Suvarnabhumi Airport
| Suvarnabhumi International Airport ท่าอากาศยาน สุวรรณภูมิ  |
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| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | VTBS |
| IATA code | BKK |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 2 m (7 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 30 km east of Bangkok |
| Street | Bangkok-Chonburi Motorway |
| Local transport | Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link |
| Basic data | |
| opening | September 28, 2006 |
| operator | Airports of Thailand |
| surface | 3200 ha |
| Terminals | 1 |
| Passengers | 60,860,358 (2017) |
| Air freight | 1,439,941 t (2017) |
| Flight movements |
350,509 (2017) |
| Capacity ( PAX per year) |
45 million |
| Runways | |
| 01R / 19L | 4000 m × 60 m asphalt |
| 01L / 19R | 3700 m × 60 m asphalt |
The Suvarnabhumi International Airport ( Thai : ท่าอากาศยาน สุวรรณภูมิ , pronunciation: [ tʰâː ʔaːkàːtsàjaːn sùwannápʰuːm ] - Tha-Akatsayan Suwannaphum ), also New Bangkok International Airport (NBIA) or Second Bangkok International Airport (SBIA) , is a major international airport near Bang Phli in the province of Samut Prakan in Thailand . Suvarnabhumi means the golden land .
It is located about 30 kilometers east of the capital Bangkok . With a passenger volume of around 53 million in 2015 (+ 13.8% compared to the previous year), it was one of the largest airports in Asia and ranked 20th in the world . With a cargo handling of 1.2 million tons, it was in 20th place in 2013 . According to Skytrax, the airport is also one of the best airports in the world: in 2010 it was ranked 10th. In 2010 it received further awards from ACI, Smarttravelasia.com, Center for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) .
history
Planning and construction
The first plans for the construction of a new Bangkok airport were already drawn up in the 1960s. Economic crises, changing governments, inefficient authorities and, last but not least, corruption delayed the implementation of the plans for more than 30 years. Thai authorities also called the project the longest-running airport project in the world. The property in Nong Ngu Hao (in German cobra swamp ) was acquired in 1973.
Only when the previous Bangkok Airport Don Mueang increasingly reached its capacity limits at the beginning of the 1990s due to a lack of structural expansion options, the construction of the new airport began. This should not only become the most important airport in Southeast Asia, it should also meet the most modern technological requirements and represent a landmark of the economically up-and-coming Thailand and its capital.
The Chicago architecture firm Murphy / Jahn, headed by German-American architect Helmut Jahn, emerged as the winner in an international architectural competition in 1994. Two years later, with some difficulties, the New Bangkok International Airport company was founded. However, due to political and economic circumstances (especially the economic crisis of 1997) it took another six years before construction work could begin in January 2002.
During the first operating phase, when the airport was partially functional from 2005, as well as during the test phase, the airport was assigned the provisional IATA code NBK . With the commissioning, the IATA code BKK was taken over from the previous Don Mueang International Airport. The name Suvarnabhumi (pronounced sù-wan-ná-pʰuːm ) was chosen by King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) and means golden peninsula or golden land .
building-costs
The construction costs amounted to 120 billion baht . This amounts to approximately 3.81 billion US dollars or 3.38 billion euros (exchange rates of 7 June 2020). To date, allegations of corruption in the award of contracts to individual building contractors have not been eliminated.
Start of flight operations
The airport started operations on September 28, 2006 at 3:00 am. The first planes headed for the new airport on the evening of September 15th (domestic flights). The first aircraft in international traffic was a Lufthansa Cargo aircraft coming from Mumbai , which arrived at 3:05 a.m. The almost smooth move from the old to the new airport was ultimately due to the experience of Munich Airport , where the entire move was also completed within one night.
The previous Bangkok airport Don Mueang is used as an airport for domestic low-cost airlines , VIP flights and as an alternative airport in emergencies.
Structural problems
In addition to the fact that the project had to be located on a very damp site only one to two meters above sea level and that it had to be prepared with complex water drainage structures, the construction itself also posed huge problems.
Overall, a number of breakdowns occurred in the first few months after the airport opened. In January 2007 it became known that the concrete and asphalt pavements of the slopes and taxiways were brittle in 25 places on a total area of 100,000 m². The Department of Civilian Aviation (DCA) checked whether the airport had to be temporarily closed for construction work.
The news magazine Time reported in late January 2007 that the landfills may be giving way. During its inspection on January 21, a parliamentary committee stated that the construction work was of unsatisfactory quality. As a result, the Thai Ministry of Transport ordered an independent investigation. The executing construction company IOT, a Japanese-Thai construction consortium, denied all deficiencies and stated that the problems were due to excess groundwater as a result of the floods.
At the end of January and the beginning of February 2007, both runways were temporarily out of order due to repair work and eleven of the 51 gates were unusable due to the repair work. At times the air conditioning failed and revolving doors remained standing. Immediately after the opening, numerous pieces of luggage were damaged by a burst water pipe. Many passengers complained about long waiting times and lost suitcases because the technology in the check-in counters and in baggage handling failed. Numerous pilots expressed safety concerns in Thai newspapers. There were also leaks on the roof and damage to the concrete of the building.
Airport infrastructure
The airport is open around the clock and has a modern airport infrastructure . The state-of-the-art airport is prepared for the Airbus A380 . The transport structure has 360 check-in counters with staff and 100 automated counters, 102 elevators , 107 moving walks , 83 escalators , 26 control counters for Thai customs and 22 baggage claims . There are 51 fixed boarding gates and 69 remote gates , 52 taxiways and 120 parking spaces for aircraft, including eight for the Airbus A380.
Terminal and Tower
The total area of the airport covers 3200 hectares . The central building is the 441 m long, 108 m wide and 45 m high passenger terminal, which is spanned by a steel framework roof. All public buildings and parts of the building are air-conditioned. At 132.2 m, the tower is the highest of its kind in the world. The airport is equipped with the most modern navigation systems, including an instrument landing system ILS-CAT III.
The terminal covers an area of 563,000 sqm by the airports of Beijing Capital International Airport and Hong Kong (570,000 m²), the third largest contiguous terminal building in the world. It is divided into the passenger terminal (182,000 m²) and the waiting halls (381,000 m³).
capacity
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The total of 51 gates are laid out in the shape of a cross and in the initial phase are designed for 45 million passengers and three million tons of freight per year. However, there are already expansion plans that provide for the construction of two additional runways. A second expansion stage has been under construction since 2016 and should be completed in 2021. The handling capacity is then to be increased to 100 million passengers and 6.4 million tons of freight. A new domestic terminal and a satellite terminal are under construction. The satellite terminal will then be reserved for Thai Airways and Bangkok Airways, eight of the gates are intended for the Airbus A380 . The expansion is expected to cost 42 million baht.
Slopes and taxiways
The two runways are 4000 and 3700 m long and 60 m wide each. With two additional taxiways , a capacity of up to 76 flight movements per hour is possible.
care
The airport has a flood protection system, a 3.5 meter high and 70 meter wide polder surrounds the area, a retention basin with a capacity of 3.2 million m³ is available. The drinking water supply is connected to the municipal supply of Bangkok, drinking water tanks with a capacity of 40,000 m³ ensure a reserve of two days. The wastewater treatment can process 18,000 m³ of water per day, the own garbage disposal can handle 100 tons of garbage daily.
Transport infrastructure
The connection from Suvarnabhumi to the road network is mainly via the Bangkok-Chonburi Motorway as well as the Bang Na Expressway and the Thailand Route 34 . Opposite the terminal building there are two parking garages with a capacity of 5000 parking spaces. A further 4,300 parking spaces have been created for long-term parkers. Six bus routes connect the airport with Bangkok. Three further bus lines ensure the connection to other provinces. One of these lines goes to the well-known seaside resort of Pattaya . The Airport Express Bus with its four lines ceased operations on June 1, 2011 due to capacity constraints. Thonburi Bus Service Company Limited has operated this service since the airport opened in 2006. The four lines ran from the airport to Silom, Khaosan Rd., Sukhumvit Rd. And Hua Lamphong Central Station .
The Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link is available for the rail connection between the airport and downtown Bangkok . It is an approximately 28 km long high-speed railway line. Express trains run non-stop to Makkasan Station, where you can change to the Bangkok Metro . In Makkasan there was a City Air Terminal with in-town check-in for all major airlines. This is currently closed. Other express trains and all regional trains run via Makkasan to Phaya Thai station, where you can change to the Bangkok Skytrain . Regional trains stop at all six subway stations.
The official taxi rank is outside the arrivals hall. As at the old airport (Don Mueang), taxi drivers are not allowed to pick up passengers in other areas of the airport.
Airlines and Destinations
There are currently 86 international airlines serving Suvarnabhumi Airport, offering air travel to and from Bangkok Airport to 151 international destinations in 64 countries and 26 domestic destinations. Every major international airline is represented at Suvarnabhumi. In addition, 18 major international cargo airlines use the airport.
Thai Airways International and Bangkok Airways have their aviation hubs here . However, on October 1st, 2012, Thai AirAsia relocated its home base from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Don Mueang Airport .
The airport is also served by some airlines with the Airbus A380; for example, Thai Airways International flies to Frankfurt , Paris Charles-de-Gaulle , Hong Kong and Tokyo Narita . Emirates flies to Hong Kong and Dubai , Qatar Airways to and from Doha .
Companies and organizations
The following institutions are represented at the airport: Thai Immigration Bureau, Royal Thai Police (including Tourist Police), Thai customs and a post office. There are also branches or branches of the following companies: King Power, Airports of Thailand PCL, a majority of the airlines that serve the airport, and a large part of Thai banks . Above the train station and opposite the check-in hall is a 600-bed hotel belonging to the Accor Group: the Novotel Suvarnabhumi .
Sister Airport Agreement
The “Sister Airport Agreement” is a project to improve communication, marketing, etc. a. The current sister airports are: Munich Airport , Incheon International Airport , Narita International Airport and Beijing International Airport .
Incidents
Occupation by protesters
In the wake of the political crisis in Thailand at the end of 2008 , angry government opponents of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD; “Yellow Shirts”) managed to take control of the airport bloodlessly and even penetrate the tower on the night of November 26th. The airport was closed immediately, hundreds of thousands of travelers were stuck for days. After the government was dissolved by the Thai Constitutional Court and the protests ended by the PAD, the airport was able to resume operations on December 3, 2008.
See also
Web links
- Suvarnabhumi Airport - Official web site (in English)
- Airport data on World Aero Data ( 2006 )
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Air Traffic Report 2017 - Airports of Thailand Public Limited Company (PDF; 13.5 MB). S. 5ff, Airports of Thailand - Air Traffic (English)
- ↑ a b c d e f General Information. ( Memento of the original from May 23, 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. Official website of Suvarnabhumi Airport with technical data
- ↑ Skytrax World Airport Awards 2010 ( Memento from February 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ^ Awards and Honors. ( Memento of the original from May 24, 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. Suvarnabhumi Airport website
- ↑ a b Chronicel of Construction. ( Memento of the original from May 24, 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. Suvarnabhumi Airport website
- ↑ Free start in the swamp. In: The time . September 28, 2006
- ↑ Asia's largest airport opened. In: Tagesschau ARD . September 28, 2006
- ^ Just listen to our noisy nightmare. ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: The Nation . September 28, 2006
- ↑ Bangkok's old airport back in use. In: BBC News . March 25, 2007 (Report on the recommissioning of the old Don Mueang Airport, English)
- ^ Suvarnabhumi expansion advances. In: Bangkok Post . April 27, 2012, accessed April 23, 2020 .
- ↑ 2 Thai carriers to share new terminal. In: Bangkok Post . February 10, 2015, accessed April 23, 2020 .
- ↑ Airports of Thailand approves B42bn for Suvarnabhumi expansion. In: Bangkok Post . June 20, 2018, accessed April 23, 2020 .
- ↑ Airport Express Bus terminates all services. ( Memento of the original from April 4, 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. In: Suvarnabhumi Newsletter (PDF; 3.1 MB). May 2011 No. 3 (discontinuation of the Airport Express Bus, English)
- ↑ Airport Link to open for business. In: Bangkok Post. August 17, 2010
- ↑ Bangkok Travel Guide section Luggage Check-In
- ↑ Facts and Figures. ( Memento of the original from June 30, 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. (PDF; 7.8 MB). Suvarnabhumi Airport website
- ^ Sister Airport Agreement. ( Memento of the original from May 24, 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. Suvarnabhumi Airport website
- ^ State of emergency in Bangkok. In: n-tv.de. November 26, 2008
- ↑ Ian MacKinnon, Peter Walker and Agencies: First flight reaches Bangkok as airport blockade ends. The Guardian, December 3, 2008, accessed December 9, 2017 .
