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Suvarnabhumi Archive for March, 2007


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Airports of Thailand to study Don Muang as a 2nd Bangkok international airport

Friday, March 23rd, 2007

Airports of Thailand (AOT) has been assigned to study the feasibility of turning Don Muang Airport into a second international airport for Bangkok, though the first attempt was foiled after strong protests from international airlines.

According to Kulya Pakakrong, acting president of AOT, which is preparing Don Muang Airport ahead of its reopening this Sunday, the Transport Ministry has ordered the company to carry out the study. The ministry wants the company to operate two international airports in Bangkok.

Bangkok now has only one international airport, Suvarnabhumi, which was opened on September 28. She said the company would take months to investigate further details as well as checking the feasibility of using Don Muang as a second international airport. The study will start on March 25 when Don Muang Airport resumes operations after a five-month closure.

“We have been ordered to study the further use of Don Muang Airport,” said Kulya.

She said AOT would reopen Don Muang as a domestic airport from Sunday, March 25, 2007 onwards and it is possible it could service international flights this year.

Don Muang is now used as an airport for international charter flights, demonstrations, training and special purposes such as maintenance work.

The first attempt to reopen Don Muang for both domestic and international flights collapsed after all major international airlines, particularly members of the Star Alliance, which includes Thai Airways International, cited lack of convenience and higher operating costs for operations at two airports.

After reopening Don Muang, Kulya expected the company would receive revenue of Bt37 million per month. Of that, Bt30 million will be parking and landing fees and the rest will be from renting commercial areas.

The reopening of Don Muang is expected to provide employment to an additional 200 officers and workers.

Ahead of the reopening of the old Bangkok International Airport, the AOT said it has been officially renamed Don Muang Airport to eliminate confusion among travellers.

Moreover, flights operating at Don Muang Airport will be numbered with four digits starting with 1 such as Thai Airways’ flight TG 1203 and those operating at Suvarnabhumi Airport will be numbered with three digits.

Three airlines – Thai Airways International, Nok Air and One-Two-go – will move domestic flights from Suvarnabhumi to Don Muang.

“The three airlines will operate a total of 140 flights daily and carry 18,000 passengers per day. We can handle more passengers and flights as Don Muang‘s domestic terminal can handle up to 11 million passengers per year,” she said.

Kulya said the reopening of Don Muang is aimed at avoiding air-traffic congestion at Suvarnabhumi Airport and is the new policy ordered by the military government.

Thai Airways will operate 30 flights daily that do not connect with international flights. Flights that do connect to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket and Krabi will remain at Suvarnabhumi Airport, a total of 11 flights a day.

Sehapan Chumsai, executive vice president of Nok Air, the budget airline subsidiary of Thai Airways, said the airline would move all 60 domestic flights from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Don Muang Airport.



Thai Airways, Nok Air, One-Two-Go and Orient Thai, will resume services at Don Muang on March 25, 2007

Wednesday, March 21st, 2007

Thai Airways International (THAI) on Sunday trucked part of ground service equipment back to Don Muang Airport (Former Bangkok International Airport) for a March 25 resumption of domestic flights from the old airport.
Thai Airways spent two hours in moving equipment loaded on 27 trailers and two crane trucks from Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok’s neighboring province of Samut Prakan to Don Muang.

On March 24, or only one-day before commercial domestic direct flights resume at Don Muang, Thai Airways will move smaller equipment including passenger transport vehicles and luggage handling equipment to Don Muang.

Thai Airways, along with three other domestic commercial airlines including Nok Air, One-Two-Go and Orient Thai, will resume their services at Don Muang to facilitate repairs of damaged sections of the runways and taxiways at Suvarnabhumi Airport.



Sound-proof house for people living near Suvarnabhumi Airport

Monday, March 19th, 2007

A design for a sound-proof house for people living near Suvarnabhumi airport has earned three Rangsit University (RSU) students an architecture award. They say their design would keep out 60% of the noise. The winners are Pichaya Prasertwong, Jaruek Taweesri-amnuay and Intat Wejsan from RSU’s architecture faculty.

They beat 37 other teams in a contest for a sound-proofed house organised by King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Lat Krabang (KMITL).

The winning design has double-glazed walls which serve the double purpose of plane-viewing pleasure and a noise barrier.

It also incorporates the latest noise reduction technology employed at stations used by Japan’s Shinkansen high-speed bullet trains.

”Almost 70% of the construction materials are sound-deadening,” said Mr Jaruek.

”Design contests typically deal with energy conservation.

”For this competition we had to do extensive research and use a lot of imagination to come up with suitable materials and construction techniques.”

The designed house fits on a 50 square wah (200 square metres) block of land and costs no more than two million baht to build, said Mr Jaruek.

Walls are mostly made of double-glass, similar to aircraft windows, which provide sound and heat insulation. Concrete walls are made of cool block bricks with foam in the middle, which also shield the house against noise and heat.

For better sound insulation, the bedroom and living room walls are built with two gypsum boards, with fibre insulation in between.

The balcony and exterior laths are tilted at the same angle as the exterior of the Japanese bullet train stations, which have proven successful in reducing noise in the station neighbourhood.

Mr Jaruek said the curved roof would reflect the constant roar of planes passing overhead as they land and take off.

Mr Pichaya said he trusted the design would be useful elsewhere as the continuing expansion of the train network and highways was likely to increase noise pollution in Bangkok.

Contest judge Pichet Sowittayasagul, of KMITL’s architecture faculty, said the winning design should offer 60% noise protection.

He was impressed with the trio’s use of exciting and interesting sound-proofing techniques, such as the double-glazed wall and tilted laths.

He said the students’ work would be a guide for communities living under aircraft noise from Suvarnabhumi airport on how to improve the quality of their lives.

Contest chairman Pongthip Inkaew said the noise-reduction measures the contest offered would be helpful to Suvarnabhumi neighbours who lacked the funds to move away.

KMITL deputy rector Siriwat Bhothivejjakul said there were seven award-winning designs altogether.

They would be built in the KMITL compound near the new Bangkok Airport to study their noise-reduction ability.

Interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont has pressed officials to quickly tackle the problems.

Airports of Thailand last Tuesday estimated it needed 121.5 billion baht to compensate owners of property to the north and south of the runways.



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