'Suwannaboom' is the closest I can phonetically get to how Thais pronounce 'Suvarnabhumi', the name of Bangkok's new green-field airport that began full-fledged operations yesterday. Unable to resist temptation, I drove out there with my wife and mother-in-law yesterday to witness the opening day.
Of course, ever since back-to-back fiascos at the new Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur airports in 1998, everyone expects disaster. Certainly the run-up to opening day here portended bad news. Last week, for example, a Buddhist ceremony was held at the airport to apologize for all the creatures displaced by the new facility (it is in an area formerly known as Cobra Swamp), but the ceremony was interrupted by a possessed man demanding the construction of a permanent temple in their honor. Months of delay and rumors that key systems were not yet functioning led to speculation that opening day would be postponed yet again, at the last minute. But by then it was too late; the airport project was in what we in the systems world call "countdown to cutover," so Thailand's powers-that-be went ahead with what was described as a "low-key" opening, no doubt trying to downplay every possible superlative (good or bad) and ride out the inevitable storm of negative publicity.
To make matters worse, torrential rain started to fall on Wednesday evening and did not let up until the pre-dawn hours on Thursday. This was precisely the time during which a massive truck convoy began transferring essential equipment from the old airport, Don Muang, to the new airport some 50 kilometers away. Among the items being transferred were the baggage trucks and trailers that ferry luggage from the bellies of planes to the baggage conveyors inside the terminal. As we shall see, Mother Nature's interference with logistics would play a key role in the events that unfolded later.
Here was my experience.
Getting There (And Back)
It took us only 30 minutes to drive 45 kilometers from my house to Suvarnabhumi and, again, only 30 minutes to drive back. Of course this was at mid-day, not during rush hour, but I was expecting much worse.
Along the way we passed a couple hundred trucks still carrying equipment to the new airport. Curiously, at least a third were loaded with baggage trailers.
We also noticed a lot of new airport signage on the expressway that seems to have been put up at the last moment. Driver confusion caused by lack of signage was one of the dire predictions we'd heard for the past several weeks.
Availability of taxis had been another concern. The skytrain connecting Suvarnabhumi to central Bangkok is still in the early stages of construction, and the airport's limousine operator isn't open for business yet. But because the limousine operator has an exclusive franchise, we had been told that ordinary taxis would not be allowed to pick up passengers at the terminal; instead, a shuttle bus would ferry people (for a nominal fee, of course) to a staging point some distance away. It appears that the airport authorities abandoned this idea at the last moment because ordinary taxis were driving right up to the terminal. A business partner of mine, who arrived yesterday afternoon from Kuala Lumpur, reported that his arrival went quite smoothly (he did not check his luggage) except for the hour he had to wait for a taxi due to the absence of any queueing system.
Parking
The new parking structure is a vast improvement over the infernal catacombs at Don Muang, but unfortunately the ticket spitters weren't operating yet so we sat in a queue for about 10 minutes to get in. I noticed technicians with laptop PCs, huddled inside the entrance kiosks, trying to get the parking ticket system installed. They were still there when we left. Tickets were being written and parking fees collected by hand.
Once inside we had no trouble finding a parking space. But finding our way around the structure was difficult because at least half the directional signs ("up", "down", "exit" and so forth) were missing or invisible. We had to circle our floor twice before deciphering how to get out.
The catwalks leading to the terminal are futuristic indeed, but my wife pointed out that their rooftops don't extend under the cantilevers of the terminal building and parking structure, so people without umbrellas are guaranteed to get wet at either end when it rains.
The Terminal
My reaction as we left: "most impressive." And big. Very big. The check-in area on the departure level is at least half again larger than Hong Kong's. The picture on the right shows the western half of the check-in area on Level 4. Totally there are 20 check-in rows, 2 for first- and business-class, 3 for domestic flights within Thailand, and the remainder for international flights.
The main terminal building has 7 floors, plus a basement. Level 1 seems to be where you get a taxi or limousine; at least, that's where we saw people getting into taxis. Level 2 has the domestic and international arrival halls. Level 3 has a "gathering point" plus various shops and restaurants; it also leads to the parking structures. Above the departure area on Level 4 are airline offices (Level 5), restaurants (Level 6) and an observation deck (Level 7). The picture on the right, taken from the catwalk on Level 3, gives an idea of how vast the Suvarnabhumi terminal building really is.
In yesterday's post I lamented the fact that sleek new airports seem to lack character, but at Suvarnabhumi the architect added some nice little touches to counteract this tendency. What I appreciate most are the traditional Thai etchings in all the terminal's glass entrance doors. You would think that traditional Thai art is incongruent with the otherwise ultramodern appearance of this building (it was, after all, designed by a German architect) but the visual effect is really quite pleasing.
Another thing I really like about this terminal is the system of travellators (in addition to elevators and conventional escalators) that allow you to walk between all 7 levels with a baggage trolley. Lack of a travellator system is one of the most irritating aspects of the new Kuala Lumpur terminal, which also has many levels; but there you have to use the elevators if you're pushing a trolley.
As for signage inside the terminal, well, let's just say they did it the Thai way which is profoundly confusing to farangs like me. As background, navigating around Bangkok would be pretty simple were it not for the fact that the road signs only announce destinations, not places. For example, if you're driving to my house you need to follow the road signs to Khai Rai intersection, but there is nothing announcing that you've arrived at Khai Rai, once you get there. So it is inside the Suvarnabhumi terminal. There are numerous arrows directing you to the "gathering point", but not a single sign in sight proclaiming "you have arrived at the 'gathering point'; no need to walk any further."
People who are fed up with the sorry state of airline travel in the USA will really appreciate a posh area of the departure level that's reserved just for first- and business-class check-in. Here I am, "checking into" a first-class flight.
How did things appear to be going inside the terminal on opening day? Here are a few of my notes:
- Even though the departure level was very crowded, things seemed to be going very smoothly. All the electronic signs announcing flights, times and status were working perfectly. Check-in computers seemed to be running fine, too, despite a system crash reported earlier in the day, and there were none of the massive check-in queues that you see so often at airports these days. The only thing that didn't seem to work was the public address system.
- I saw no evidence of unusual delays in the departure or arrival of flights.
- There were lots of very friendly staff on hand to assist people, and they had a plentiful supply of brochures on hand containing terminal maps, directions to and from the airport, and so forth. Basically what I saw was great organization and lots of smiles, which told me that no disasters were in progress (on the departure level, at least) and things, just maybe, were going better than expected.
- By 1:00PM all the restaurants had run out of food. We tried to buy food at a convenience store but were told that it was spoiled because of power cuts to the refrigerators. But everyone still had smiles on their faces.
- The next day's newspaper reports described how many arriving passengers waited an hour or more for their baggage to be delivered to the arrival hall. The authorities' explanation is that there was a shortage of baggage handling trucks and I can confirm this; as noted earlier they were still on their way from Don Muang to Suvarnabhumi!
The Verdict
I've tried my best to describe things exactly as I observed them on the airport's first day. In comparison to opening days at other large airports, things appeared to be going about as smoothly at Suvarnabhumi as anyone could have expected. Sure, there were minor glitches, and in the USA you usually have to wait over an hour anyway for your bags under the best of circumstances (as the saying goes, "blessed are the pessimists, for they are seldom disappointed"), but there were no disasters.
Looking beyong opening day, I believe that Suvarnabhumi is destined to take its place as one of the world's finest airports. You could almost call it pre-destiny, since it's already the second-busiest airport in the entire Asia-Pacific region, after Tokyo Haneda. Like Singapore Changi (and yes, even Hong Kong by now, but definitely unlike Los Angeles International or London Heathrow), it seems like an airport that I will enjoy rather than dread passing through.
