Main Passenger Terminal Building. Short Term Car Park. Novotel Suvarnabhumi. Rail Link construction

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1 Some of us at Pacific World were able to take a first look-see at Bangkok s amazing brand new Suvarnabhumi Airport here in Bangkok. Here are some of our impressions, together with some photographs. The scale and size of the entire project is truly amazing the place is enormous and huge, but also magnificent. Once seen it is understandable how the new airport is a source of great pride here in Thailand. Thursday, 28 th September 2006 Suvarnabhumi Airport is currently on course to open for commercial services at 03:00 hours on Thursday, 28 th September As far as we understand, some domestic flight services that will have no connecting international passengers will move to Suvarnabhumi Airport as early as Friday, 15 th September All other flights will move on Thursday, 28 th September Don Muang Airport will close at the same time except for cargo flights, and some possible charter and specially arranged flights. The Airport Code BKK will move to Suvarnabhumi Airport on the same day. Things should be better In essence, the way the airport is laid out, everything should now be better and easier than at Don Muang both for passengers and for us in meeting our guests. Main Passenger Terminal Building Control Tower Departure Gates Short Term Car Park Novotel Suvarnabhumi Rail Link construction Here s an aerial photo taken quite some time ago during construction Web page of Airport layout graphic: 12 th August 2006 Pacific World (Thailand) Ltd. Page 1 of 5

2 Walk through Photo Gallery Here s a selection of some photographs we took during our inspection that will give you a clearer idea of the airport, its size and appearance and how things are laid out. Full sized pictures with more detail and clarity plus other additional pictures can be seen on line at: DEPARTURES Departures, level 4, drop off area outside the Main Terminal you can see how big this is from the size of the 2 people in the photo! Looking backwards from the drop off area on the left is the Control Tower, and behind the short term car park is the Novotel Suvarnabhumi. On the right is the view looking down the three levels to the Arrivals area. On the way into the Departures area, looking down to Arrivals Here s the main Check in Concourse Checking the departure info board to find which check in desk area Check In Passport Control Duty Free Shopping Zone Works of Art The artwork shown in the last photo is a scene from the Ramakien which has been made by the Fine Arts Department, all with life sized figures and it cost an astonishing 41 million Baht to create (just over 1 million US Dollars). Other works of art greet arriving passengers. There are 12 huge statues of mythical Giants in the arrivals area that cost 4.5 million Baht each, plus a huge expansive hand painted wall mural in the baggage reclaim area which is stunningly beautiful. Even the glass exit doors leaving the terminal building are beautifully etched with Thai designs and figures. 12 th August 2006 Pacific World (Thailand) Ltd. Page 2 of 5

3 ARRIVALS Left: 12 mythical giant statues greet arriving passengers on their way to Baggage Reclaim Above: Passport control desks are 2 rows deep with baggage reclaim immediately behind Baggage reclaim belts lead straight to Customs and out. There are 3 exit doors determined by baggage belt numbers: Domestic Arrivals use Door A, and International Arrivals, Doors B & C This lovely garden can be seen from inside the Baggage Reclaim area! Arrival information board which baggage reclaim belt Clearing Customs Above: Arrival information signs Right: That s our guide in his blue uniform shirt with sign waiting for his guest arriving on a flight that will come out of Door C 12 th August 2006 Pacific World (Thailand) Ltd. Page 3 of 5

4 Looking up from departures to Arrivals 3 levels above Easy to use travelators to move between levels with baggage trolleys Frequent Airport shuttle buses will take passengers who book no transfers to the car rental, long term car park, taxi parking and bus terminal areas. This looks to be a chore in handling baggage Coming in 2008 will be the express rail link straight into town. Will it be ready on time? Six weeks ahead of the move, the airport infrastructure really does look ready to roll, but between now and then airlines and all other associated services to do with the airport will have to move offices, equipment, computer systems, lounges and so forth, and many are not happy with the proposed timetable which they feel is too rushed. Is it easy to get to? Yes, it is easy. There are 2 main access routes, both of which are connected to the expressway system a) Northern Route via the northern Rama 9 expressway leading to the Bangkok Chonburi motorway b) Southern Route via the original Bang Na expressway leading to the Bang Na Trat highway 2 maps showing the location of Suvarnabhumi Airport Map above: shows the 2 access routes from the North (blue) & South (orange). Map on the left: shows how reaching the East coast will be quicker and easier Have a look at this interactive web page which shows Suvarnabhumi s location in relation to key areas of Bangkok: 12 th August 2006 Pacific World (Thailand) Ltd. Page 4 of 5

5 Will it take longer to reach Suvarnabhumi than Don Muang from a downtown Bangkok Hotel? In essence the answer is no, it depends on traffic conditions on the expressways. Suvarnabhumi Airport is a similar distance from the city as Don Muang is. Suvarnabhumi lies to the East of the city, Don Muang to the North. Getting to Pattaya will be easier now, won t it? What about Hua Hin and the West Coast? Yes, for Pattaya and the East Coast it is! With the new airport on the eastern side of the city, transfers will now avoid the city of Bangkok. This should lower transfer times to Pattaya and Jomtien by half an hour to 90 minutes. Transfers to Hua Hin and the West coast will be about the same time as they are today, and not noticeably longer. How do I pronounce that word? In English the word 'Suvarnabhumi' is pronounced 'suwanna-poom' and it means 'Golden Land' His Majesty the King graciously conferred the name of the airport on 29 January 2000 Will there be chaos when it opens? As we saw with the opening of the 2 most recently opened airports within our region in 1998, KLIA in Kuala Lumpur and Chep Lak Kok Airport in Hong Kong, there will be undoubted teething problems from all sides with the move and the first couple of days of commercial operations. We re crossing our fingers and hoping that Bangkok will face the minimal amount of problems as possible with the changeover. Will Airport Tax increase? The answer is most probably yes. As far as we can ascertain, we hear that it will cost 700 Baht for international departures, and 100 Baht for domestic departures. Domestic airport taxes are already included in the cost of the ticket, and we hear this will also apply for all international tickets by February What about Pacific World s transfer rates? Will they remain the same? Will Pattaya transfers be cheaper? We will do our best to maintain these rates, but Much of how operations at Suvarnabhumi will work is still such an unknown quantity... What is not so clear at the moment is the cost of fees, tolls, parking fees and so on. For instance, for our ATTA fees (this is the Association of Thai Travel Agents, where we have to pay a fee per head for every arriving passenger), we have heard rumours that the fee will go up from 15 Baht to something like a 100 Baht per passenger, but let's see! In essence we may only find out about such things once the airport is open and we start doing the first few transfers! There will be no difference in prices at the moment for either Pattaya or Hua Hin... The cars, guides and everything all still originate in the city, so in getting to and from home there's still the same basic cost if not more!. Pattaya will be easier to get to, but Hua Hin is correspondingly not so easy! Are there future expansion plans? Yes. There are plans to construct a separate Domestic Terminal, and a separate Low Cost Carriers Terminal. Above: graphic of Main Terminal Building detailing concourses Right: An AFP graphic published ahead of the first domestic passenger test flights on 29 July with facts and figures 12 th August 2006 Pacific World (Thailand) Ltd. Page 5 of 5 Information prepared by Pacific World, Saturday, August 12, 2006