Over 6,700 Bags Stranded At Suvarnabhumi Airport

[george]

Over 6,700 baggages stranded at Suvarnabhumi Airport

BANGKOK: -- Thai Airways International executives expressed grave concerns about the failure to clear over 6,700 pieces of baggage from 20 flights today.

As a solution, the airport authorities have decided to use manual system to replace computers in the frenetic effort to clear the backlog.

A total of 6,722 baggages could not be cleared due to problems with the computer system that controls the carousel flow. The problems started since six o’clock this morning for about half an hour, only to recur between 9-10 a.m.

Mr Somchai Sawasdeepon, general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport said the carousel failure affected over 20 domestic and international flights. Thai Airways International saw 760 pieces loaded in from 16 flights jammed.

Mr Somchai said the problems are now being resolved by the contractor called Kawasaki Company that operates the system. As temporary solution, a manual baggage clearance system will be used until Monday at noon.

Mr Somchai explained that this type of problem is common and should not result in any flight delay.

Mr Chokechai Panyayong, Manager for Ground Service of Thai Airways expressed grave concerns at the problem, which he hopes would only happen during this initial period.

He said airlines representatives, the contractor and the Airports of Thailand would meet to find a solution. Meanwhile, Thai Airways had to mobilise another 30 soldiers to help labelling baggage.

Mr Chokechai said Thai Airways has a benchmark of 0.6 per cent error but baggage clearance delay culminating in what happened today makes the index spike to 10 per cent. The carrier has paid several million baht in ensuring baggage delivery since the commercial opening of the airport on September 28, he added.

--TNA 2006-10-07

[Mighty Mouse]

This story proves that when men come to Thailand they should leave the old bag at home.

[relax]

Mighty Mouse,,,, very funny,, it takes some doing to tickle me,,, but that was good!!! thanks relax

[fanclubcm]

Mighty Mouse,,,, very funny,, it takes some doing to tickle me,,, but that was good!!! thanks relax

SAME SAME COMMENT A GOOD REFRESHING GIGGLE. [Think Thai Air lost? any of the munerous 'baggage' shipped to Heathrow. I'll buy sight unseen]

[pepsi666]

Huh, thats nothing, wait till Terminal 5 goes live at Heathrow, then you will see how things can go belly up, BIGTIME

I know I've seen the system there

[STEELINOX]

Holy Crap !

[John K]

Apparently the software was purchased at Panthip plaza for 120 ThB

[john b good]

Apparently the software was purchased at Panthip plaza for 120 ThB

Where else ?

Baht 120 for Panthip and a few million for the former head waiter

[booma]

This works out at 1150 pieces per plane! Any passengers gone missing yet?

[LaoPo]

"Over 6,700 baggages stranded at Suvarnabhumi Airport"

HOLY MOLY.......

Strange they don't mention anything about the passengers.....waiting for their luggage....(or missing them upon arrival at destination)........

"Mr Somchai said the problems are now being resolved by the contractor called Kawasaki Company that operates the system."

Huh...? Japanese or what?

LaoPo

[marty]

United Axes Troubled Denver Baggage System -- 10 Years Too Late

from the took-'em-long-enough dept

theodp writes "More than ten years after boasting that it would simplify Denver's troubled baggage project, United Air Lines is throwing in the towel on the $230 million computerized baggage system. The system has never been able to process luggage from flights arriving at the airport." For those who remember these kinds of things, the baggage automation system was a big part of why the Denver airport delayed its opening by over a year -- which was big news at the time. The fact that it took them this long to admit the system failed is impressive. Of course, again, it doesn't seem like the contractors who built the actual system received any punishment at all for building a multi-million dollar system that never actually worked.

[VanZam]

TNA really needs to get some poeple who can proof read english..

baggages? err yeah ok... "bags"

[marty]

The Denver Airport PRT Failure is a Lesson to Politicians and Airport Officials

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hause011/article/prt.html

[pacwestus]

"Meanwhile, Thai Airways had to mobilise another 30 soldiers to help labelling baggage."

I didn't know Thai Airways had its own army!

[LaoPo]

Let me see....

6.700 pieces of luggage ./. 30 soldiers....223,33 pieces per soldier....hand-labelling/writing.....

I hope they can write something else than Thai.....

Poor passengers

LaoPo

[John K]

On the other side, this all could be a very clever plot to promote shopping in Thailand.

[Nam Kao]

...leave the old bag at home

[bkkandrew]

"Meanwhile, Thai Airways had to mobilise another 30 soldiers to help labelling baggage."

I didn't know Thai Airways had its own army!

Gazooks!! Soldiers doing baggage handling, next thing they will be running the country...!!!

Sorry - forgot - they are

[nev]

i always travel light with just walk just a walk on bag and a ruck sack so i can walk straight out had to wait over a hr once never again.

they told me your walk on bag has to 7kg or under.

[MisterRay22]

This works out at 1150 pieces per plane! Any passengers gone missing yet?

How'd you come up with that figure? I get 335 per plane.

On another note ... We keep hearing about the problems Thai Airways is experiencing -- are the OTHER airlines running smoothly?

[Gary A]

I arrived back here the 5th of October and was actually shocked that my luggage arrived with me. My checked in bag went from Fort Wayne Indiana to Chicago to San Francisco to Taipei to Bangkok. The new airport seems less well designed that the old one. I base that simply on the distance I had to walk. I was through customs very quickly and waited about 20 minutes for my bag to show up.

It appears to be going smoother than I would have guessed. It's great to be back home in the Kingdom.

[leisurely]

Presuambly this is bags coming into the Kingdom, not going out? Or am I wrong. Do I have a week in Luang Prabang to look forward to with no clean clothes?

[ozterix]

just got back from Bali last night, big surprise as the duty free shop was open and accessible on arrival, like we used to enjoy in Sydney. We could buy a few things like sunnies that my wife wanted and missed on the way out, at a very good price compared with other duty free shop

*rayban new model price between 2.8 and 3.5 KBaht while in Bali at the duty free they were 145US and in town at 150US. Bangkok duty free seems to be a good bargain still

since we spent 15 min in the duty free, our luggage had shown up and there was no one in line at immigration...

it looks great and they are handling it the best they can, I think these guys are doing ok.

oz

[bigprop]

Ah yes two of them will be mine

Came in from Dubia only to have to fly out again to Singapore for work, nobody at the transfer desk 2 hours before my next flight, nobody around who knew what was happening. I was given the choice of " go 1 kilometer to next transfer desk" and possibly miss my flight.

I knew i was in trouble when i turned up at the gate and they said they cannot find my luggage.

Made the flight , no luggage as expected and 3 days later they still have only found 1 bag but are not sure when they are going to forward that to me.

[johnnynmonic]

I hope things get ironed out before I fly in a few weeks. Evidently what they said about Taksin rushing the opening of this airport is true...

[marshbags]

This works out at 1150 pieces per plane! Any passengers gone missing yet?

Not according to the boarding passes

marshbags

[brahmburgers]

Thousands of pieces of luggage don't disappear, so they have to be stocked up somewhere - in trolleys, alongside conveyors, heaped in rooms, who knows? Nimble fingered thieves could gain access with less effort than lifting a forgotten cell phone off a coffee table. Beware, it could happen.

[Jing Joe]

Making light of it re. 'leaving the old bag at home'' reminds me of the old one about;- "pilots overnight bags".

The pilots wont have any trouble if they travel light and their "overnight bags" in most cases are very, very attractive. Suay mak mak.

[TRD LOVER]

Apparently the software was purchased at Panthip plaza for 120 ThB

COOL JOHN.. you got me laughing big time this sunday morning at 7:49 am

are you still looking for a BLUE TRD?? 9 BLUE PUPS born last night.. no more baggage for mommie dearest... I will run off to Panthip Plaza for a bit to eat and look at all the empty shops.. maybe a great place to sell used luggage.. ThaiDog

[clbelljr]

Let me see....

6.700 pieces of luggage ?

The worst software disaster of all times was the Denver Airport. They had several top software companies go broke trying to repair the software. Many Millions of Dollars was lost with no effective software.

The system was solved by going manual. How about that !!!!!!!