Ready for business

28 September 2006

At last, Suvarnabhumi Airport is now up and running as Bangkok's new international airport. The transformation from Monday is nothing short of astonishing.

The duty free shops are (mostly) open. Cafes and bars are ready for business. A very fresh looking continental breakfast was available for Baht180 at a bakery cafe. Security checks were all functioning. Even the AoT booths were in place collecting the Baht500 international departure tax.

Of course it is not all perfect. The roof still has leaks. The terminal building windows are so dirty that you can hardly see the airplanes. The washrooms have no soap or towels. There are bits of building material everywhere. There are no clear announcements.

There was a massive overnight transfer from the old airport to the new; including ferrying planes to Suvarnbhumi. With the last flight out of the old airport at 2.45am and the first flight into the new airport at 4.10am there was little margin for delays.

The biggest menace today were TV presenters, camera crews, hangers-on, and all their equipment. Two lanes of the access road to the terminal building had been set aside for all Thailand's TV networks to park their satellite, hardware and talent trucks. This caused the new airport's first traffic jam. Inside the main building there were cables everywhere; there were presenters shooting live to air and cameras poking themselves anywhere they could.

The first flight in was Aerosvit Airlines from Kiev in the Ukraine. But signs of problems loomed early. Aerosvit was due to depart at 5.40am but was still on the ground at 7.15am.

My Thai Air Asia flight to Singapore left about 40 minutes late at 7.45am. These delays will escalate as the day goes on.

Thailand has an airport to be proud of and with a massive effort it was ready for business today.