THIRD TIME LUCKY? PM MAKES ANOTHER UNANNOUNCED VISIT TO SUVARNABHUM

THIRD TIME LUCKY? PM MAKES ANOTHER UNANNOUNCED VISIT TO SUVARNABHUM

The Thai PM has made another unannounced visit to Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK), his third surprise visit this year.

Nation Thailand reports that PM Srettha Thavisin turned up at Bangkok’s largest airport again yesterday, April 9, to see how prepared the facility is ahead of the upcoming Songkran holiday.

His first surprise visit was on February 5, when he arrived to check how passenger procedures, including those at immigration, were working (or not). This was followed by a second visit on February 24, this time at night. After that visit, the PM said he was still not happy, describing procedures in both Arrivals and Departures as “disappointing”.

Following his third visit yesterday, things were looking up. The PM took to X to say most services have improved since his last visit. This includes the flow of traffic at the airport’s entrance and exit, passenger check-in, luggage checks, immigration checks, waiting time at the baggage carousel, customs checks, and in the waiting areas for passengers and workers in between shifts.

“I have set an additional KPI (key performance indicator) for Suvarnabhumi Airport. The time needed to go from check-in to customs checkpoint for outgoing passengers, and from customs checkpoint to baggage claim for incoming passengers, must not exceed 45-60 minutes.”

Since the start of this year the PM has taken particular interest in the details of Thai tourism, particularly the efficiency of the country’s largest airport.

The PM says Airports of Thailand have increased the advance check-in time from 3 hours to 4, and installed extra self-check-in kiosks. AOT has also doubled the number of workers on each shift and given assurances that the self-check-in malfunction seen in January won’t happen again.

The PM has also called on airlines to make more use of the self-check-in kiosks, alongside the manual check-in desks. It’s understood that out of 117 airlines serving Suvarnabhumi, only 28 use the automatic kiosks.

Overall, while pleased with the improvements, the PM says there’s still more work to do, including with the airport’s immigration processes.

“There are several areas that can be further improved. I have ordered the immigration processes under AOT and the Immigration Bureau to be integrated into one system called Thailand Immigration System.”