Immigration officers at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok are struggling to deal with the crescendo of foreign vacationers flooding into Thailand. Pictures of the jampacked airport taken on Sunday, October 20, reveal a promising outlook for Thailand’s vacationer High Season, which runs from November to April.
Between 1pm-5pm on Sunday, seventy six flights landed on the airport’s runway, a mean of 20 flights per hour. An common of 3,000 – four,000 foreign tourists per hour handed by way of immigration that day, in accordance with the Spokesperson for the Immigration Bureau Mj Gen Choengron Rimphadee. It is by the far the busiest the airport has been since before the pandemic.
To be sure that arrivals didn’t have to wait longer than one hour at immigration, all immigration booths were staffed and officers spent now not than 45 seconds checking the passport information, visa standing, private biometric information, and blacklist standing of each arrival.
Replicate of Immigration Division 2 Pol Maj Gen Montree Pancharoen said that though immigration officers are quick, they still do a radical job to make sure that foreign criminals posing as vacationers do not slip through the online and into the kingdom ahead of the APEC summit in Bangkok later this month, which will be attended by a number of world leaders.
In preparation for High Season, the airport elevated the number of immigration booths from 92 to 112. During busy hours, each sales space will be staffed, said the officer.
The airport is able to checking in round 6,500 passengers per hour without compromising safety, mentioned Maj Gen Choengron Rimphadee.
Staff from Airports of Thailand (AOT) helps the immigration process run smoothly by lining up passengers and serving to them prepare their documents before going through immigration checks.
Currently, Suvarnabhumi Airport is welcoming an average of 45,000 to 50,000 folks daily and the airport solely expects figures to extend.
Several of Thailand’s policies are thought to have contributed to the uptick in international arrivals, including granting longer stays to tourists, the legalisation of cannabis, and the complete removing of Covid-19 entry restrictions and requirements..