wavery83

Are you being sarcastic? There is nothing world-class about this airport! It is just another vast glass and steel penis extension that doesn't function particularly well and who cares about the shops? It's all designer made in china anyway! You're not going to find anything you wouldn't in any other duty free in the world at the same universal price. Some peeps need to wake up and smell the instant coffee!

N1Rotate

Rivarix,

There is a method to the madness, for example USA flights always depart from a contact gate, same with the A380 (CDG/LHR/BKK). On the morning flights 0600-800 its around 50/50 in other parts of the day its around 95% contact gates and it evens out at around 70% of flights departing contact gates (an accurate and recent statistical figure)


wavery83,

RUN4FUN was sarcastic in his remark, just read his previous comments on this thread.



Is HIA the best airport in the world? No
Is it Douala or Lagos? No
Is it one of the better airports in the region? Yes

wavery83

Hollinger Clarke

They have pills for that which I'm told works wonders

The peeps are in the Al Mourjan lounge sniffing at the bouquet of Krug

wavery83

Hahaha....

Best post on FT Sir.

tartempion

I have been 4x through HIA this year so far with 2x the C20-29 dreadful downstairs bus gates, they are a real "face loss thing" for HIA.

Overall, I don't like HIA at all and I have 4 more HIA transits to go through this year. I thought Suvarnabhumi was the ugliest and most stupidly designed airport so far, but I think HIA beats Swampy's BKK.

The A380 J boarding gate HIA to BKK was a disaster also.
I saw a sign "Priorty boarding" to be denied boarding and told to walk "somewhere" further for business class boarding, took the travelator to a deserted end and asked an waiting airport employee at the end where the business class boarding was, she had no clue. It was a dark corner and looked around for some entry, remember seeing a lift somewhere, since J is the upper deck I found the entrance.

It was worse than the long BKK shopping mall walk towards the A380 concourse C gates. Who ever buys anything from these overpriced shops?

I was checking the Lindt, Neuhaus, Godiva chocolates prices at VIE, BRU, BKK and HIA lately, no way would I buy any of them in a "duty free" shop.

3x Al Mourjan lounge, the place has no soul...

in2it54

Jeepers, what a sad sack you are.
Talk about "glass half empty" mentality.
It's a wonder the whole HIA thing hasn't driven you to another airline.

QatarA340

drama queen

tartempion

Well after moving away from old DOH airport and QR and flying EY for 7 years I decided to give HIA and QR an other try, I also wanted to fly the A380 and B787 in biz. QR biz gets a higher score from me on these planes than EY, 5* airline? then EY gets 4.

I am not flying 100k miles/year but passed thru YUL, BKK, BRU, VIE, FRA, ZRH, HKT, UTH, DMK, AUH in the last 12 months and could add many more over the years. I developed a dislike for BKK with the strange name, but sofar HIA is on track to win that medal, what's wrong with expressing an opinion?

I have two more returns booked with QR and will get the 100k bonus miles with the globetrotter campaign, means more QR flights in 2016.

I dislike busing and did not enjoy the HIA C20-29 busing gates.
I had a 8.45h transit though and was impressed with the Al Maha service and STPC provided.

I did prefer the new EY AUH J lounge around gate 35 to Al Mourjan.

stargold

Does anyone know an even slightly plausable and sensible reason why bus gates were installed at such an insane location? By their very nature, bus gates can, and should, be situated at the centre of the terminal!

remdk

When HIA is finally(?) finished then the D and E bus gates will be adjacent to the North node shopping area and the rail terminus. The C bus gates will be halfway between the North and South shopping areas. C bus gates would then be dead centre in the terminal and D and E bus gates would be at a significant transport node. The North node is scheduled for completion in 2017. But this is QR so No one knows! It is very likely that the last to know will again be the passengers (users).

N1Rotate

I answered this question earlier in thread and remdk has also explained it pretty well. In any case I will try to answer your question again in more detail:


- Remember that the terminal is a work in progress and it has a construction program extending to 2020. It has significant expansion planned over the next five years which will include doubling the number of gates, another hotel, more lounges etc..

- To help contextualise things, currently all transiting and departing passengers enter the terminal the terminal at the South Node, this is the area with the duty free, the yellow bear, hotel and lounges.

- They can't place the bus gates under the South Node as it is where a big chunk of the luggage system is situated. Placing the luggage system elsewhere to make room for the bus gates is sub-optimal, hence the most optimal location for the bus gates is in the C-concourse due to its centrality, however they can only place 10 bus gates there and need more.

- Placing the additional bus gates at the A or B concourse will sub-optimal, so the second most optimal place is the North Node. This is were the D/E Bus gates are.

- The North Node currently seems barren but by the end next year will have a large duty free / F&B section, additional set of lounges, 8 additional contact gates and second 100 room hotel. The North Node will also process connecting passengers, so passengers arriving at northern gates will clear security and enter the terminal at this point. In fact for some connections you will arrive and depart at the North Node without even getting close to the South Node (and seeing the yellow bear!). This means that for a lot of passengers the bus gates there will be closer to them than the ones at the C concourse.

- The North Node will be connected to the South Node by an automated people mover that takes less than 60 seconds to transport you between both points. This means if you are leaving Al-Mourjan you can turn left walk to the train and be at the D/E gates in no time, or you can go there straight away and use the additional lounges at that end.



- The image above shows the stations on the Automated People Mover tracks. The two tracks fork at the Norh Node where they will extend into Concourse D and E when it is expanded with a station at each of the ends of Concourse D and E.

- The expansion of Concourses D+E is being re-designed by Foster + Partners with construction planned to complete in 2020, later than planned with the original design. Concourses D and E once complete will almost double the number of gates and in turn process more passengers through the North Node, making the location of the bus gates there make even more sense.




I hope all is clear now

stargold

Thanks - okay, makes more sense, so long as the trains start running soon!

QatarA340

Further to what N1Rotate stated, the new expansion slated to begin soon will be different than what was originally planned. Instead of branching out the D and E, there will be a concourse perpendicular to Concourse C, which will fit more gates than branching out D and E. This redesign is what made the start of the expansion delayed a bit.

The North Node will have an outdoor area, and will be greatly expanded, and might become the MAIN part of the terminal complex.

remdk

N1rotate Where did the plan you show come from? There are significant incorrect details in it . Such as the A and B wings have moved. Such as the rail systems start in the shopping area!

QatarA340 The model photo is indeed very interesting news. As you say it is the first step toward expansion of HIA.

Remembering that this is an architcts model of a suggestion and that these models very often do not reflect the final building I have a couple of comments based upon this model.

1. The number of 'new' gates appears to be 26 and not the 32 that D and E wings would give. That is negative expansion of 6 gates in my eyes.

2. the new wing reminds me of DXB. It appears to be 2-3 times longer than the current C wing (which is quite long enough thank you). This would mean even further to walk from some gates to Immigration and Security than from C13 today.