Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has wanted all arriving air passengers from abroad to take no more than 30 minutes going through the immigration procedure and picking up their luggage.

He also said that arriving passengers should not spend more than two hours at the airport between arrival and catching public transport to their hotels, because he wants them to spend more time sight-seeing and shopping, rather than at the airport.

He also said that he has invited the commissioner of the Immigration Bureau to Government House this afternoon, for a discussion on how to improve services at the country’s main airports, to cope with increased tourist arrivals, including, but not limited to, increasing manpower.

The prime minister paid an unannounced visit to Suvarnabhumi international airport yesterday, to observe the immigration services, after the immigration computer system had failed several times in the past few days due to an increase in arrivals.

In his “X” post, today, the prime minister said that March is known to be the peak month for tourist arrivals and all main airports must be able to cope with the increased workload effectively, especially the immigration computer system.

He said that he does not want to just receive reports, but wanted to see the problems with his own eyes, adding that he prefers to use the word “opportunity” rather than “problem”.

Noting that tourist arrivals will reach pre-COVID levels, he said that it is essential that all the IT and backup systems are inter-connected and working properly.

As for departing passengers, the prime minister said that he does not want them to spend too much time stuck in all the screening and immigration procedures.