Suvarnabhumi Airport

valentine · Post by **valentine** » October 2, 2006, 11:02 am

Apparently the problems were aggravated yesterday by the number of sight seerers who were estimated to exceed passengers. Tour buses were arriving from up country packed, everyone with their little straw mat and picnic. Of course this just added to the mellee. TIT

Post by **Paul** » October 2, 2006, 12:23 pm

40 years in the planning - and they still couldn't get it right

Some areas are just wide open unused space - and yet others (such as the International Exit gates) are so tight people were pushing and shoving trying to get out. (Incidentally - I wonder how much the tour desk with the green sign has to pay for that prime location).

And surely if you are going to build an airport in the middle of nowhere - shouldn't you get the transport infrastructure in place first ?

For those who don't own cars here (and probrably most people using the airport don't) the only way currently to get to and from the airport is taxi, airport bus (however I dont know where you would catch it INTO the airport) or the buses which go to the bus terminal at the airport (if you can find out which they are)

London Heathrow's bus terminus has underground walkways with travelators - to get easy access to buses and trains etc - that would have been a good idea here - no ?

Post by **Mudshark** » October 2, 2006, 5:36 pm

Flew into the new airport Sept 30th and am flying out to Udon today (Oct 2nd). There are many bugs to iron out here but there are some destinct positives with the new airport also.

Firstly, it's new....Don Muang was getting pretty tired and mouldy smelling. I can remember flying into Don Muang in 1984....and it wasn't a spring chicken then.

Next the custom's halls in the new airport seem to quicker to work through. Just seemed like there were more kiosks at immigration than Don Muang ever had.

I didn't have any baggage issues...but I arrived at 11:30 p.m. via Japan so possibly the baggage handling system isn't taxed then.

Taxi to downtown was 320 baht including tollroad charges. Can't think of too many major airports in the world where you can ride to downtown for less than $US 10. Will be better in a couple of years when the LRT to the Terminal is finished.

Finally....it is beautiful...if not completely functional.

Today it's raining hard in BKK.....the terminal has sprung some leaks...especially the glassed roofed areas. Thai airlines really seems to be trying to make he new place work...scads of employees here today helping out.

I certainly wouldn't put off a trip just because of concern over the new airport....I can think of many airports in the West that a bigger pains....JFK, Heathrow domestic terminals, domestic LAX terminals.....

Graham

Post by **BKKSTAN** » October 2, 2006, 5:42 pm

Be interesting to read another report after you go through it again to come to Udon

Post by **briang** » October 2, 2006, 5:48 pm

There is a good report on transportation options to and from the Airport on 'Thailand Blogs'.

click here

Brian

Post by **BKKSTAN** » October 3, 2006, 7:18 am

letter submission to The Nation:

Looking forward to a flawless Suvarnabhumi Airport

I am sure most of the teething problems with Suvarnabhumi Airport will be ironed out in due course. However, there are some design flaws a child could have foreseen and which will take longer to sort out. The biggest of these is the appalling arrival flow after exit from customs. When there is so much space to play with, why is everyone funnelled into an area not bigger than 200 square metres, resulting in a confusing melee of taxi touts, meet-and-greeters and hangers-on? Another thing is the floor, which consists of tiles and marble throughout. In places, especially where the floor slopes, it is positively dangerous. It is only a matter of time before people are reporting injuries from this. The designer has obviously not spent much time in the tropics. The very intricate nature of the structure is difficult to clean and already a home for millions of creepy-crawlies. Just take a glance upwards when waiting in the immigration queue.

That said, the whole thing will be a magnificent achievement. (When it is finished, that is!)

Alan Mehew

Bangkok

Post by **BKKSTAN** » October 3, 2006, 1:07 pm

2 more travelers reports from Stickman:

I flew out of the new airport on Sunday evening and, while the building certainly looks magnificent on the outside, there are plenty of problems inside.

Much has already been said about the lack of signs, and that is obvious. The few signs there are mostly do not face people walking along but face them sideways. So you have to actually be beside it to see it. Such an easy thing to remedy, and much talked about, but nothing done.

The biggest problem I noticed is that no-one knows where to meet arriving passengers. There are three doors, A, B and C, but no way of knowing from which door passengers will emerge. The huge indicator boards give no clue, and the distance to cover between them is hundreds of metres.

I tried to ask a girl at the information counter how to know from which door they would emerge, but her English was so poor she had no idea what I was asking. How is this possible?

The food area was stiflingly hot, but maybe that was a temporary problem caused by crowds of sightseers.

Through immigration, the floor is dangerously slippery (warning signs are up), and although the Thai business class lounge is enormous and looks wonderful, premium passengers were searching for seats. The reason, apparently, is that two further lounges are planned but have not been built yet.

In what the authorities proudly claim is the world

Post by **dill** » October 3, 2006, 3:01 pm

driver told me that he will pick me up at gate 10 because the meet and greet hall is to bussy.
is anyone familiar with gate 10 and if are where is it.
looked at one of the airports maps but still can not find it.

thanxs for any advice

Post by **Galee** » October 3, 2006, 4:40 pm

For any golfers out there?

Your golf clubs will not come out on the normal baggage carosel.

You need to go to one of the Z zones to pick them up.

Took me 45 minutes to find out,

Gary

Post by **Paul** » October 3, 2006, 5:53 pm

traveller wrote:driver told me that he will pick me up at gate 10 because the meet and greet hall is to bussy.
is anyone familiar with gate 10 and if are where is it.
looked at one of the airports maps but still can not find it.
thanxs for any advice

I would imagine he means door 10
All the doors are numbered and many airlines suggest you use door number xxx for ease of check in at their airline etc....

Just a guess though.

Post by **izzix** » October 3, 2006, 11:21 pm

Heathrows arrivals area is tiny and caters for far more pax but pax disperse quickly thru the network of tunnels to buses trains and taxis.
They need to get some gangs digging some tunnels to get the pax away quicker.

Post by **AznBigG** » October 4, 2006, 2:35 am

Paul wrote:I experienced the airport yesterday. My impression was not favourable - but it may get better as we all get used to the place.

If you are in a rush to get to Bkk as soon as you touch down - don't be. !

OMG, I'm scheduled to fly into this mess from Hawaii in the next couple of weeks.... after reading the numerous posts and reviews, I'm not looking forward to it at all.

I wonder if Rio is nice this time of year??? If I can just change... my ... ticket ... uhhh..... hmmm...

Paul, btw.. where's the images? On my screen, it comes up blank. When clicking on the hyperlink, "cannot connect to database" message appears. I'm anxious to see the photos.... =D>

Post by **beer monkey** » October 4, 2006, 3:07 am

Latest News: We are now located on a more stable network. If you see any bugs or problems

that was from post image.org seems to be a problem somewhere.

just tryed to load image and it says internal error.

Post by **dill** » October 4, 2006, 3:10 pm

Paul wrote:
traveller wrote:driver told me that he will pick me up at gate 10 because the meet and greet hall is to bussy.
is anyone familiar with gate 10 and if are where is it.
looked at one of the airports maps but still can not find it.
thanxs for any advice
I would imagine he means door 10
All the doors are numbered and many airlines suggest you use door number xxx for ease of check in at their airline etc....

Just a guess though.

thanxs for that info
but is there only ten doors to get in and out of the airport(arrivals and departure out of the airport)
so please let me get this right ground floor is the only floor to get in and out of the airport?
thanxs
paul

Post by **AznBigG** » October 4, 2006, 6:55 pm

Paul wrote:I experienced the airport yesterday. My impression was not favourable -

Hi Paul,
I was able to view the photos. Thanks! =D>

My first impression of airport after viewing the pictures >>>

<<< (notice same color scheme)
My feelings about the overall design >>>

My first words exiting the arrival doors >>>

Finally at the hotel in BKK >>>

Post by **izzix** » October 4, 2006, 11:20 pm

same here ,not looking forward to using suvarnaballsup, now you need to check in lots earlier due to the jams of sightseeres and picknickers and general ,i expected a lovely spacious airport . what do i see !it looks worse than DM.

THE NATION

THAI requests passengers to check in to international flights 3 hours in advance

Thai Airways International requests the assistance of passengers flying out of Suvarnabhumi Airport, to checki n 3 hours in advance for international flights and 1 hours in advance for domestic flights, in order to decrease traffic jams routed to and from the airport.

Flg. Off. Apinan Sumanaseni, THAI's President, said that following the official opening of Suvarnabhumi Airport on 28 September 2006, there have been several people coming out to the airport who are both passengers and observing public, both inside and outside the airport terminal area. This has resulted in traffic congestion on the roads within the airport area. Therefore, the company requests the assistance of passengers traveling THAI flights to check in as follows:

Domestic flights: Arrive at the airport for check-in at least 1 hours before actual departure time

International flights: Arrive at the airport for check-in at least 3 hours before actual departure time

Passengers flying with THAI may check in to flights at Suvarnabhumi Airport on the 4th Floor, as follows:

Gate 1: Passengers flying Royal First Class and Royal Silk Class for international flights may check-in at Counter Rows A and B

Gate 2: Passengers flying Royal Silk Class and Economy Class for domestic flights may check-in at Counter Row C

Gate 4: Passengers flying Economy Class for international flights may check-in at Counter Rows H and J.

---

The Nation

Post by **izzix** » October 4, 2006, 11:38 pm

i saw this on TV so its a quote>>>

Arrived at the new airport late at night a couple of days ago. Some observations.

1. I was surprised that the passageways to the terminal have rather low ceilings. Coming from HK the new airport seems more confining.

2. Long, long walk from plane to terminal.

3. Cleared customs very quickly, under 5 minutes. Hope that lasts.

4. First baggage arrived quickly, but baggage continued to arrive for over an hour. Needless to say one of my bags was in the very last group to arrive. Very slow. The baggage machine in use works in such a way as to produce a big bang every time a bag drops down.

5. Amused myself observing baggage cart defect noted by others. Must have seen half a dozen people place a small bag on the cart only to have it fall right off the back. How in the world did this obvious defect make it to the manufacturing stage? The carts are otherwise OK and I believe larger than the Don Muang ones.

6. Failed to find much info on transport options. It may be there, but I didn't see it.

7. Total chaos at arrival area. You have to push your way through at times. Touts aplenty. Really bad and creates a poor first impression for new arrivals.

8. Ground level area is an accident waiting to happen. To get to the private car service I used we had to cross a 4 or 5 lane roadway. Cars and vans were zooming by at high speed. People coming from parts of the world where cars stop for pedestrians (e.g. LAX) will be very vulnerable if something isn't done to make it safer.

This post has been edited by qualtrough: Today, 2006-10-04

Post by **izzix** » October 4, 2006, 11:55 pm

There's a shortage of useful signs in the airport thus some things are hard to find - loads of people standing around to ask questions but many unsure of the right answers. Only one two cubicle toilet in Domestic departures and a queue a mile long - food in the eatery is expensive, 70 baht for a slice of pizza and 80 baht for a small bottle of water - food hall location is not that obvious and not well signed.

better haver a ching-chong before you leave the hotel@

Post by **lee** » October 5, 2006, 3:17 am

A couple more shots from the airport:

Post by **polehawk** » October 5, 2006, 4:32 pm

Had my first experience with the new airport yesterday and it wasn't a bad one.

Four of us (wife, bro-in-law, sis-in-law and myself) caught the Thai Air TG018 late flight BKK-UDN. It was my bro-in-law's first time on a plane and sis-in-law's second. We walked past the THAI Intl ticketing area around 5 pm and didn't seem to be chaos as expected. Thai Air employees were available to scoot us to Row C for the Domestic flights. Agent at Domestic ticketing was very helpful since we had a large framed picture of an individual that we were bringing on the plane as checked baggage. He told us where we could get it bubblewrapped and taped for a nominal fee. Agent then placed a "Fragile" sticker on the picture and it made it to Udon unscathed. Our departure gate signs were easy to follow and everything else went without a hitch. The only problem at all was that we wanted to get a quick snack before the flight but missed the restaurants completely so maybe more signs are needed there. Anyway, our flight left on time and we were in Udon an hour later. We did get a light salad snack on our flight so we didn't starve. In-laws enjoyed the flight and will, no doubt, talk about it for days with their neighbors and friends.

Just a domestic flight but appears that, at least for us, snags are being ironed out. The airport was crowded with the curious onlookers, touts, etc. but if you allow lots of time then you should do fine with the local flights anyway.