their taxi at the airport but on this Public transport center which is a 5 min bus shuttle ride away.

to get this taxi sitution cleared they must allow more waiting taxis at the airport, or just put a lot of more shuttle buses and some staff or signs explaining' hey please take the bus shuttle'

driving to sathorn was very quick around half hour.

time for me at the airport international arriaval between landing and have my pasport stamped and found my bag around 40 minutes or less. then i was waiting for my friend coming with a domestic flight. she had to wait 1 hour until her bag show up.

we booth leaving three days before, with air asia. this was okay, but then it was 2 days before all of the flight leaving the new airport, but i guess soon we will have some departure reports with a similar tone about the misconcept. on tuesday i didn't have to pay departure tax, i was thinking, hey finally they managed it that i pay for it with my ticket allready. but i was wrong, on friday there have been the departure ticket seller and the hole punch armed controller women back.

have the same feeling about the airport arrival hall -much too small, same for the floor what they call meeting area, only few restaurants there (starbucks and canyon but no burgerking or McDo), full and cramped not enough space or capacity to take care at all these people. the restaurant self to small to go trough if you carry big bag or even anykind of luggage, space like you have on a typical thai noodle shop in jatuchak market, same goes for the pedestarian traffic.

aircon was not well too, lot of areas too hot, but i hope they can that fix easy.

[LaoPo]

i dont know who the architects are but they have not given enough thought to getting passengers away quickly. The arrivals area looks like a provincial airport terminal , and too narrow. It does look gloomy compared with term 2 at DM which was bright and welcoming .

I wrote this on another topic about Suvarnabhumi..............:

""I find it UNBELIEVABLE that a very large Architect company like Murphy/Jahn from Chicago-USA who are responsible for the design of the airport make so many mistakes.

Moreover since they have a long reputation with, a.o., other airports such as in Munchen and Koln/Bonn Germany as well of the airport Chicago/O'hara itself.

They are also responsible for the huge Expo centre in Shanghai.

How on earth can they be responsible for so may mistakes in design.

I'm completely puzzled.

And: WHY ON EARTH don't we read something in the papers or on the net about them and their responsibilities?

The only thing we hear is (sometimes) some Thai airport-authority.....

WHERE IS MURHPY/JAHN ?

http://www.murphyjahn.com/english/frameset_intro.htm

LaoPo""

LaoPo

[chechoie]

Called the wife.

She flew from Jakarta to Bangkok today, arrived in Bangkok at 4.35 pm, TG 434.

I called her at 5.30pm and she said she was just entering her hotel room. Tai pan Hotel

Suk 23, (not bad going I’m thinking).

She was a bit apprehensive about flying into the new airport on her own,

(my fault of course), but she said it was nae bother!

She said that a sleaze ball in a suit approached her and offered an 800 baht ride into the city, but she politely declined, (yeah, I can picture it now).

She told me a nice Issan man told her to go downstairs. She did this and jumped into a taxi. 30 minutes later she was in the Tai pan.

So maybe it’s getting better, eh?

[Big A]

She said that a sleaze ball in a suit approached her and offered an 800 baht ride into the city, but she politely declined, (yeah, I can picture it now).

Oh ho!!! La cosa nostra del Don (Corleoni) Muang are back?!!

Edited October 1, 2006 by Big A

[Johpa]

WHERE IS MURHPY/JAHN ?

http://www.murphyjahn.com/english/frameset_intro.htm

LaoPo

From the Murphy/Jhan website regarding Suwanabum Airport:

Based upon the masterplan and preliminary schematic design documents that have been already prepared, this concept emphasizes passenger circulation over aircraft circulation. Although the curbfront area is not capable of providing for the ultimate capacity of the site, leading to two separate entrances, it is the most compact terminal of those that we studied.

Let's see. The plan emphasizes passenger circulation over aircraft. Perhaps this is why aircraft do not dock at gates and passengers are then circulated by bus to and from the aircraft. Increased circulation here does not seem to provide any benefits to the passenger but does indeed increase circulation, the empasis being on the root word "circle".

Ok, and the "curbfront" is not capable of providing for the ultimate capacity of the site. It makes no mention as to up to which point it does provides for capacity. And I note that I infer that "curbside" is a euphemism that inlcudes the arrivals area.

So it looks like that Murphy/Jhan was well aware of many of the design issues (seen as flaws by travelers) being discussed here and admits to designing "the most compact terminal" of several that were considered. Thus it seems to me that the fault lies amongst some unknown group of Thais who signed off on the "most compact" design offered for their consideration.

[laxman1960]

This brings up an obvious question - can you still walk to the departure area and grab a taxi that has just dropped off someone else like at DM airport? Has anyone tried this yet?

I'll be trying this when I return next week. The big question is, can you get from level 2 to level 4 after you clear Immigration, baggage claim and Customs? I think once you get up there grabbing a taxi should be easy provided there are no law enforcement officials around?

Yes you can but you still have to get through the bottleneck walking out of Customs on the Arrival level. Then you can go to the escalator or elevators and go up to the 4th floor Departure level. That is what I did on Saturday night when my wife was picking me up.

The airport's only major flaw is the tight arrivals area, it wasn't that crowded a time when I landed on Saturday but it sure was packed coming out of Customs.

I agree that the place doesn't look finished, the boarding bridges still had plastic on the walls, the gate counters were wrapped in plastic for my flight on Thursday, the wireless internet service is not working yet either. I saw the poor tiles, and places that didn't look that clean but agree a lot has to do with all the construction work going on to finish off the parts that need finishing.

When I landed on Saturday the lines at Immigration were short (around 530pm) and I was through in minutes from landing to arrivals even with a stop at the duty free after immigration to buy some wine before clearing Customs. They were so funny too, made me pay cash for the second bottle of wine to keep it all legal, and made me put one bottle in my bag. At DM I would just buy two bottles, get a receipt for only one and carry the bag through customs no problem.

Dan

[Zen]

This brings up an obvious question - can you still walk to the departure area and grab a taxi that has just dropped off someone else like at DM airport? Has anyone tried this yet?

I'll be trying this when I return next week. The big question is, can you get from level 2 to level 4 after you clear Immigration, baggage claim and Customs? I think once you get up there grabbing a taxi should be easy provided there are no law enforcement officials around?

I heard from many taxi drivers that they're not allowed to pick anyone up when they drop passengers off at the new airport. Only taxis who are "members" can pick passengers up..but at the designated taxi stand only.

Even taxi drivers are complaining that it's so much more difficult to be a "member" there compared to Don Muang.

[Zen]

these pics show that they forgot to allow enough room for arrivals to queue for a taxi so they are backing up something terrible into the arrivals area..its gonna be mega bad at xmas and new year !

and this is only low season ..

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sandycruden/...jpg&.src=ph

Are we takling about meter taxi's or Airport Limo Services

the queues in these photos show the taxi waiting queues. it took a car from the limo service after i see that too. (friday afternoon) limo was 1100 baht to sathorn area. staff a the limo counter also show some confusion. there have been no waiting limos, first they made a walki talki call to car park then the limo came after 10 minutes.but then i see maybe after a 5 minutes car ride hunderts of taxi waiting at these public transport center. but on they airport self i didn't see big signs which direct me to a shuttle bus service or something like that. the idea is people don't get their taxi at the airport but on this Public transport center which is a 5 min bus shuttle ride away.

to get this taxi sitution cleared they must allow more waiting taxis at the airport, or just put a lot of more shuttle buses and some staff or signs explaining' hey please take the bus shuttle'

driving to sathorn was very quick around half hour.

time for me at the airport international arriaval between landing and have my pasport stamped and found my bag around 40 minutes or less. then i was waiting for my friend coming with a domestic flight. she had to wait 1 hour until her bag show up.

we booth leaving three days before, with air asia. this was okay, but then it was 2 days before all of the flight leaving the new airport, but i guess soon we will have some departure reports with a similar tone about the misconcept. on tuesday i didn't have to pay departure tax, i was thinking, hey finally they managed it that i pay for it with my ticket allready. but i was wrong, on friday there have been the departure ticket seller and the hole punch armed controller women back.

have the same feeling about the airport arrival hall -much too small, same for the floor what they call meeting area, only few restaurants there (starbucks and canyon but no burgerking or McDo), full and cramped not enough space or capacity to take care at all these people. the restaurant self to small to go trough if you carry big bag or even anykind of luggage, space like you have on a typical thai noodle shop in jatuchak market, same goes for the pedestarian traffic.

aircon was not well too, lot of areas too hot, but i hope they can that fix easy.

Agreed! Strangely there's only one Limo service here...at Don Muang there were so many...I hope it's just because they've just opened..hope more limo services will be availble soon

[britmaveric]

Agreed! Strangely there's only one Limo service here...at Don Muang there were so many...I hope it's just because they've just opened..hope more limo services will be availble soon

Single contract handed out - stuck with 1 limo service I'm afraid. Politicians prob made a mint from doing this.

[Plus]

So, the largest airport in the world also has the most compact terminal?!?

They will never make it a "hub" with logic like this. Ok, I haven't even been there yet, but don't you think SA won't score very high on annual airport rankings with arrivals designed like that? DM had three terminals - two international and one domestic, that means three taxi stands. At SA they all converge in ONE taxi pickup area that wasn't even designed to be there.

Perhaps they are lucky that most travellers don't really care about airports when chosing their destination.

[samran]

Agreed! Strangely there's only one Limo service here...at Don Muang there were so many...I hope it's just because they've just opened..hope more limo services will be availble soon

Single contract handed out - stuck with 1 limo service I'm afraid. Politicians prob made a mint from doing this.

No pollies. Just a one, Mrs Thaksin Shinawatra. All above board of course.

I'm sure now that she is gone, the others will elbow their way back in. They'll be voicing their opinions at the upcoming corruption investigation, thats for sure. Just give it time.

[tolsti]

Just a quick question.... you're reporting 'just one limo service'....

I've got a ''limo'' booked for my arrival next Saturday...They say there will be a driver with a sign with my name on it... OK so far...

Do you mean that there is just one service who have desks there... or that only one service is allowed onto the airport.

I'm booked (but not paid) with AAC...

Your advice please people............

[tolsti]

Just a quick question.... you're reporting 'just one limo service'....

I've got a ''limo'' booked for my arrival next Saturday...They say there will be a driver with a sign with my name on it... OK so far...

Do you mean that there is just one service who have desks there... or that only one service is allowed onto the airport.

I'm booked (but not paid) with AAC...

Your advice please people............