Thai PM Srettha Thavisin has paid a second unannounced visit to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi and expressed disappointment with his findings.
The PM posted that he’d decided to visit the airport on Saturday evening, as his last surprise visit, on February 5, was in the morning.
He arrived at the airport unannounced on Saturday night and said the procedures in both the Arrivals and Departures areas as “disappointing”.
“I came to check the service systems at Suvarnabhumi Airport without informing the airport in advance after I made a similar check in the morning. So, today I came to check in the evening and there were plenty of passengers.”
The PM goes on to describe congestion and long queues for both arrival and departure procedures. He adds that the current wait times are too long.
“I counted the time since a passenger got off a vehicle and entered the check-in system and passed through the security system to reach his terminal to wait for boarding. And for arrivals, I counted from passengers’ exiting their plane and coming to the immigration counters. I checked all the procedures in detail and found that they took a long time.”
The PM says he has discussed his findings with airport bosses and asked if the waiting time for travellers can be reduced.
“The answer was that the processing time was ‘uncertain’. This has to be improved urgently.”
The PM has suggested that bosses from both the Immigration Bureau and Airports of Thailand should go to Suvarnabhumi during peak hours and see what’s causing the congestion. He has also vowed to return to the airport for a third surprise visit to see if things have improved.
“I’ll make a surprise check at the airport to check the procedures in detail again. We are trying to push Thailand into an aviation hub and we are opening doors to foreign tourists, so I would like operation officials to be service-minded and take care of the tourists so that they will be impressed from the time they get out of their planes.”
SOURCE: Nation Thailand
