Average time to exit BKK Airport

[stament]

I was wondering what the average time it takes from the time the plane lands to exiting the airport on an international flight, i.e. going through immigration.

I haven't been here for a while just been in transit which in itself has taken quite a while at the immigration counter before. I seem to recall a few years ago that it was quite quick.

Would be useful if members could also clarify the time of arrival / day, or if they have knowledge that some times of the day are busier and hence take longer to exit.

I will be arriving at 6am on a Thursday if that helps.

As always much appreciated

[new2here]

I assume you mean Suvarnabhumi as you use the BKK code and not DMK. With that said, 0600 tends to be rather busy on the international arrivals side as TG alone has about a dozen or so long haul (mostly Euro-region or long haul Asia) arrivals all planned for that general time period (between 0500 and about 0730)

However, I also notice that Immigration tends to staff up during this time period and down at other times when the are fewer arrivals planned.

If you had a scenario where immigration badly unstaffed the immigration step, the knock on would be sizable back-ups at the baggage reclaim as reclaim belts would remain full(er) and for longer times, thus making it impossible for later fights to use these shared facilities.

All told, I find that an average of about :60 serves me well.. But this assumes you don't need to get any kind of VOA and aren't subjected to a secondary inspection at either immigration or customs.

I've done it in far less and sometimes it's closer to :90, but I think that :60 represents for me a good average.

[dddave]

I go in and out of BKK about 30 times a year flying for work and have found that there is really no predictable safe time, it all depends on the confluence of flights. Even when they try to co-ordinate Immigration staffing with schedules, a couple of delayed arrivals can mess the whole thing up. Over the years, I can think of almost any time of day when I have walked through Immigration in 5 minutes yet on another day at the same time waited 30 minutes.

The greater use of jumbo's like the 380, carrying 400+ passengers complicates it even more.

As a general rule, including the sometimes 500 meter walk from the gate I allow about an hour from landing to taxi, often less than that but rarely more. I almost never have checked bags to wait for.

As you approach Immigration, at the base of the incline are several TV monitors showing the 2 main immigration areas. If the one you are at is backed up, check and see how the other looks...not infrequently it will have no back up...worth the extra 3 minute walk.

Edited June 12, 2016 by dddave

[KhunBENQ]

With that said, 0600 tends to be rather busy on the international arrivals side as TG alone has about a dozen or so long haul (mostly Euro-region or long haul Asia) arrivals all planned for that general time period (between 0500 and about 0730)

Indeed, you could really assume the whole Thai Airways fleet arrives around 6 AM (5:30 to 6:30).

From Europe, India, Australia...

Roughly 30(!) arrivals within one hour (only very few from other airlines).

So be prepared for unpredictably long queues.

Edited June 12, 2016 by KhunBENQ

[stament]

Thanks all very useful info. So I will allow 90m top end and should be ok even for a 6am arrival.

[mikebell]

Having a Thai wife is handy. I go through Immigration with her so no queues. I've sometimes been at the bus-stop in 30 minutes.

[gk10002000]

I fly from the USA and have just one carry on. So I hustle down to the passport control line. A few times the lines are only about 6 or 7 people deep at each booth. Some other times, the line has been like "Disneyland" and wraps around itself almost out to the hallway. But it has never taken me more than 90 minutes (14 trips so far). I don't have checked baggage so after getting the passport stamped (standard visa exemption) I am pretty much on my way. The last seven trips have all been arriving at 1100 AM since I catch the 0100 or thereabouts EVA flight from LAX to Taipai on to BKK.

[gk10002000]

I am told by another poster that there is actually another set of passport control immigration check in booths not far across from where I have always gone. I think it might be designed for terminals that are opposite the ones I used? I haven't bothered to check that out, but the poster said he goes there if the other queues are too long.

[stament]

Yes Dddave said that on this thread

[wpcoe]

I am told by another poster that there is actually another set of passport control immigration check in booths not far across from where I have always gone. I think it might be designed for terminals that are opposite the ones I used? I haven't bothered to check that out, but the poster said he goes there if the other queues are too long.

There are two Immigrations lobbies and there used to be TV monitors at the entrance of each which showed the other lobby, so you could make an informed choice about which lobby looked faster. Are the monitors still there?

FYI, at Suvarnabhumi you can use either Immigrations lobby, not like at the old Don Muang where if your flight arrived in one section you *had* to used the assigned Immigrations lobby. I was in queue once when a fairly large group of fellows who had arrived from Tel Aviv were in the wrong lobby. After their long wait to make it to the front of the queue, you can only imagine the wails and shouts of indignation from them for being in the wrong Immigrations area. The Immigrations Officers did not budge an inch.

[dddave]

The two Immigration areas are actually side by side, the one servicing flights arriving at Gates "A" thru "D-5" opens to baggage carousels #1-12 or so, The area serving gates "D-6" thru "G" opens to carousels #13-23.

As of last week, the monitors showing each area located at the base of the ramp were operating.

[stament]

I arrived at 7.30am last Friday morning and it took me less than 20m from the time I got off the plan to the time I exited through immigration. I couldn't believe how quick it was, there was only 5 people in front of me in my immigration line. Is this normal for this time of the morning for it to be so quiet?

It would be great to know the peak arrival times as well as the quiet ones if anyone has that info or is it just pot luck?

[wpcoe]

It may be difficult to accurately plan/predict. All it takes is a single A380 aircraft to be significantly late and the whole system backs up. The staffing of the Immigrations booths is planned for the scheduled arrival time of flights. e.g. If at your 0730 arrival last Friday, two late full A380s had shown up at that time, imagine what an extra 1,000 passengers would have looked like. Or, conversely, maybe there were scheduled to be a couple more big planes arriving at 0730, but they were delayed, and that made your 0730 arrival extra quick.

Bottom line: I think it's largely the luck of the draw.

[mtls2005]

This map shows both the East and West Arriving Immigration Halls (numbered 1 and 3) on level 2; opposite gates D4 and D6. In between is the VIP/Fast Track hall (#2). You can use any of these three halls as they all allow entry into all of the International baggage claim carousels.

http://suvarnabhumiairport.com/en/124-within-the-terminal

You can get a feel for arrivals by time here: http://suvarnabhumiairport.com/en/3-passenger-arrivals Put in 05:00 to 07:00 to see the bulk of TG's AM arrivals , code-shares are now grouped.

I would think 06:00 would yield an average of 30 minutes. (Are you connecting to a domestic flight which allows for use of the mid-field Immigration counter? Or are you terminating your travel at BKK?)

IMRE, you get sent into a single line, they check that you have the TM.6 filled in, then you can choose an individual desk, which may have 1-10 people queued. Each IO has a different pace - I arrived most recently on 5 July ~ 21:00, East Hall (had a Fast Track card but no need to use it as the lines were quite short, so saved for a future trip), and the adjacent IO processed 5 individuals in the time it took for my IO to process me. Maybe it was dialing in the specific date that my visa is set to expire?

Edited July 14, 2016 by mtls2005

[nisakiman]

On 13/06/2016 at 4:17 AM, mikebell said:

Having a Thai wife is handy. I go through Immigration with her so no queues. I've sometimes been at the bus-stop in 30 minutes.

 

Interestingly, I was just reading on the DMK forum that a guy was told he had to go through the foreigner section, even though he was travelling with his Thai wife.

 

When my wife and I arrive at BKK, I always go with her through the Thai immigration lane, and I've never been questioned about it, even though she has retained her Thai surname (it was just too much hassle to change everything - ID card, driving licence, passport etc etc, so we didn't bother), and we have different names on our passports. Last time through was the beginning of last year, so things might have changed since. Is there any more recent info on this from anyone who has arrived recently?

[Chivas]

I'd say the times that its taken longer than 1 hour could be counted on one hand and thats 100's of arrivals

[stament]

thanks all, any current updates on early morning arrivals?