8/21/2008

Suvarnabhumi Airport Opening Video (2005)

Suvarnabhumi Airport , also known as (New) Bangkok International Airport, is the international airport serving Bangkok, Thailand. After delays and three decades of planning, the airport opened for limited domestic flight service on September 15, 2006, and opened for all domestic and international commercial flights on September 28.

The airport is the main hub for Thai Airways International, Bangkok Airways, Orient Thai Airlines, PBair and Thai AirAsia, and a focus city for China Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Emirates Airline, EVA Air, Indian Airlines, and SriLankan Airlines.

The airport is located in Racha Thewa in Bang Phli district, Samut Prakan Province, about 25 km east of downtown Bangkok. The name Suvarnabhumi was chosen by King Bhumibol Adulyadej and refers to the golden kingdom hypothesized to have been located somewhere in Southeast Asia. Designed by Helmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn Architects, this airport has the world's tallest control tower (132.2 m), and the world's third largest single-building airport terminal (563,000 m²), a little smaller than Hong Kong International Airport (570,000 m²) and the current record holder, Beijing Capital International Airport's Terminal Three (986,000 m²). Suvarnabhumi is one of the busiest airports in Asia and Bangkok's primary airport for all international airline flights. The airport inherited the airport code BKK from Don Mueang after the older airport ceased commercial flights.

Months into its opening, issues such as congestion, construction quality, signage, provision of facilities, and soil subsidence continued to plague the project, prompting calls to reopen Don Mueang to allow for repairs to be done. Expert opinions varied widely regarding the extent of Suvarnabhumi's problems as well as their root cause; most airlines stated that damage to the airport was minimal. Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont decided on 16 February 2007 to reopen Don Mueang for domestic flights on a voluntary basis, with 71 weekly flights moved back initially, with no international flights allowed.

A modern motorway connects the airport, Bangkok, and the heavily industrial Eastern Seaboard of Thailand, where most of the manufacturing for export takes place.
( Wikipedia.org )

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