Melbourne Tullamarine - third world airport with a third world airline (VN)

[tuapekastar]

My experience is that Melbourne airport is a horror arrival airport if 3 or more planes have landed at once.

The Express arrival lane is slower in my experience than the normal lanes if 2 qf jumbos have landed at the same time as everyone in business and first gets an express card. Also crew use the express arrival lane and they all seem to get priority.

Yeah, barring a broken down baggage conveyor which kept us waiting ages one time I can't recall any particularly long delays arriving into MEL, but once when I picked a couple of friends up their plane landed late and was the last of 3 or 4 close-together widebody international landings. They took forever to get through.

 

[clifford]

If you think MEL is bad (which I don't), then try SYD at a bad time.

And anything to do with VN and its pax is not good IMHO.

 

[Mal]

And anything to do with VN and its pax is not good IMHO.

Indeed! They're not on my "preferred airline list" at all!

 

[2muchplastic]

If you think MEL is bad (which I don't), then try SYD at a bad time.

And anything to do with VN and its pax is not good IMHO.

Do I think MEL is bad? Well I have a very small sample so far, one outbound and one inbound, and in that sample, the performance was poor.

SYD, on the other hand, I have a much larger sample, approximately 20 inbounds and outbounds over the last year and have never had a problem.
BNE, a larger sample again, and not a single problem of this size. I'm fully aware that flying in (or out) at a different time of the day can make a huge difference to your airport experience - most of my flights back into Oz have been overnight from Asia, an early morning arrival that most on here say is the worst time.

And as for VN, I'm going to make every effort to avoid them in the future, as well as making sure that when I'm given a QF flight number, it really IS the red rat I'm flying with.

 

[WellingtonFF]

I am usually through MEL every month or so, but usually around 6.00pm. I usually have carry on, and I have an APEC pass, so I am always through with no waiting at all. Although I am a Melburnian I have done a lot of international travel in my time, and I can't understand what some of the posters are growling about - I like MEL International - it is certainly not a third world airport.

In the past few years, I can only remember one time when the AQIS queues were very long as the OP described in the morning, but I had an Express Pass in addition to my APEC card, and I wasn't held up.

 

[Batesy]

Has anyone actually been to a real third world airport, the airports mentioned so far are in OZ and Europe, none of which are actually third world.....

 

[straitman]

Has anyone actually been to a real third world airport, the airports mentioned so far are in OZ and Europe, none of which are actually third world.....

Unless you mean being on the far side of the Bali airport and being greated by soldiers with machine guns :?: No not really :!:

 

[tuapekastar]

Has anyone actually been to a real third world airport, the airports mentioned so far are in OZ and Europe, none of which are actually third world.....

Yep, plenty of us have been to LAX!

 

[NM]

Has anyone actually been to a real third world airport, the airports mentioned so far are in OZ and Europe, none of which are actually third world.....

KBP in the 1990s was an interesting experience . But probably not qualifying as third world. What about KWI in the mid 1970s? Or CCU on that same trip? Would they qualify?

 

[sr81]

Has anyone actually been to a real third world airport, the airports mentioned so far are in OZ and Europe, none of which are actually third world.....

Would happily suggest that DMO counts. I have also done a bit of flying around the Caribbiean (Angulia, Purteo Rico, Antiga, etc.) but the biggest problem there is random dogs and working to "Island Time".

Back on topic - A Federal Police friend of mine works at the airport sometimes and reports that any VN flight receives plenty of attention from Customs, AQIS and AFP. This may explain the slower than usual entry.

I have found MEL pretty good but domestic QF baggage is the slowest in the network.

 

[straitman]

I have found MEL pretty good but domestic QF baggage is the slowest in the network.

Slower than PER :?: I suspect not.

 

[docjames]

HRE - does that count (probably does now) but in '99 wasnt too bad (old, but customs etc were actually efficient!)
HAV - as good as anywhere, immigration/customs a bit slow but again, ok.
MEX - long waits but airport clean

DFW - fairly good when we were there (intl)
LAX - by far the worst.
JFK - almost as bad

(spot trend emerging).


I'd rank MEL as better than all of them, and definately ahead of SYD or BNE.

 

[anat0l]

MEL is a nice airport although when umpteen flights come in at the same time I can see why MEL would come close to standstill. BNE suffers from the same problem, as my father recently found out.

I'm surprised why MEL doesn't cater for more facilities than it already does. I guess I am really just foreshadowing the future, since the airport extension at MEL T2 will demand extra incoming facilities to cope with the increased traffic.

Certainly, the airport is by no means "third world", although without some smart planning I can see the standard degenerate fairly rapidly (and I don't include that last clause lightly).

 

[dajop]

Just did a count,in the last 5 years I've had 36 international arrivals in MEL. The vast majority of these have been hassle free. Baggage arrival can be slow, moreso perhaps on the QF flights than the SQ flights I've taken. But generally reasonably quick.

I do recall one time where it was like the OP's experience, so will not dispute that, it does not handle simultaneous arrivals particularly well. Also there have been perhaps three other occassions what I would describe as moderate delays (and in the last year or two - I judge this on the number of ppl queing at immigration and customs, not necessarily on my experience since I've had express passes - and now APEC card - to avoid the queues) . On this basis I'd estimate probably 85% of the time it operates smoothly, 10% on the bounds of acceptability and 5% a disaster! However, I will qualify this, as my flights have largely been on SQ, whose arrivals usually miss other arrivals.

Sydney I have smaller number of flights but probably not dissimilar experiences (excluding the domestic transfer bit), although last month I arrived into SYD (and breezed through with my APEC card), but there were massive queues at immigration counter, to the point that airport staff had to start unloading the baggage conveyor because no more bags could fit onto it! So I'd say the ratio would be about the same as MEL for getting out of the international airport at SYD. Now if one were to count the intl->dom transfer at SYD that adds a completely different dimension, there have been numerous times I have breezed through customs/immigration to hit a wall of people and half hour delays at the transfer desk ........but that's a whole different story.

 

[2muchplastic]

To explain why I used the phrase "third world airport", it is very simple - I have spent a reasonable amount of time flying into and out of airports in so-called developing nations such as China, various airports in the middle east, and now Vietnam. In most of them, I get through in less than a quarter of the time that it took at MEL, so if the airports in locations such as Vietnam and China are more efficient (and they are "developing" nations) then MEL must be third world.

The only airports that have come close to, but not bettered, the chaos I experienced in MEL last week are:
Abu Dhabi (horrible little grotty hole)
Dubai (pre-T3)
Santo Domingo (about 15 years ago)
Sharm-el-Sheik (an absolute zoo)
Izmir, Turkey (but that was because we had a 5.7 magnitude earthquake on arriving at the airport)

My MEL inbound sample size is very small, and it will stay that way, as I now have no desire to return. Perhaps I've always been lucky with my trips through SYD and BNE, and desparately unlucky with my one inbound into MEL, but I'm going to stay where my luck is.

 

[anat0l]

To explain why I used the phrase "third world airport", it is very simple - I have spent a reasonable amount of time flying into and out of airports in so-called developing nations such as China, various airports in the middle east, and now Vietnam. In most of them, I get through in less than a quarter of the time that it took at MEL, so if the airports in locations such as Vietnam and China are more efficient (and they are "developing" nations) then MEL must be third world.

The only airports that have come close to, but not bettered, the chaos I experienced in MEL last week are:
Abu Dhabi (horrible little grotty hole)
Dubai (pre-T3)
Santo Domingo (about 15 years ago)
Sharm-el-Sheik (an absolute zoo)
Izmir, Turkey (but that was because we had a 5.7 magnitude earthquake on arriving at the airport)

My MEL inbound sample size is very small, and it will stay that way, as I now have no desire to return. Perhaps I've always been lucky with my trips through SYD and BNE, and desparately unlucky with my one inbound into MEL, but I'm going to stay where my luck is.

One big thing that gets me through Asian airports fairly quickly is the lack of customs inspection. I've been through MNL, KIX, KUL, TPE, HKG and SIN, and for all of them (that I could remember) the customs inspection was either non-existent or took less than a minute. None of this queue for customs BS either - most people end up literally just walking through. Compared to Australia, this easily cuts out between 15 - 60% of the time required to get from gate to outside.

For the select Asian airports I've listed, passport control is usually the bottleneck, especially if you are not a citizen, but at least in Asian airports if there are umpteen counters for immigration they will open umpteen counters to process arrivals! (Unlike in Australia and New Zealand where there could be umpteen counters but only five open. )

If we had to score all of the airports in AU according to your system, almost all of them (certainly all on the Eastern seaboard) would score as 3rd (or 4th!) world airports, but then again this is not all the time (and unfortunately old Murphy likes to play games with everyone with this one!)

 

[dajop]

My MEL inbound sample size is very small, and it will stay that way, as I now have no desire to return. Perhaps I've always been lucky with my trips through SYD and BNE, and desparately unlucky with my one inbound into MEL, but I'm going to stay where my luck is.

Surely for you BNE would be number 1 preference anyway? I'd stick with the most convenient schedule based on the price you are willing to pay and not worry too much about whether you will randomly end up passing through a hellhole.

I think due to the customs attention (or lack of it) in thirdworld airports they tend to perform better for arrivals than in many OECD countries. My worst arrival experiences at airports (in order) have been LAX, LAX, SFO, SYD, MEL, SGN, AKL, MIA, HKG (immigration queues) ... not too many of these are third world. However, departures are different, my worst have mainly been third world (in order) EZE, HYD, MNL, LAX, MNL, DEL, LAX....

 

[Flashback]

Surely for you BNE would be number 1 preference anyway? I'd stick with the most convenient schedule based on the price you are willing to pay and not worry too much about whether you will randomly end up passing through a hellhole.

I think due to the customs attention (or lack of it) in thirdworld airports they tend to perform better for arrivals than in many OECD countries. My worst arrival experiences at airports (in order) have been LAX, LAX, SFO, SYD, MEL, SGN, AKL, MIA, HKG (immigration queues) ... not too many of these are third world. However, departures are different, my worst have mainly been third world (in order) EZE, HYD, MNL, LAX, MNL, DEL, LAX....

In both of your lists, you list LAX twice

 

[anat0l]

In both of your lists, you list LAX twice

What? You haven't got the message yet?

 

[Flashback]

What? You haven't got the message yet?

Well, that was the first thing that crossed my mind... but it could have gone one of two ways