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Hard stands/bus to terminal at BKK

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Old Jan 14, 2016, 7:12 am
  #1  
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Hard stands/bus to terminal at BKK

I flew Thai on Christmas eve and am curious about the use of hard stands/bus gates.
I flew in on TG 408, a 777 from SIN and then out on TG 473, a 787 to BNE.
Both arrivals and departures were from "bus gates" although the buses pulled up to an departed from normal gates with jet bridges and all -- just no airplanes attached.
Curious about why they would use bus gates when it seems that they could have just parked the planes at the gates.
Security?, Gates too small for wide-bodies?
Thanks.
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Old Jan 14, 2016, 3:27 pm
  #2  
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Originally Posted by mot29
I flew Thai on Christmas eve and am curious about the use of hard stands/bus gates.
I flew in on TG 408, a 777 from SIN and then out on TG 473, a 787 to BNE.
Both arrivals and departures were from "bus gates" although the buses pulled up to an departed from normal gates with jet bridges and all -- just no airplanes attached.
Curious about why they would use bus gates when it seems that they could have just parked the planes at the gates.
Security?, Gates too small for wide-bodies?
Thanks.
Those slots may have been 'booked' by other carriers and/or THAI's predilection to use widebody aircraft on domestic sectors.

In the latter case, a widebody flying Phuket-Bangkok would usually go to Concourse A/B which international departing pax won't be able to access, so it makes sense to park on the apron if that aircraft's next sector is an international departure.

This might also say a bit about unplanned changes to utilisation of each aircraft too.
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Old Jan 14, 2016, 3:52 pm
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Originally Posted by mot29
I flew in on TG 408, a 777 from SIN and then out on TG 473, a 787 to BNE.
Both arrivals and departures were from "bus gates" although the buses pulled up to an departed from normal gates with jet bridges and all -- just no airplanes attached.
Curious about why they would use bus gates when it seems that they could have just parked the planes at the gates.
Security?, Gates too small for wide-bodies?
Thanks.
bus for normal gates with jet bridges are used in following cases
- arriving international flight docks on domestic gates A and B during the day (during night A and B are also used for international flights); passengers need to be carried by buses to international arrival area
- departing international flight docked on domestic gates A and B; passengers get from international departure to the plane
of course it could happen vice versa. many aircrafts rotate between domestic and international
BinSabai is offline  
Old Jan 15, 2016, 1:30 am
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More often than not TG 465/466 have remote stand (and 465 usually departs from E3). Thai, unlike most other carriers, does not provide a separate bus for business class passengers, perhaps not a big deal on departure but on arrival it defeats the purpose of getting off the plane first as you have to wait while the bus fills.
A few times it wouldn't matter but these flights to/from Melbourne it's very much the rule rather than the exception.
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Old Jan 15, 2016, 2:59 am
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Originally Posted by paolo64
More often than not TG 465/466 have remote stand (and 465 usually departs from E3). Thai, unlike most other carriers, does not provide a separate bus for business class passengers, perhaps not a big deal on departure but on arrival it defeats the purpose of getting off the plane first as you have to wait while the bus fills.
A few times it wouldn't matter but these flights to/from Melbourne it's very much the rule rather than the exception.
I prefer to go with the first bus rather than to wait until the last business class passenger has made it to the special dedicated bus. That is particular for departure crazy to wait maybe 10-15 minutes until the last one; but also for arrival there are some slow movers in biz class...
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Old Jan 15, 2016, 7:58 pm
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Why does TG use buses so often at its home airport ?

Just penny pinching ?

Arriving by bus was the exception rather than the rule with other international carriers into BKK, but with TG it seems to be almost every time. It's really annoying. And bussed departures is just ridiculous.
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Old Jan 15, 2016, 8:54 pm
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Originally Posted by timster
Why does TG use buses so often at its home airport
seems to be inconsistent....Had a lot of bus gates 2 years ago, over 50%. Last year it improved to probably less than 20%. Now it's getting worse again. just my experience...
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Old Jan 15, 2016, 9:54 pm
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Originally Posted by BinSabai
seems to be inconsistent....Had a lot of bus gates 2 years ago, over 50%. Last year it improved to probably less than 20%. Now it's getting worse again. just my experience...
My impression as well.
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Old Jan 16, 2016, 12:01 am
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Originally Posted by timster
Why does TG use buses so often at its home airport ?

Just penny pinching ?

Arriving by bus was the exception rather than the rule with other international carriers into BKK, but with TG it seems to be almost every time. It's really annoying. And bussed departures is just ridiculous.
It is odd that it's almost a certainty on 465/466 that it will be a bus. Maybe one factor is that 466 is often 30 minutes early and would be at the gate for 3.5 hours before departing. It never seems to affect El Al, Turkish and the others that depart from the next door gates
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Old Jan 17, 2016, 8:40 am
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When I said to the FA on my last MNL-BKK flight, which ended up at a bus gate , that Swanpy was not an airport but a bus station, she laughed and even repeated the joke to the purser who acknowledged I was right .
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