Is Suvarnabhumi airport a nightmare for all but its own staff?

THINKBOX

Is Suvarnabhumi airport a nightmare for all but its own staff?

Published: 17 May 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: Life

Suvarnabhumi international airport has not brought only headaches to passengers, which has also led to the sinking in the international ranks for customer satisfaction, but also to airlines such as Thai AirAsia.

Skytrax's World Airport Awards survey showed that Suvarnabhumi airport was ranked 25th _ down from 13th place last year and 10th in 2010. The levels of customer satisfaction also dropped from 5th to 7th position in the subcategory of Airport by Size (over 40 million passengers a year), according to the Airports Council International's Airport Service Quality (ASQ) awards in 2011.

One of the key factors is that airports of Thailand (AoT) was too slow in introducing changes and improvements, according to Skytrax's marketing director Peter Miller.

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whatajoke
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Discussion 5 : 18 May 2012 at 07.315
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Many of the problems besetting this airport aren't major challenges, with some pro-active and competent forethought they can be effectively resolved if they are anticipated or acted on quickly, regrettably this just isn't a feature of organisation in this country. Let the airport slip to 50th in the rankings, that will spur some action! Part of the reason is that the management is so bogged down with 'political appointees or allies' who have different agendas and are more focused on serving individual interests in a public facility. The duty free shopping is a glaring example, or the spat over who gets the lucrative parking concession. Another example of this is pressure on Air Asia to move to Don Mueng, no one wants to move there because they will lose considerable business from non-connecting flights, of course this only serves to bolster the national airline's chances. Air Asia is synonymous with the expansion of regional travel, don't blame them, blame an airport that simply cannot keep up.
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domdunnn
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Discussion 4 : 17 May 2012 at 16.364
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They should sell the airport off to a private operator, and while they are at it they should privatize Thai Airways.
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bkposter
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Discussion 3 : 17 May 2012 at 07.143
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RE: D 2 Victor, You hit the nail on the head and the same problem besets the government in general.

And as the Writer points out the airport is always re-active and not pro-active to everything. In fact Thai society in general is very poor at planning. Example extra lanes for roads will only be added when the current road goes into grid lock.
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Victor
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Discussion 2 : 17 May 2012 at 06.002
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The operation of the airport is just one of the many ventures that Thailand is trying to imitate the 21st century living but still doing things with an 18th century mind set.
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Aussie John
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Discussion 1 : 17 May 2012 at 04.531
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When coming through Suvamabhumi I always treat it like a workoutas from point A check in to point B getting on my flight its about 2 km. The food at the airport is some of the most expensive I've seen in Thailand...its amazing.
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Is Suvarnabhumi airport a nightmare for all but its own staff? | Bangkok Post: opinion