Don Mueang Airport
| Don Mueang International Airport Bangkok ท่าอากาศยาน ดอนเมือง |
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_(DMK_-_VTBD)_AN2196231.jpg)
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| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | VTBD |
| IATA code | DMK (formerly BKK) |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 3 m (10 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | approx. 24 km north of Bangkok |
| Street | Thanon Vibhavadi Rangsit & Don Mueang Tollway |
| Local transport | State Railway of Thailand (North & Northeast Line) |
| Basic data | |
| opening | March 27, 1914, reopening on March 25, 2007 |
| operator | Airports of Thailand (AOT) |
| Terminals | 2 |
| Passengers | 30,304,183 (2015) |
| Air freight | 17,338 t (2013) |
| Flight movements |
135,988 (2013) |
| Runways | |
| 03R / 21L | 3500 m × 45 m asphalt |
| 03L / 21R | 3700 m × 60 m asphalt |
Don Mueang International Airport Bangkok ( Thai : ท่าอากาศยาน ดอนเมือง , also Don Muang, IATA code DMK , ICAO code : VTBD ) is an international airport in the Don Mueang district of the Thai capital Bangkok .
General
Don Mueang was Thailand's largest international airport until September 27, 2006. It is three meters above sea level and about 22 kilometers northeast of downtown Bangkok. Before the opening of the new Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi Airport , the IATA code was BKK , today it is DMK .
Don Mueang has two runways and technically up to 60 flights per hour can be handled in an international and a national terminal with a total of 33 piers. There are parking spaces for 101 aircraft and 167 check-in counters (124 of them in Terminal 1).
designation
When the airfield opened in 1914, the name was written in Latin "Don Muang", which was changed in 2007. He was henceforth called "Don Mueang", which corresponds to the general rules for the transcription of the Thai script into Latin letters according to the specifications of the Royal Institute of Thailand .
history
By the time the Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi Airport opened, more than 80 airlines with 39 million passengers, 160,000 flights and 700,000 tons of air freight per year had flown to Don Mueang International Airport . In terms of passengers, the airport ranked 18th worldwide in 2005.
The airport was primarily the aviation hub of the airline Thai Airways . During the Vietnam War , the military part of the airport (Don Muang Royal Thai Air Force Base) was used as a hub for the United States Air Force .
Don Mueang's civilian operations ceased on September 28, 2006. At the same time, Suvarnabhumi Airport, 25 kilometers east of Bangkok, was put into service, and the IATA code BKK was assigned to it. The IATA code for Don Mueang has been changed to DMK.
On February 6, 2007, the Thai government announced that it would reopen the airport for domestic flights and low-cost airlines. The reasons are the poor conditions at the new Suvarnabhumi Airport in the form of cracks in the runways and the lack of capacity.
The reopening took place after a renovation - despite the great resistance of almost all airlines - when the flight plan was changed on March 25, 2007. This made it much more difficult to change to most domestic flights, as a change of airport was necessary. Thai Airways recommended a transfer time of around five hours. International Thai Airways flights with connections to the domestic destinations Chiang Mai , Chiang Rai , Krabi and Phuket continued to be processed through Suvarnabhumi Airport. In total, there were eleven connections per day. Thai Airways operated 30 of their daily domestic flights from Don Mueang. Thai Airways flights from / to Don Mueang Airport were marked with a four-digit flight number, each beginning with the number 1 (TG 1xxx). Flights via Suvarnabhumi continue to have three-digit flight numbers.
As of March 29, 2009, Thai Airways no longer operates flights from Don Mueang. Due to the increasing volume of domestic flights, the airport operator Airports of Thailand (AOT) decided to relocate domestic flights from August 1, 2011 from the small domestic terminal (total area 22,266 square meters) to the former International Terminal 1 (total area 109,033 square meters).
Since October 1, 2012, AirAsia has been operating all flights to and from Bangkok only from this airport.
After initially falling as a result of the opening of Suvarnabhumi, the number of passengers rose sharply again in 2013. With 16.5 million passengers a year, Don Mueang was now the second busiest airport in the country and pushed Phuket into third place. 5.29 million of the passengers were booked on international connections (an increase of 350% compared to the previous year), so that the name Don Mueang, which has meanwhile become common as a domestic airport, no longer applies. In 2014, the number of handled passengers increased again to 21.54 million, while the number of passengers at Suvarnabhumi Airport fell almost at the same rate. In the following year, more than 30.3 million passengers were recorded, which is related to a sharp increase in domestic air traffic in Thailand.
Air traffic
Thai AirAsia and Nok Air have a hub in Don Mueang and fly from Don Mueang to numerous destinations in Thailand and other destinations in Asia. In addition, the airport is served by a few other small domestic airlines (including Orient Thai Airlines , Siam Air , Thai Lion Air and R Airlines ). Long-haul flights will only be operated from the new Suvarnabhumi Airport .
Incidents
Accidents
From 1945 to October 2017, 21 total aircraft losses occurred at Don Mueang Airport and in its vicinity. 205 people were killed. Examples:
- On July 13, 1951, a Douglas DC-4 / C-54B-10-DO of Siamese Airways ( aircraft registration HS-POA ) took off overloaded at Don Mueang Airport and had an accident. All inmates survived. The plane caught fire and burned out.
- On December 25, 1976, a Boeing 707 of Egyptair (SU-AXA) crashed into a factory while approaching Don Mueang Airport. All 52 people on board and 19 people on the ground were killed in the crash.
- On April 27, 1980, a Hawker-Siddeley HS 748 of the Thai Airways Company (HS-THB) crashed during a thunderstorm approaching Don Mueang Airport. 44 of the 53 occupants were killed (see also Thai Airways flight 231 ) .
- On March 3, 2001, a Boeing 737-400 operated by Thai Airways International (HS-TDC) exploded while it was being prepared for the next flight at a gate at Don Mueang Airport. The most likely cause is the ignition of kerosene fumes caused by the overheating of a fuel pump in the fuselage tank. On board were eight crew members, one of which were stewardess came by the explosion killed (also see Thai Airways flight 114 ) .
Occupation by protesters
In the wake of the political crisis in Thailand at the end of 2008 , angry government opponents succeeded in bloodlessly seizing the airport on November 27, 2008 after they had already occupied Suvarnabhumi Airport to protest against Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat . All flights were canceled, thousands of travelers were stuck for days. In the early morning hours of December 2, 2008, one person was killed in a grenade explosion and 22 others were injured.
Shortly after the Thai Constitutional Court disbanded three ruling parties on December 2, 2008 for electoral fraud, the PAD held a press conference declaring that all protests would end on December 3 at 10 am. The airport resumed operations on December 5th.
Flooding
On October 25, 2011, during the 2011 floods in Thailand, the floods reached the airport in Don Mueang. The terminal and other buildings were protected from the ever increasing flood with sandbags, but the flood penetrated into areas of Terminal 1, which is now in use. The airport was temporarily evacuated and flight operations were suspended until March 5, 2012.
Military use
There is also a military base of the Thai Air Force RTAF at the airport . The 6th squadron of the RTAF is stationed here with four squadrons (601st to 604th) and the 904th squadron, a special unit of the RTAF. The RTAF museum is also located here.
Golf course
The Kantarat golf course , originally laid out by the RTAF, is located between the two lanes and has no fixed delimitation to the lanes.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Annual Report 2013 - Airports of Thailand Public Limited Company (PDF; 13.52 MB). P. 89, Airports of Thailand (English)
- ↑ a b c About Don Mueang Airport. ( Memento of the original from June 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Airports of Thailand (airport information; English)
- ^ Passenger Traffic 2005 Final ( Memento of October 8, 2006 in the Internet Archive ). Airports Council International, July 17, 2006 (English)
- ↑ Domestic Flights to Shift to the Old International Terminal on August 1, 2011. ( Memento of the original from August 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Don Muang Airport online
- ↑ AirAsia Ready to Transfer Flight Operations to Don Mueang Airport from October 1, 2012. Press release from Air Asia, June 25, 2012 (English)
- ↑ Accident statistics Bangkok-Don Muang International Airport , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on November 10, 2017.
- ↑ Accident report DC-4 HS-POA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 15, 2018.
- ^ Accident report B-707 SU-AXA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 26, 2017.
- ^ Accident report HS-748 HS-THB , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 3, 2018.
- ↑ Aircraft accident data and report B-737-400, HS-TDC in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
- ^ Protests in Thailand - Rumors of an army coup. In: n-tv.de . November 27, 2008
- ↑ Air traffic in Bangkok is normal again. ( Memento from May 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Kleine Zeitung . December 5, 2008
- ↑ PAD cease all anti-government protests. ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: The Nation. December 2, 2008
- ↑ Opposition gives up flight blockade. In: Stern . December 2, 2008
- ↑ Don Mueang breached. In: The Nation . October 26, 2011
- ↑ A dam break near Bangkok - escape alarm for 30,000. In: The world . October 25, 2011
- ↑ Don Mueang to reopen March 6. In: Bangkok Post . January 30, 2012
