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

[serfty]

... QF within the last five years did quite a bit of renovation in 1-11 (read: added more retail space) ...

Actually, the converted the old QP into a few shops cafes and bars, as well as removing "Gate 3".

 

[2muchplastic]

....I don't think you can compare it to China, especially PEK. They spent more on that than any airport in recent history.

I guess that is part of the point I was trying to make . A developing country like China can throw money at it's airport and make the arrival experience smooth and pleasant. Whereas MEL....

 

[straitman]

I guess that is part of the point I was trying to make . A developing country like China can throw money at it's airport and make the arrival experience smooth and pleasant. Whereas MEL....

It's the economy of numbers at work again :!:

.... and possibly the Capitalist society (we pay) vs the Communist society (Gov't pays).

 

[2muchplastic]

It's the economy of numbers at work again :!:

.... and possibly the Capitalist society (we pay) vs the Communist society (Gov't pays).

If it means that I can make a two hour connection between flights, I'd snog Karl Marx on his big beardy lips:mrgreen:

 

[straitman]

If it means that I can make a two hour connection between flights, I'd snog Karl Marx on his big beardy lips:mrgreen:

:shock: Please post a copy of the video here for all to see.

 

[anat0l]

It's the economy of numbers at work again :!:

.... and possibly the Capitalist society (we pay) vs the Communist society (Gov't pays).

One of the downsides of a competitive cut-throat capitalist society.

Not to mention that all the airports are privatised, which means the governments - even if it had mountains of cash - doesn't have much teeth at all (apart from feckless legislation and planning schemes) in making decisions on the more intricate aspects of our airport operations.

 

[2muchplastic]

One of the downsides of a competitive cut-throat capitalist society.

Not to mention that all the airports are privatised, which means the governments - even if it had mountains of cash - doesn't have much teeth at all (apart from feckless legislation and planning schemes) in making decisions on the more intricate aspects of our airport operations.

All too true unfortunately. When just adding a new terminal at LHR takes 19 years from inception to completion, I shudder to think what a whole new airport would take.

 

[dajop]

PEK at least has some decent traffic to justify it's grandness!

But for absolute over the top grandness relative to the number of aircraft movements, for a medium size airport the prize would have to go to the ghost town that is KUL.

And my favorite - BHY. I recently had a visit to a place called Beihai in Guangxi province, China. It was a mini-PEK. It had six gates - four with airbridges and two without. Massive departures & arrivals halls. So what you say? According to flight timetables (and departures board) BHY has only 4 or 5 narrow body services a day (not simultaneously either) - an airbridge each. I guess they do have grand plans for the place!

 

[Flashback]

PEK at least has some decent traffic to justify it's grandness!

But for absolute over the top grandness relative to the number of aircraft movements, for a medium size airport the prize would have to go to the ghost town that is KUL.

And my favorite - BHY. I recently had a visit to a place called Beihai in Guangxi province, China. It was a mini-PEK. It had six gates - four with airbridges and two without. Massive departures & arrivals halls. So what you say? According to flight timetables (and departures board) BHY has only 4 or 5 narrow body services a day (not simultaneously either) - an airbridge each. I guess they do have grand plans for the place!

:shock: @ BHY, that puts PER domestic to shame!!

 

[anat0l]

But for absolute over the top grandness relative to the number of aircraft movements, for a medium size airport the prize would have to go to the ghost town that is KUL.

To be fair, I'm guessing KUL may have needed that kind of space when it hosted the Commonwealth Games and more so before the KUL LCC was constructed. The irony is that there were severe handling and traffic problems at KUL when the said Games were on!

With all the hype disappearing soon after, the result was as you said - too many unused gates. The KUL LCC removes a fair amount of traffic from the primary terminal as well.

I imagine there is some scheme in place to promote KUL as a hub, especially on the Kangaroo route. Not sure how ground, handling and landing fees compare with SIN, BKK and HKG. I wonder whether Air Asia will use the LCC or the main terminal when it launches its flights to STN. After all, there seems to always be some sort of continuous growth at KUL taking place, viz. mostly retail developments - why do all of this with no appreciable increase in traffic?

 

[Evan]

In SIN the news articles suggest that KUL is at 100% capacity.
One of the reasons for the recently planned but aborted new LCC terminal away from it.
I must admit most times it seems like a ghost town but maybe it has its busy hours, i guess look at MEL during the day, hardly any traffic, all morning and evening.

E

 

[nlagalle]

I guess that is part of the point I was trying to make . A developing country like China can throw money at it's airport and make the arrival experience smooth and pleasant. Whereas MEL....

I don't think you can class China as a developing country anymore.. They threw around billions to build for the Games.

 

[dajop]

In SIN the news articles suggest that KUL is at 100% capacity.
One of the reasons for the recently planned but aborted new LCC terminal away from it.
I must admit most times it seems like a ghost town but maybe it has its busy hours, i guess look at MEL during the day, hardly any traffic, all morning and evening.

E

Maybe, just maybe I'm a bit used to the likes of SIN & BKK so that comparisons are unfair. I was there last night (KUL that is), and really it was rather eerie, there was very litte flight movement and looking at the arrivals/departures board very little non-MH traffic (at least in the main terminal). I guess the AirAsia traffic well and truly would keep ATC busy, and the one time I was at their terminal it was a madhouse! So maybe that's where everyone was, paying discount rates on Air Asia and Tiger rather than top dollar on the likes of SQ/MI, MH & CX.

 

[JohnK]

I have had 2 international arrivals into MEL on QF10 SIN-MEL and I missed my connecting flight to SYD both times. Do I blame the airport for it? Not really as the last time I was through MEL my bag and golf clubs were one of the last ones to come out onto the carousel. Bad luck.

Usually getting through customs/immigration is not really an issue especially if using the express arrival card or even purchasing duty free and quarantine can be hit and miss at most Australian airports. I think we are quite lucky in Australia compared to most airports around the world.

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.....

Does CGK count? It is chaotic at the best of times. I was terrified on my one and only visit in April 2005 as there was supposed to be someone waiting for me to take me through immigration and then driver me to the hotel. They got the dates mixed up and I had a terrible experience for an hour or so fighting off touts while calling people in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore trying to get accommodation and transport organised.

 

[docjames]

What are we doing discussing how bad MEL is - have you ever been to LAX????:evil::evil::evil::evil::evil:

 

[straitman]

What are we doing discussing how bad MEL is - have you ever been to LAX????:evil::evil::evil:

We were discussing third world airports not forth and fifth level experiences :!:

 

[admin]

... spare a thought for those who use Pragrue's Franz Kafka's airport

Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

... makes Tullamarine seem like a dream!

 

[Keith009]

... spare a thought for those who use Pragrue's Franz Kafka's airport

Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

... makes Tullamarine seem like a dream!

Fortunately reality is far more mundane and my experience using that airport was like a dream compared to most others.

BA check in in PRG (Menzies agents IIRC) however kicked me out of my pre-assigned seat on the QF connection out of LHR, and printed me a bp without my name. :shock: Note to self: stick to the transfer desks at LHR in future if BA is doing the interlining. At least my suitcases were tagged correctly.

 

[WellingtonFF]

Beware - have a look at Gullivers blog on the Economist and the reference to Franz Kafka airport.

The software won't let me post the link

 

[anat0l]

... spare a thought for those who use Pragrue's Franz Kafka's airport

Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

... makes Tullamarine seem like a dream!

I think we will be taking a train to Prague in November....unless the name of Prague's central station is also Franz Kafka :-| :mrgreen:

Nice article. First of its kind I've seen all day.