PM issues orders to address Don Mueang chaos

By THE NATION

 

 

BANGKOK: -- PRIME MINISTER Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered relevant agencies to ensure that long immigration queues at Don Mueang International Airport will be resolved quickly.

He said yesterday that he had instructed the Immigration Bureau, Airports of Thailand and the Ministry of Transport to prepare contingency plans to deal with chaos similar to that seen at the airport last Friday, when passengers had to wait up to five hours to be processed by immigration officials.

 

The prime minister blamed the situation on the delay of many flights that day, which resulted in increasing numbers of passengers and a shortage of immigration officials at the airport.

 

 

“Such an incident is rare. Normally it takes each passenger no longer than five minutes” to pass the immigration process at the airport, Prayut said.

 

He also said more immigration officials had been dispatched to Don Mueang Airport, while the Ministry of Transport and Airports of Thailand had been instructed to map out contingency plans. Prayut also suggested that Thai nationals should be exempted from filling out certain forms at the airport to cut down waiting times.

 

He also urged people not to criticise the previous incident too intensively, particularly on social media. “What they say will cause damage to the tourism industry,” he said.

 

Earlier, the Royal Thai Police stated that the chaos at Don Mueang last Friday night was caused by the delay of 13 flights that, in addition to the 12 on-schedule flights, meant that 15 immigration officials on duty had to deal with more than 9,000 passengers. 

 

A police spokesman said five more immigration officials had been sent in to help with the situation, but that was still insufficient.

 

Next month, Airports of Thailand will add eight arrival counters, which is expected to almost double passenger-handling capacity at the airport from 1,000 people to 1,800 people per hour, according to the company’s president Nitinai Sirisamatthakarn. 

 

He suggested that Thai passengers should use automated passport control machines for immigration check-in to ensure quick processing. 

 

Meanwhile, a new immigration form will replace the existing one on October 1 in line with a Cabinet resolution in January approving a Tourism and Sports Ministry request for changes to the “TM6” form.

 

The Cabinet resolution allows the use of the old TM6 form, which has two separate sections for arrivals and departures, to be used until September 30. The Ministry of Tourism and Sports requested the delay to adjust to the new form to help the agency in its analysis and planning of tourism marketing strategies. 

 

The new form has only one side for visitors to record both arrival and departure information, with an “automatic channel” barcode for more convenience.

 

 

In July, the prime minister instructed the Immigration Bureau to decide whether to cancel the requirement for visitors to use the TM6 form as part of measures to improve immigration procedures at airports and reduce waiting times.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30323246

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-08-09

“Such an incident is rare. Normally it takes each passenger no longer than five minutes” to pass the immigration process at the airport, Prayut said.

 

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2 minutes ago, Thian said:

“Such an incident is rare. Normally it takes each passenger no longer than five minutes” to pass the immigration process at the airport, Prayut said.

 

55555555

Uh-huh....

He is very good at what he does, ain't he? 

11 minutes ago, webfact said:

He also urged people not to criticise the previous incident too intensively, particularly on social media. “What they say will cause damage to the tourism industry,” he said.

Basically, Prayut is admitting the junta is concerned with social media commentary ruining Thailand's few remaining cash cows?

 

Kreng jai is not commonly practiced by non-Thais.

 

Perhaps there is some good to be had with the social media scourge of today.

Edited August 8, 20178 yr by BasalBanality

8 minutes ago, Thian said:

“Such an incident is rare. Normally it takes each passenger no longer than five minutes” to pass the immigration process at the airport, Prayut said.

 

55555555

I bet he also thinks that traffic conditions are awesome because he gets ferried around with escort which clears the way for him..

 

Edited August 8, 20178 yr by kotsak

He also urged people not to criticise the previous incident too intensively, particularly on social media. “What they say will cause damage to the tourism industry,” he said. Easy to see what his main concern is !

21 minutes ago, webfact said:

“Such an incident is rare. Normally it takes each passenger no longer than five minutes” to pass the immigration process at the airport, Prayut said.

 

That must be at the VIP arrival / departure terminal.

 

" PRIME MINISTER Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered relevant agencies to ensure that long immigration queues at Don Mueang International Airport will be resolved quickly....'Such an incident is rare. Normally it takes each passenger no longer than five minutes' to pass the immigration process at the airport, Prayut said."

 

I'd feel more confident of this succeeding if the person in charge knew how to tell time.

Edited August 8, 20178 yr by jaltsc

geeeze .... The PM is addressing the situation as priority but still the farang whinges show up.   Get a life for christ sake .... 

The fantasy kid rides again.

Sad thing is the silly sod believes the nonsense he spouts.

The new TM6 form looks as if it requires exactly the same amount of entries as the old TM6 form.
That should help...
[emoji3]

35 minutes ago, webfact said:

 

“Such an incident is rare. Normally it takes each passenger no longer than five minutes” to pass the immigration process at the airport, Prayut said.

I suggest that the Honourable PM go to DM  disguised as a civilian and try to catch a plane to another country. Preferably trying to fly Air Asia. He might get a reality check on the 5 minutes claim. 

If it takes 5 minutes per person and you are number 10 in the line that is 50 minutes before you have cleared immigration. That us way too long.

7 minutes ago, steven100 said:

geeeze .... The PM is addressing the situation as priority but still the farang whinges show up.   Get a life for christ sake .... 

I agree. No point in complaining. This govenement aren't gonna change anything. #useless

How can this barcode define what type of visa you have?

 

Probably if you've never flown economy class you would think immigration only took 5 minutes normally. Yet another disconnect from the reality of everyday life

It's a pity and a mark of negligence and apathy on the part of several bodies

and organizations that are in charge on the day to day running of Thailand airports

when the PM has to go in and give them a swift kick in their collective 

sleeping on the job behinds.....

Edited August 9, 20178 yr by ezzra

39 minutes ago, steven100 said:

geeeze .... The PM is addressing the situation as priority but still the farang whinges show up.   Get a life for christ sake .... 

The PM is NOT addressing the situation. He is just passing the blame as is his usual form and barking out orders to the same immigration idiots who created the problem. In any case no one takes any notice of him anymore.........except you that is! . 

I can just see the immigration officials looking to the heavens and rolling their eyes and saying to themselves...."here he goes again; just humour him and let him think he is in charge".

Edited August 9, 20178 yr by Cadbury

“Such an incident is rare. Normally it takes each passenger no longer than five minutes”

I've never cleared immigration in 5 minutes at either airport, and I travel in and out of Bangkok weekly. I arrived last night at 10 pm and it took 35 minutes.

***I do occasionally get a premium lane pass and SOMETIMES I've cleared in 5 minutes, but even with the pass it usually takes more than 5 minutes.

1 hour ago, webfact said:

15 immigration officials on duty had to deal with more than 9,000 passengers

So if none of the delayed flights had messed things up, those 15 would only have had to deal with about 4,500, or about 300 each. I would love to see them get through even the reduced number with an average wait of only 5 minutes each. Another example of the PM talking absolute thoughtless rubbish.

The Chinese Embassy must have been on the phone and given "Little Brother" Prayut a good telling-off. Prayut springs into action.

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

geeeze .... The PM is addressing the situation as priority but still the farang whinges show up.   Get a life for christ sake .... 

 

No, he is addressing the social media backlash as a priority. He couldn't give a rats ass if we stand in line for 2 or 3 hrs normally !!

“Such an incident is rare. Normally it takes each passenger no longer than five minutes” to pass the immigration process at the airport, Prayut said.

 

Technically true, the delay is in the queue to actually reach the Immigration-officer, not in the time spent standing in-front-of the officer while he does his stuff.

 

But delays in the queuing-process are IME normal, not  "rare", I suspect that the PM has been mis-informed or misled by an underling concerning this.

Normally it takes each passenger no longer than five minutes” to pass the immigration process at the airport, Prayut said.

 

5 minutes only for 5 star generals.

 

Talk to your bro's in Singapore.  Scan PP, scan landing card (only a few important bits of information to fill in and carbon copy so only enter once), stamp, goodbye.  Takes less than a minute.

Singers is high security, so I doubt they let some low level civil servant control the keys to the kingdom.  They review the airplanes passenger list before it arrives at SIN.  Immigration line is purely clerical.

Thailand doesn't have the systems in place to do this.  Too bad.

He is always urging people not to criticise. If there are no problems there will be no criticism. Unfortunatly nothing will change unless there are comments on social media etc. Also social media makes sure wrong doers are followed up as yhey should be. For example - Unless people keep on the Red Bull heir would never have been pursued.

Giving an order to a bunch of stupid people to concoct a plan doesn't suddenly make them clever !  Its obvious that more trained staff are required.  However in the past it has been difficult to recruit people to do such a boring job and the turnover is high.  

2 hours ago, webfact said:

He also urged people not to criticise the previous incident too intensively, particularly on social media. “What they say will cause damage to the tourism industry,” he said.

He knows how to say all the wrong things as a leader.  If he were just to apologize and take steps for this never to happen again, eventually the event would lose its news worthiness.  The crack about 5 minutes does not help either.  Rarely can I remember being able walk right through immigration in a few minutes.  Never have experienced four to five hours though. 

 

My 99 year old grand mum could take criticism better than the good general. 

Edited August 9, 20178 yr by yellowboat

kind of happy he took the time to address this very sad situation. 

Quote

“Such an incident is rare. Normally it takes each passenger no longer than five minutes” to pass the immigration process at the airport, Prayut said.

This is a crock, he may mean the time for each individual to be processed, but not including the queuing /waiting time which is the problem. I am not sure if I have EVER arrived at Thai immigration and been out fully processed within 5 minutes, and I have been travelling here since 1982 and frequently use the premium lanes. 

Still, DMG is off my list for a while, I really do not think I could take hours and hours of queuing in or out..

Edited August 9, 20178 yr by jacko45k

It normally takes passengers who are met at the plane by Immigration Officials a mere 5 minutes to clear all formalities.   Other people take 2 hours, but who cares about them.