Bangkok’s new airport ready to roll!

Massive convoys will cross Bangkok’s sprawling city centre on Thursday morning but don’t panic, these are nothing to do with the coup that had no effect, but thousands of trucks carrying equipment that will make Bangkok’s new airport actually work.

Life goes on in Thailand after the coup, with the council of six military officers decreeing that Bangkok’s new airport will open on schedule, with convoys made up of 2,970 truckloads in total expected to snake across the city from Don Muang, the Thai capital’s very tired airport, to Suvarnabhumi, the amazing new and described as a shining aeronautical edifice on its eastern outskirts. 

The official inauguration of Suvarnabhumi, which is pronounced Sawana-poom,  is the latest in what appears to have become an Asian ritual in recent years, with as national economies rise, governments discard the crowded, often improvised old airports and opening giant, gleaming replacements.

This has taken place in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and now in Bangkok with the new airports offering cathedrals of international air travel, with soaring glass facades and cavernous departure halls.

A limited number of flights have been operating from Suvarnabhumi over recent weeks to test the airport’s systems and when the first flight touches down Thursday at Suvarnabhumi at 5:05a.m, a Thai Airways flight from New Delhi, jet lagged passengers will be greeted with a brief and modest welcoming ceremony, said Preyanan Mongkolsri of Thai Airways, who added, “We have Thai cultural performers dancing and we will give flowers to all the passengers”.  

This modest inauguration as a result of the current governmental situation, should not detract from the grandeur of the airport as like most megaprojects in Asia, Suvarnabhumi comes with its superlatives – the control tower – at 132.2m, or 434ft, it is said to be the world’s highest, taller than Kuala Lumpur’s control tower by about 10m, according to the Thai airport authorities and the airport’s main hangar can accommodate three Airbus 380 planes and is the largest in the region.

The plan is to make Suvarnabhumi a centre for aircraft repair as well as a hub for passengers, although Suvarnabhumi can handle 45 million people a year, which surprisingly is only slightly more than the 39 million people the old airport, Don Muang, handled last year, according to Airports Council International. Proposed expansion plans though could increase capacity at Suvarnabhumi to 120 million twenty years from now.

Tourism in Thailand accounts for a very large share of passengers using Bangkok’s airport, with more than 11 million tourists visiting the country last year and Tourism Thailand projecting tourist arrivals at 13.8 million for this year, that is before the coup but that may be optimistic as the coup may still scare some visitors away as hotels and resorts are beginning to reporting some dips in occupancy. 

The timing of the opening of the new airport is also interesting as TTM 2006 is taking place in Bangkok this week, with delegates from all over the world potentially arriving at the old airport and then departing from the new one – now if that is not good marketing, showing out with the old and in with the new, then I dont know what is! 

A Thailand Special Report by The Mole