Transport Minister moves on immigration delays at Phuket Airport

[rooster59]

Transport Minister moves on immigration delays at Phuket Airport

Suthicha Sirirat

 

 

PHUKET: Transport Minister Lt Gen Arkhom Termpittayapaisith has confirmed more officers have been assigned to bolster immigration at Phuket international Airport to reduce long queues of tourists waiting to leave the country.

 

However, the computer terminals critical for the officers to clear travellers through immigration have yet to arrive, Gen Arkhom announced the during his inspection tour of the new terminal yesterday (Sept 23).

 

The new International Terminal has been plagued by long immigration queues of travellers waiting to depart since it was officially opened by Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha last Friday (Sept 16). (See story here.)

 

“The issue we face now is immigration formalities,” Gen Arkhom said. “Every day we have approximately 36,000 people arriving and departing via Phuket International Airport. The most crowded section is the Departure Lounge because there are many tour groups, especially between 7pm and 9pm. This results in long lines at immigration.”

 

In response, Gen Arkhom said more immigration officers had been assigned to Phuket Airport. “Immigration staff have been increased by 31 officers, from 209 to 240, and these people are already working,” he explained.

 

“The Arrival Lounge has a total of 19 immigration counters for 38 officers in total, the Departure Lounge has 17 counters for 34 officers, who will work in six-hour shifts of 15 people per shift,” he added.

 

However, Gen Arkhom admitted that the computers needed to help process more passengers quickly through immigration had yet to be provided.

 

Full story: http://www.thephuketnews.com/transport-minister-moves-on-immigration-delays-at-phuket-airport-59225.php#xqtxCVddhZ3wxXmS.97

 

 

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2016-09-25

 

[NongKhaiKid]

Long queues at Departures ?

Is this a cunning plan by Minister Popcorn and TAT to make people stay in the country longer ?

[Bob12345]

 

Quote

the computer terminals critical for the officers to clear travellers through immigration have yet to arrive

So they opened the new terminal without everything being in place first?

Who would have thought... 

 

Arrived at the new terminal last week and the queue went extremely slow.

It took the officer a couple of minutes to process a person; no matter if they were Thai or foreign.

 

Compare that to the country we departed from where a friendly smiling immigration officer handled people travelling in groups all at once and the two of us needed less than a minute to pass through the actual check.

[eisfeld]

What exactly are they checking so much at departure? Is there anything else to check apart from overstay and outstanding warrants? Their system should scan the passport, show the relevant data, then the officer should do a visual confirmation if this is really you and be done with it. Takes about 1 minute. That's my experience with Europe, HK and Singapore.

 

[sahibji]

5 hours ago, NongKhaiKid said:

Long queues at Departures ?

Is this a cunning plan by Minister Popcorn and TAT to make people stay in the country longer ?

surely this will leave a sour taste in the mouth if unduly delays are experienced at the departure terminal.

[biggles45]

6 hours ago, rooster59 said:

 

However, Gen Arkhom admitted that the computers needed to help process more passengers quickly through immigration had yet to be provided.

 

So, what is new here, planning is not part of Thai culture and if they didnt open on the stated date.....big loss of face. This is much more important than inconveniencing tourists who are going home anyway, we have their money already

[Bangkok Barry]

Remember when Swampy wasn't ready, but on the advertised date for opening the PM took a flight from the new airport to the old, proving that the airport was indeed ready on time. It just wasn't ready to handle more than one VIP flight for a few more months.

It's amazing how often Thais do or say the most ridiculous things to avoid losing face, and in doing so make themselves look even more stupid, therefore losing even more face. Except they are too dumb to realise that.

[trainman34014]

That's a fierce looking dog behind him !

[Psimbo]

'So Somchai, we are opening a new 'flagship' airport terminal- anything we should take into consideration'?'

 

"No mate, it will be OK on the day, mai pen rai.'

 

WROOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!

[Xircal]

Probably Swampy immigration noticed the queues at HKT weren't as long as those they had to handle and complained. So HKT immigration threw a spanner in the works to make things equal again.