Airport Pass Holders Only

[Pleng]

Does anybody know the reason they like so shut off travallators at random in Suvanaburimihiash airport, with a sign saying 'Airport Pass Holders Only'?

I found my path up and down blocked on several occasions the other day (had a lot of time to kill...). Sometimes I'd walk right to the other end of the airport and still not be able to find an alternative way up or down. I then noticed that people seemed to be using them anyway, so I gave it a go myself. Most times I got by without any issue, but once I was asked where I was going. 'Up' I said, and was allowed through without further questioning...

[Bristolian]

I have faced the same issue. I believe that the travellators that are shut off, and marked for "Airport Passholders only", are the travellators that take you back into the arrivals area (immediately after customs). they want to keep this area as clear as possible for arriving passengers and obviously not to allow families and friends who are meeting arrivals from blocking the area. At least that is was I was told when I asked.

[buksida]

Also had the same problem, it took me a while to get to the booking desk for the bus to HH since half the travellators were closed.

[STEVE G]

Yes, I think it's mainly to keep that area of arrivals clear of hoards of taxi and hotel touts and I've also found that the police have no problem letting you through if you ask. There is also a lift that doesn't stop on that level.

[wpcoe]

To say it a different way: The area which is accessed by those restricted travelators is a "sterile area," which means the only folks from the public permitted in that area are those exiting the customs hall as passengers.

It is part of the flawed design of the arrivals lobby area. As designed, and as it actually operated when the airport first opened, the public was allowed up to within about 50 feet of the doors from the customs hall. However the crowding, between the adoring public meeting friends & family and the various touts, created such intolerable gridlock that the access to the area was restricted to several hundred feet from the door, which unfortunately included an elevator and several of the travelators.

[STEVE G]

It is part of the flawed design of the arrivals lobby area.

Yes, it's far too small for the passenger numbers; the airport I work at here in Luxembourg has a similar sized arrivals lobby and it handles less than two million passengers a year compared with Suvarnabhumi's fifty odd million. You could understand it if it was an old airport that had become overloaded but it's virtually new.
Personally I could do with a bigger arrivals area and a few less shops as despite being a regular user of the airport, the only thing I've ever bought in them is a few cans of Chang beer. I don't need a huge shopping mall to catch a flight and that life-sized ceramic St. Bernard dog that one of them has been trying to sell since it opened is the least practical thing that I've seen for sale in an airport anywhere in the world, ever.