BKK Slips Down The Rankings

[Guest fountainhall]

In the annual World Airport Awards, claimed to be the world’s Premier Airport Awards, Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi has slipped yet again – from #25 last year to #38 this time around.

Meanwhile, the top five remain Singapore, Incheon, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Beijing’s Capital airport, although their order has changed slightly with Singapore now pipping Incheon. Also ahead of Suvarnabhumi are –

Tokyo Haneda - 9
Central Japan (Nagoya) – 13
Kuala Lumpur - 14
Tokyo Narita - 16
Kansai (Osaka) - 18
Shanghai Hongqiao - 19
Gimpo (Seoul) - 23
Taoyuan Taipei - 24

No doubt the Immigration mess in early 2012 will have had some effect on the rating. But it must be pretty galling to have the region’s 12 major airports ahead of you, the more so when Suvarnabhumi’s Mission Statement reads –
 

Suvarnabhumi Airport to be the Aviation Hub of Asia, with the explicit policy and objectives to enhance the service quality of Suvarnabhumi Airport to be 1 of 10 world’s excellent service quality airport.

http://www.suvarnabhumiairport.com/about_vision_en.php

Seems to me this Mission Statement has been around for some years and is not making much headway. Meanwhile, over on Skytrax, the airport still gets just a 3-star rating (out of 5) and some passengers continue to complain vociferously. One from last December sums ups its problems –
 

Beautiful but terribly designed airport. Departures is a mess. Arrival by taxi is confusing and have to cross a road to the gates where no cars give way. Check in isn't clear and is often a mess of queues with no staff control. Once you check in there is no clear direction to go. You end up going right up a little "side way". Arrivals is even worse. First you get confused where you've got to go. I saw many people coming back on themselves. Immigration is confusing with the signage. Immigration is quite fast (one positive). Getting your bags is badly organised and not clear where to go. Coming out of the gate, which way do you go? If you go left the people waiting for you won't see you, going right is the correct way to go and then you just hit a wall of people waiting . . . Taxis - official taxi rank isn't clear or easy to find when first arriving. Unofficial taxi rank outside at arrivals is full of taxi drivers trying to scam you. Why is this not controlled? Terrible airport. Really badly designed. Nothing makes sense.

[Bob]

I can't figure out what that last reviewer is complaining about....almost sounds like they'd have trouble figuring out how to put his/her pants on in the morning. For example:

(1)  Arrival by taxi is confusing.  I have to admit that I haven't done that in 4-5 years but last time I did it the taxi took me right to the friggin' departure hall and not over by the parking ramp.  Unauthorized taxis not allowed to drive right up next to the departure hall?

(2)  Check-in isn't clear?  Again, I'd think a youngster could easily figure that out (provided you knew how to spell and you could figure out what letter represented your airline).

(3)  As for arrivals, I've never had a problem figuring out where to go (if in doubt, follow the rest of the passengers!).  But, admittedly, sometimes a long walk.

(4)  "Getting your bags is badly organised and not clear where to go."  Geez, again, it's an airport and pretty easy in my eyes to figure out which of the carousels your bag is on (provided you can remember your flight number and airline name).  As to the comment about "not clear where to go" after that, you've got to be kidding.  Out the only way you can go!

 

Most of this person's complaints almost make me think that this person was actually at a different airport and thinks he/she was at Swampy!

[Guest scottishguy]

I find it amusing that AMS makes the top 5.

 

Obviously the reviewers have never arrived at AMS at 3am with several hours to pass until their onward connection - practically nowhere is open for a coffee, and certainly not for a beer.

 

A radical idea might be - if you have flights coming in 24/7, have some catering to match!

[Guest fountainhall]

As to Bob's points, I agree the reviewer went a bit over the top. But I think he has some genuine points.

 

1. Departures. This is a valid point. Every other large airport I know has very large signs at the side of the road leading to Terminals with notices of which airlines depart from which Terminal/Door. BKK used to have tiny signs - and then they disappeared altogether. So if you do not know which Door is closest to your airline's check-in counter, you have to get the taxi to slow down considerably to enable you to read the very small airline indicators at each door (extremely difficult to read at night). This reduces traffic flow at peak hours. It is such an elementary error and it is so easy to correct. But BKK does nothing about it.

 

As for taxis, there are two roads at the terminal Departures area. Taxis must use the outer road. Only cars and small buses can seemingly use the inner one. As the reviewer pointed out, cars which have dropped their passengers do tend to then depart at considerable speed, even though taxi passengers are crossing it at around 11 or 12 different points.

 

2. If the drop-off Door for each airline was made much larger and clearer, there would be no worry about finding check-in counters.

 

3. But again I think the reviewer has a point. The alphabetical check-in areas are well signed and the airlines being served by these areas are also well-signed. But if you are dropped off at the wrong Door - as many are, you can only find out where you should be from very small screens with a whole mass of information on them flitting every few seconds between Thai and English.

 

4. Once you have done it once, arriving is not as difficult as the reviewer makes out. But I find in general that the whole signage at the airport tends to be quite confusing, so it's not a wonder that people sometimes go in the wrong direction. It's better than it was, but take the Premium Lane, for example. If you come off a TG flight, you go to the Centre Immigration desks. If you come off One World carriers, you are likely to go to the West Immigration desks. Yet, to get to the Premium desks means walking further than these areas, and the advance signposting is dreadful. I have seen so many passengers with Premium passes go straight to the regular Immigration areas.

 

5. I agree with Bob re the carousels. However, going "from there" is far from easy, especially if you are arriving for the first time. There are two international exits - B in the centre and C at the west. The "greetings Area" is way east of B and so if a One World passenger is meeting someone, he has to walk for ages, past the scrum around B and then on to around Door 3. Remember, he came out of Customs around Gate 10 or 11. Since the area around Door 3 is always packed, I have two or three times missed arriving passengers who, though regular travellers, had failed to follow my advance instructions and got confused!

 

6. The public taxi situation remains a total joke - more like arriving at a third world airport. Once a passenger realises they have to go down a level, they have to take the people mover (as the one lift is always packed). The new trolleys are immobile on the people mover - presumably a good idea on the grounds of safety. Yet, three times I have seen arriving passengers not realise that they have to push the trolley off the people mover once at ground level. Since the trolley will then not move at all unless the handle is depressed, the trolley behind is thrust into that passenger. Once, realising her mistake, a lady tried to manhandle the trolley and it and its several pieces of luggage fell on its side. Several other passengers then fell. The lady had no idea what to do. If others had not immediately rushed to push everything out of the way, there would have been at least one very serious accident.

 

7. It's all very well for those of us who travel even just once a year and know the possible problems to say these are minor issues. The fact is they are - but not for those departing/arriving for the first time; nor for those travelling by air for the first time. The objective of any airport should be to get its passengers in, through, back in and out in the fastest possible time (allowing for extortionate duty free shopping!) with the absolute minimum of fuss and confusion. BKK IS confusing. It may not be the worst, but it has a vast amount to improve before it gets anywhere near a top ten list.

[Guest]

I've only used Changi once and found the immigration queue took 45 minutes and the airport departure lounge waiting area was much less pleasant than that in Bangkok.

 

Entering and exiting Bangkok airport is a bit of a shambles. In addition to the issues raised by Fountainhall, despite the rail line being raised on stilts for most of its length, it terminates in the basement. So it's necessary to use those really slow escalator type things to move between levels.

Surely the rail link should be connected to the arrivals floor?

[Guest fountainhall]

Large airports often have more than one terminal. Without knowing which terminal you used, z909, I can't really comment. Changi's terminals 1, 2 and 3 are way ahead of BKK in my view. I've never had to wait more than 10 minutes for Immigration on either entry or exit - on any type of ticket.

 

On the other hand, the budget terminal is the pits - just marginally better than the same one in KL. But then this is exclusively for low cost carriers and their passengers and it is intended to offer only a basic service thereby enabling the lccs to pay lower airport fees. It's hardly any wonder that its waiting areas are basic and its queues are far longer.

 

Were you on Air Asia or Tiger or one of the other lccs? If so, then I suggest it's not a fair comparison.

[fedssocr]

There was another survey the other day that said BKK is the best airport in the world

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/aviation/344738/travel-firm-cites-suvarnabhumi-as-world-best-airport

 

Not sure how PEK rates so high. I absolutely hate it. Transferring through is a total pain in the butt. The two times I have traveled through there the place has seemed virtually empty.

[Guest fountainhall]

Anyone ever head of eDreams, the company which claims its readers have voted BKK #1 in the world? I hadn't until I googled it just now. It is a small travel company based in Barcelona. There is much comment on tripadviser so I checked that. Anyone taking this company's word and printing it as gospel has to be kidding. Here's the latest in a long line of complaints -
 

There have been numerous negative posts about e dreams just in the last few days on this same Forum.. this one started a couple of years ago but the latest complaint is only a few days old- and there are several other threads- just put e dreams in the search above - I can't imagine anyone who reads about them here would ever give them ther credit card number

 
Here's another 2 from February –
 

I just booked tickets on eDreams and they sent me the wrong ticket and now, when I go to try and contact them - I notice that the Toll Free number 0080055885500 is incorrect and not even eDreams anymore

 

This company is a total fraud.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k6123435-Edreams-Air_Travel.html
 
I wonder how many passengers who do not get tickets from a company which may or may not exist actually voted in the survey which may never have taken place! Kind of figures that a dodgy company like this would rate BKK best in the world 
 

As for the ACI rating, it was based only on airports handling 40 million passengers upwards. That's a short list of around 25 and clearly some - including, I expect, Las Vegas, Charlotte, San Matteo, Denver and Jakarta - did not take part. The fact is, if you significantly narrow the field, some polls will always have BKK somewhere near the top. Broaden the poll base and it will always slip down.

 

As to PEK, I have never had any problem at Terminal 3 - but then I have never transited there. Immigration can be a bit slow on entry depending on time of day, but not as bad as BKK. On exit, it's never taken me more than 15 minutes or so.

[Guest Devint6669]

In my experience bangkok airport is a pain in my a** I never think it was a good airport travel from but it always get me where I want to go... I don't get it what the problem. When you get from A to B it's all what you need from a airport.

[ceejay]

When you get from A to B it's all what you need from a airport

.

My point of view too. Industry awards generally are a scam intended to sell advertising and seats at incredibly over priced awards dinners. Shop around and everyone gets a prize. That's achieved by juggling the criteria and the weighting given to each of them. I note that Heathrow managed a top 10 place. Heathrow???? That seems to be based on Terminal 5 (which I never use) being voted "Best Terminal". Someone who used T3 (like me) might have a different point of view. The other section in which Heathrow came top was shopping. Shopping???? To judge an airport by its shopping facilities is as illogical to me as judging a shopping mall by the quality of its air traffic control.

[ChristianPFC]

After reading the review I have to admit some points are true (have to cross the road to get a taxi, scammers at arrvivals). So far, I found my way in all airports, and as a non-frequent flyer it doesn't make much difference.

 

I think people who compare airports and post on threads like this have nothing else to do. I don't chose the airport I'm going to by a rating! Similar to exchange rates and the weather, why talk about it if this doesn't change it?

[Guest fountainhall]

why talk about it if this doesn't change it?

 

Why talk about trips to South America or gay marriage in New Zealand when few readers will visit south America or go to NZ to get married? For the simple reason that some readers are interested. If all the posts here were with the object of changing things, the Board would be pretty empty, I reckon!

[vinapu]

According to last week's THE ECONOMIST, Bangkok airport was only  big airport in Asia with declining number of passengers last year, I  hope there are signs visitors returned.  

[Alexx]

On the bright side, there haven't been complaints about long immigration queues at BKK recently.

[Guest LoveThailand]

I have seen my (un)fair share of airports - and while BKK may be not the best one it certainly is way above average in terms of convenience and passenger experience.

As a major airport it is still better in my opinion than comparable Istanbul or Delhi. Or maybe I have a soft spot for it - it is a gateway to some very good times...

[vinapu]

 

 Or maybe I have a soft spot for it - it is a gateway to some very good times...

Sure bet is not only you feel Swampy is  a gateway to some of very good times

[Guest jimnbkk]

Having just arrived yesterday at Swampy, I feel obliged to comment on the issue.  I agree mostly with Bob.  The OP was exaggerating the problems a bit.  Leaving after retrieving your luggage is possible only one way (yesterday).  You must go out and turn right to get down to where the people are waiting.  There's no signs that tell you this, so if you're meeting somebody be sure and tell them exactly what to do upon departure from the Customs area.

 

Taxis has always been a problem and I believe something needs to be done.  The problem is manageable if you've been here more than once, but the people just arriving are prime subjects for the scam artists, and nothing has been done FOR YEARS about this.

 

Getting a priority pass from the airline to go through Immigration at Swampy was nice, but you must go through the center of the three facilities, and the signage is confusing.  I missed the center area but the non-priority lines where I went were short and the process took only a few minutes.

 

I flew through LAX (Los Angeles, CA) coming here. Finding your way from the domestic arrivals to International Departures is an exercise in futility.  I finally had to ask and receive a detailed explanation of the method of transferring terminals.  Even so, I went to the wrong side of the road to catch the A bus, and when I finally found where the bus stops to pick up passengers, the rear door was broken so the whole crowd of confused people went in the front door.  A real mess.  Moral to this story:  All airports have their "warts".