bangkokairportlink's blog

BANGKOK TWO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS, DON MEUANG AND SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORTS: NON CONNECTING FLIGHTS WILL FLY TO DON MEUANG

AOT, which manages all the airports of Thailand has decided to open again former Bangkok international airports Don Muang for international flights.

This former international airport had first been closed to all public flights since September 2006 when the new Bangkok airport opened, then re-opened to domestic flights, and now Don Muang airport will also be used for non-connecting international flights to relieve congestion at the new airport.

The new Bangkok airport Suvarnabhumi (pronounce Su-wa-na-poom) airport was designed to serve up to 45 million passengers annually but one year after its grand opening its traffic is expected to rise to 46.7 million passengers, its full capacity.

The first step to treat traffic congestion has been to reopen the former Don Muang international airport to domestic flights from most of the airlines, as Thai Airways International, Nok Air and One-Two-Go (low cost airline that lately had a crashed plane in Phuket resort island) airlines in March 2007, but as this was not enough the board of AOT has decided to reopen Don Muang airport also to international flights.

AoT will invite more than twenty airlines including some low cost airlines to move their non-connecting international flights back to Don Meuang on a voluntary basis as non-connecting international services of these airlines account for more than 20% of Suvarnabhumi international airport.

Some airlines already are interested as the maintenance cost at Don Muang airport is lower than at the new Suvarnabhumi airport, and if all these international flights return to the former airport, the passenger volume at Suvarnabhumi airport will drop to about 37.2 million passengers a year, and then allow to the new airport not to reach its saturation point before 5 years at least and also allow AoT to delay expansion of Suvarnabhumi airport, which is already too small.

But one of the main problem is that there is no subway or any rail link to reach Don Meuang international airport, and also no rail link between the two Bangkok airports. Only one rail link will start service next year, from Suvarnabhumi airport to downtown (with links to Bangkok BTS (subway) and MRT (skytrain)).

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IS IT SAFE TO TRAVEL WITH LOW COST AIRLINES IN THAILAND ? ONE TWO GO, NOK AIR, AIR ASIA, IS THERE ANY DANGER FLYING CHEAP ?

Once more, and because of One Two Go low cost airline accident in Phuket in September 2007 potential tourists and passengers of thailand airlines can wonder if it is dangerous to fly with a low cost airlines in Asia.

The 1-Two-Go low fare aircraft carrying tourists to Phuket that crashed when trying to land was an old plane as often with cheap airlines, and this is why it could be dangerous to fly with low cost carriers.

Not sure that a new plane could have avoid to crash in the same situation as the one in Phuket International airport, but it seems that the One Two Go aircraft broke easily because it was 25 years old.

Running an airline by cutting cost as One Two Go, Thai airasia, or Nok Air always brings with it accusations of cutting corners on safety, even though all international carriers are subject to the same safety checks, and the public wonders if the companies do not also save on maintenance.

But Asia is not Africa or South America, and the level of safety on the Asian continent if for sure higher than on these ones, so the situation in Thailand and Malaysia is certainly almost as good as in America or in Europe.

So why does this kind of accident as the one in Phuket can happen?

Some of the reasons have to be found in the pilot shortage that follow the airlines boom, and pilot having so start working faster than they would do before.

An the problem with Asian and Thai airlines is that they cannot compete with European and American airlines which can pay more for the best pilots, so they have to employ the youngest ones, or the ones who got less training.

No cause has been determined for the One-Two-Go crash and it could turn out pilot error was to blame, but anyway that is not a damning of the Thai aviation safety oversight nor Asian low-cost airlines, because this kind of accident regularly happens everywhere, but still less than car accidents.

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WHEN WILL THE BANGKOK AIRPORT RAIL LINK START BUSINESS ? SKYTRAIN BTS OR SUBWAY MRT ?

Since its started the Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link project is far behind schedule and over budget.

The opening is expected to be at least 16 months late, not including the two or three months testing period, with the earliest opening date to be in 2009.

The budget is already well over 20 billion baht with no end in the possible future and STECON, the construction company who associated with the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will be fined for being on the wrong side.

MOT and SRT have agreed to allow the extension for the construction of airport link to STECON but they reserve the right to cancel the construction if there are any more irregularities, and they allow only 378 days of extension instead of 463 days as requested by STECON, maybe because they know that 378 days won't be enough anyway.

The first lot of Airport Express rolling Stock will be delivered at Laem Chabang by the end of October 2007 but the rail link infrastructure will be done by the end of May 2008, and electrification not before the end of October 2008.

Then SRT will have to operate for two months without passengers to test the new systems, and the Suvarnabhumi airport rail link is expected to open to public in January 2009.

But based on past timelines and the short testing period between October 2008 and January 2009, it seems that the grand opening date will occurs a few months later.

Also, looking at the project, the rail construction itself might not yet be finished at the end of December 2007, and the construction of the new express rail link stations has just started, so how could the Bangkok Airport Link be ready for passengers at the beginning of the year 2009 ?

Let's just expect that the construction company STECON doesn't cut corners in quality to save time given the shortened construction deadline and that passengers and tourists will be safe when using the new Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link.

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BANGKOK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT RAILWAY LINK SUPPOSED OPENING DATE IS DURING YEAR 2009

Suvarnabhumi Airport railway link should open early next year in 2009, this is at least the information spreaded by airport officials.

Bangkok Suvarnabhumi internation airport has opened its door 2 years ago in September 2006 but it still doesn't offer any rail link for passengers to reach their downtown hotels.

Airport official now spead the information that the long-delayed Suvarnabhumi airport railway link project will be completed by the end of this year and that service will start early 2009, but noone knows if this information is reliable as even the project manager might not really know.

Speaking after leading a media tour to observe construction progress, Banjongsak Panthon, project manager and engineer, said the civil engineering portions of the airport railway link project is some 78.5 per cent complete and that the electrical and mechanical portions are about 80 per cent ready.

How stupid are these official to give that kind of information and do they really want to loose face again when evidences will show that they were wrong again?

Official also brag themselves for the progress in the construction of the station and railway system, with Tub Chang Station set to become the first to be completed in July 2008, and now already being 60% complete.

So we can't believe that the entire project will be finished by the end of the year 2008 but 31 electric locomotives which are currently being built in Germany will anyway be brought into Thailand and will have to be tested for three months before opening for service to the public, so as soon you will heard that the construction is finished the rail link will need at least three more months before grand opening.

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POST OFFICE AT BANGKOK AIRPORTS, SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT HAS 24 HOURS SERVICE AND CAN BE USED TO SEND LIQUIDS AND OTHER PARCELS TO

POST OFFICE AT BANGKOK AIRPORTS, SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT HAS 24 HOURS SERVICE AND CAN BE USED TO SEND LIQUIDS AND OTHER PARCELS TO YOUR NEXT DESTINATION

If you travel to Thailand and have to send some parcels before taking a plane you have to know that Thailand airports are very convenient to send parcels as Suvarnabhumi airport and Don Muang airport feature a post office, and the post office at Bangkok international airport is even opened 24 hours!

So you don't need to worry about you flight departure time and the airport post office opening hours as there will always be somebody in the office to take your parcel or sell you some stamps.

These airports post office can also be very convenient if you arrive at airport with liquids and flaks that you forgot to put in you check-in luggage, because you will be able to use the post office service to send your liquids to your home country of even to your hotel if you will come back to Bangkok for example after a trip to the beach at Phuket or Samui or a trip to the north of Thailand, as Chiang Mai for example.

But one thing you need to know is that it is officially forbidden to use post office service to send liquids, so do not go to the post office with your hands full of flasks and bottles to ask a box to pack them and send them to your next destination, as officers will show you the sign saying that they don't have service for liquids and bottles.

What you have to do is buy a paper box of the convenient size (from 10 to 24 THB) at the post office, pack your parcel somewhere else, and then go back to the post office with your parcel ready to send.

If you want to send it by registered service just write "souvenir" on the label and add "gift" so you won't have to pay any tax if you send your liquids abroad.

Also, if some of the bottles you have to send are glass bottles, you can buy bubble wrap at the airport post office as well as at any Thailand post office. Bubble wrap paper is very cheap in Thailand post offices, and you can buy 1 sheet (50x50 cm) for as low as 5 THB only. Buy as many bubble wrap sheets as you need and even put some around your box after having packed it if you want to be sure that your bottles wont break and that nobody will be alerted that the box contains liquids because of a leakage.

And don't worry, it's not really illegal to send bottles through post office, as some people who sell Thai beverages, bottles, and perfumes, do it on a daily basis, but Thai people and post office officers are just scared that you do not pack your bottle well and that they might break and soak others parcels sent through post office service.

So if you forget to put your Chanel fragrance or any other expensive liquid cosmetics or liquid medecine in your check-in luggage at Bangkok airports you don't need to throw them away anymore, you just need to go to the Thai post office at the departure floor and send your flaks and bottles by post to any destination, and it's cheap !