Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi named among the world’s worst airports

[phantomfiddler]

The delays are the killer. Average time through Singapore immigration is measured in seconds. Seating while waiting for flights is totally inadequate and usually uncomfortable, and the scams and rip-off that plagued the place a few years ago did nothing for it,s reputation. For a reasonably modern airport the standard is extremely poor, but when you consider who was at the helm during it,s construction it,s a wonder that it even there !

[pizzachang]

16 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

How many ranking sites exist?

How many list Emirates and Qantas in the top 10? Many.

Does this site? No.

 

About the airport list: they must have used a quite small selection.

Manila not being in the worst list?

No central Asian/Russian/African/South American airports worse than Suy.?

 

Incheon, Seoul not on the top 10?

etc.etc.

 

Laughable.

If you compare the "worst airport" lists you will find that they all use quite arbitrary selections.

 

I dump this ranking list/site.

 

Generally a very well laid out, easily negotiated airport.  Services are somewhat limited but those may be services that not many actually need.  Comparing BKK with LAX - in LAX (2008) subject to harassing by Krishnas, selling scams and kinda dirty conditions.

[hobobo]

16 hours ago, Here It Is said:

LGW I can understand, but Swampy?  I quite like it.  It's also being extended.

I guess you enjoy things moving slowly, even slower, and finally stop?

[aslimversgwm]

15 hours ago, Here It Is said:

It's a bargain.  Have the last word but I provided the comparison to a London taxi so, therefore, it's an absolute bargain for a fifty minute trip.

No it's not - this is Thailand where the cost of living is about one quarter to one third the cost of living in England - even comparing BKK with London and the current poor RofE. A limousine service or even a cab from LHR to the centre of London will cost you about 60 pounds - about the same distance/time as from BKK to BKK centre so that's equivalent here to about 20 pounds max - certainly not 38 pounds!

[uesnyc]

Are you sure they're not just looking at the misery on the faces of the guys at the departure gates?

[boomerangutang]

That ridiculous transliteration of the airport's name is annoying.

 

Here's how Thais pronounce it:   Suwanboom

 

Transliteration is aimed at farang.  It's not for Thais.  The purpose of transliteration is to help farang pronounce Thai words correctly.  Unfortunately, the people who do the transliteration make many mistakes. In sum: they cause Thai words to be mistakenly pronounced by farang.  

 

                               It would be like if I were dealing with a bleeding cut on your arm.  Instead of applying anti-bacterial, I reached in the gutter and applied some gutter grunge on your wound. There's a book of Thai words taken from English words ('tap sap' in Thai), which transliterates in a reasonable way - which makes learning Thai words EASIER, rather than MORE DIFFICULT, as all other Thai-English primers do.

[spacebass]

All my life Singapore airlines has been THE one.

[baboon]

14 hours ago, wump said:

Checkin-lines depend on the airline. Choose a crappy one and you will wait 1 hour+.

Tell me about it. Emirates Check-in at 22:00 is a nightmare. 

[manarak]

the ranking strikes me as being very unfair.

[ehw200]

I don't mind swampy at all

Long way to/from gates.. depending

Upon airline

II can only assume that these people

Doing the survey have never been to Manila

Alough one of the 3 terminals is pretty good

The one united Airlines uses is  a toilette and I assume they use it to save money... Ok with me as long as the fares reflect it

[Black arab]

Imo swampy is ok immigration can be slow at times but Lhr can also be slow, an airport is not the best of places at anytime though i do like samui airport.

[Billy Bloggs]

Sorry if LAX doesnt make the list its bullshit, was like going into a third world country landing there.

[Swedenlars]

Where is Ninoy Aquino International Airport on the list ? Lousy airpot. It was voted worst many times in the past.

[dluek]

17 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

How many ranking sites exist?

How many list Emirates and Qantas in the top 10? Many.

Does this site? No.

 

About the airport list: they must have used a quite small selection.

Manila not being in the worst list?

No central Asian/Russian/African/South American airports worse than Suy.?

 

Incheon, Seoul not on the top 10?

etc.etc.

 

Laughable.

If you compare the "worst airport" lists you will find that they all use quite arbitrary selections.

 

I dump this ranking list/site.

 

I agree. Another example: what is Cincinnati doing at #6 best airport in the world? I've flown through there and it's like any other small and boring US airport. 

[Essaybloke]

U-Tapao (Pattaya) is an interesting experience, like Alice Springs in the 70's. 

 

Must admit I never had a problem at S/buhmi, but yes the check in and passport control queues get a bit long at times. Seems strange to me that it is in the category of 'one of the worst' in the world though!

[maddermax]

Departing is not so bad when arriving from the car parks, ie, relatively easy to get to the check in counters.  Arriving not so bad but a fair walk to find access to the next floor up to get to the car park.  However, picking somebody up on arrival is a nightmare in that you have to walk a fair distance to get down to the arrivals floor.  Then the security guards will not allow you to walk down the concourse to the arrivals gate C.  You have to go outside to get along to the area.  This all because the arrivals area was not originally planned using flow models.

[Ace of Pop]

No it's not - this is Thailand where the cost of living is about one quarter to one third the cost of living in England - even comparing BKK with London and the current poor RofE. A limousine service or even a cab from LHR to the centre of London will cost you about 60 pounds - about the same distance/time as from BKK to BKK centre so that's equivalent here to about 20 pounds max - certainly not 38 pounds!

Cost of living one third down .?. Yes if you spend your life in a Taxi.It maybe is for youngsters, but I can't say it's cheaper unless you eat Thai way it's bloody expensive


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Aviatorhi]

I've been through or on about all of these... the list is flat out wrong for many of these airports and airlines. I have not idea what their metric are, but they're not reflective of reality. Newark, for example, is a far better place to fly in/out of, or transfer thru, than Frankfurt. I suspect the author, however, is of EU origin and tremendously biased. One of their metrics; "quality of service" being a qualitative subject, rather than quantitative. But at least they got the #1 best and worst airports right.

[Hardie]

Ever flown Dallo Air out of Hargeisa, Somaliland?

[todlad]

I would like to see all of the background data on this: the questions, how they sampled their audience and so on. I don't believe these results  entirely.

 

I appreciate that the best known airports would feature in this list but as someone else has said, DMK is pretty poor isn't it and millions of people use it from all over the world. Yet it didn't feature.

 

I am sure there are many people on this list who use more airports than most and I have no doubt that there are far worse airports that some of those listed here.

 

Passport control can be a nightmare all over the world. Security is a mess everywhere but we have to suffer it. I arrived at DMK from Singapore last Friday night ... almost two hours in the passport control queue: bad luck with my arrival time as I have been in queues there that have taken me just three minutes.

[ginjag]

18 hours ago, Dobredin Ghusputin said:

 

 

No, actually world's worst shopping centre with a runway.

One 7-11 shop  overpriced   answer, " because it's at the airport "    ha ha ha

[Laza 45]

17 hours ago, Here It Is said:

LGW I can understand, but Swampy?  I quite like it.  It's also being extended.

I've been through at least a couple of dozen times in the last 10 years... never had a problem... some long walks but never waited more than 15 minutes at immigration.. the taxi ride into the city is the worst bit... 

[retarius]

Disagree completely. It may not be the best but it is certainly not in the bottom half in the world. I'd put it in the top quarter and if they fixed immigration would be in the top ten. Problems are long walks but has great moving walkways, lack of toilets and sometimes pitifully slow immigration...not the end of the world surely.

[Displaynameinusebyanotherm]

I love BKK airport. Am i still allowed on this site here? Recently my luggage missed my transfer. I filled out quick form upon arriving in bkk and was assisted by thai lady who spoke perfect english. I left bkk off to my place several provinces further away around 13h. The same night my luggage was delivered by courier. ??❤

[bbbbooboo]

18 hours ago, Thechook said:

Always said it was a dump and outdated.  They need to bulldoze this tin shed and build a modern user friendly one.  The international departures dont even dock at the terminal.  We fly from CNX to Melbourne and when we arrive at BKK its a 2 km walk to the departure lounge then its 2 km bus trip out onto the tarmac and a climb up into the plane.  Something you would expect in the 1930"s   Bomb the relic and build one for today.

hmmm......+ 1 and it feels like a 5km walk and bus

[FitnessHealthTravel]

17 hours ago, ALFREDO said:

Kuala Lumpur Low Cost Terminal not much better - long ways to and from Gates - DMK slowly now new People movers get installed. ?

Yes but it is the 'low cost' Terminal. This for all Airports.

[FitnessHealthTravel]

Next time you are in Suvarnabhumi look around at the number of Staff standing around doing nothing. Passport Control is a joke!

[neeray]

6 minutes ago, bbbbooboo said:

hmmm......+ 1 and it feels like a 5km walk and bus

Dump ! Outdated ! Tin Shed !

bulldoze it ! These seem like over the top, outlandish, exaggerated comments. 

Bomb the relic ! OMG. 

[TEFLKrabi]

Dubai is the 8th worst? Don't think the writer has ever been there.

[todlad]

Just took a closer look at the list

 

Addis Ababa is listed at 26 ... ever been there? It is nowhere near as good as BKK: in all three categories ... my opinion.

 

I don't like Manchester, ever since they slapped an unrefundable £1 on the use of their trolleys but 74th?

 

Auckland is rated number 9 and yes it is good; but how long did everyone else wait in the mandatory biological imports queue on arrival? 30 minutes like me or more?

 

Moscow Sheremyetova at 23? Tricky!

 

Why is Dubai down at 69?

 

And so on.

 

BKK rates quite highly for passenger sentiment: 16th out of 76 so why is it languishing overall at 68? The weightings of the three metrics are very heavy for on time performance and quality of service: 0.46 and 0.44 respectively but only 0.06 for passenger sentiment. Since I could not get at the AirHelp quality of service database, I still wonder how good an index they have presented.