Sydney Airport upgrade

[Michael Cleary]

What irks me most about T1 is the need to navigate through the Duty Free shops both outbound and inbound, whether you want to or not. No doubt it's due to SACL wanting revenue from every SqM of space they can get.

Anyone got thoughts about Immigration being before Security on the way out? It seems that almost everywhere else that I have been in SE Asia it's the Security checkpoint first.

[Steve Crook]

Interesting thought Michael. It got me thinking about my experiences. In Jordan there was a big x ray of everything before checkin, but then I seem to recall it was immigration then security airside. Charles De Gaulle had immigration then security. I am a bit foggy about what it was at Hong Kong (I'll claim sleep deprivation as the cause) but I THINK it was immigration first then security as well. In Taipei it was immigration then security as it was at Narita. I can't remember what it was at Changi, except that there was security at each gate. If there was another level of security going through to airside I can't be sure. I only transitted at Kual Lumpur so don't know what the immigration/security set up is, but there was security at each gate prior to boarding. And I can't for the life of me remember what the setup was at any of the New Zealand airports I've been through in recent years. I guess at one level logic would suggest that security might be more effective if it was carried out before entering the immigration hall as this would, more than likely, render that environment secure.

[Andrew P]

MNL - immi then security
BKK - immi them security
HKG - security then immi

as for the duty free barrier, it stinks

[Ash W]

Singapore is immigration, shopping then security at each and every gate. For transit passengers they arrive in the shopping area and head back through security.

Bangkok is immigration, shopping and security at each pier.

As for the main point raised about having to be funneled through the shops to get to the gate, this seems to be an Australian thing. Cannot think of too many other places where this is done, especially on arrival.

We are lucky were are not like airports run by the BAA though, such as Heathrow and Gatwick. Both these have a policy of not announcing gates until about 1 hour before a flight, so you are forced to wait in the shopping area until the gate is known. And of course the amount of seats is limited to encourage you to walk around. I saw a BBC show where they admitted quite freely this was a policy to encourage people to shop, because if they annouced the gates any earlier people would head there too early and not shop.

[Andrew P]

Bangkok is immigration, shopping and security at each pier.

no longer

Departing passengers are reminded that you now go through your security screening immediately after passing through immigration, rather than at the entrance to each concourse

[JamesP]

MFM - X-ray of checked baggage before check in. Security check, and then immigration before the gates. Additional security check of carry-on luggage before boarding.
HGH - Immigration then security.

At Sydney airport, while you do have to walk though the Duty Free store outbound once past immigration and security, coming back it, you don't have to walk though it, but rather, walk past it, and the people saying "last chance for duty free items", before immigration and the baggage carousels.

[Erik H. Bakke]

The international areas of OSL and BGO (both in Norway) also funnel the passengers through the shops on the way to the gates.

In both cases, this is a fairly recent development which only happened in the last 3-4 years.

AMS was still good last time I travelled through there, almost 3 years ago.

[Kim F]

Have often wondered about the efficiency of the security checking at individual gates ala Singapore. There must be a good reason as the Singaporeans seem to be very efficient at everything else

[Ash W]

Singapore does at it every gate because they do not have separate arrival and departure levels, and clearly do not trust security at originating airports for transit passengers.

Will be interesting to see the changes in Bangkok if they have moved security to after immigration. Will be going through in 2 weeks time. I wonder where they got the space to put in sufficient security screening points and what they are doing for transit passengers. Good thing I guess is we can now take duty free grog purchased in BKK onto flights to Aus.

[Andrew P]

Problem with Singapore is the terminal is only one level, so very difficult to separate arrivals from departures
Bet if the rebuilt it; they would build an arrivals level and a departures level.
Ash W – no as flights to Aussie still have a final check at the gate and all duty free booze will be taken from you and never seen again