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Suvarnabhumi » Minor problem on first day at Suvarnabhumi Airport

Sunday, September 9th, 2007


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The first full day of operations of Bangkok’s new Suvarnabhumi Airport kicked off Thursday morning with little fanfare, but the first passengers experienced a minor glitch caused by delays in collecting passenger baggage.

The futuristic US$4 billion airport which boasts the world’s largest passenger terminal, the world’s largest hangar, and world’s tallest control tower–at 132.2 metres higher than Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s tower by 10 metres–officially opened on schedule.

However, passengers on the first commercial flight landing at Suvarnabhumi — Aeroswit flight VV 171 from Ukrain’s Kiev with 206 passengers– had to wait more than one hour to collect their baggage from the new automated baggage handling machines.

Chotisak Asapaviriya, president of Airports of Thailand (AoT) explained that the delay had nothing to do with the airport’s baggage handling machines.

“It’s only a minor glitch,” he said, “the delay was  caused by ground equipment transportation of Thai Airways International (THAI) from Bangkok International Airport (Don Muang) to Suvarnabhumi.”

The full transfer of passenger flights and other commercial aviation responsibilities from Don Muang, which has served travellers for nine decades,  to the new airport was completed at 3am Thursday (2000 GMT Wednesday).

Suvarnabumi, about 25 kilometres east of Bangkok, is capable of handling 76 flights per hour and services 90 airlines.

The airport will initially serve 45 million passengers annually, with capacity expected to more than double once it becomes fully operational.

Thailand’s military assigned 800 troops to the airport to ensure safety. Several army canine units have been deployed at the single passenger terminal to inspect suspicious packages. (TNA)


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