I recently got a chance to visit the nearly complete new Bangkok International Airport. It’s a project that has been more than 30 years in the making, but now it’s nearly complete and will open sometime in the later half of 2006, once all the testing is complete.

First impression: It’s big! I mean, it’s really big. The main terminal building is a glass box with a column-free interior that could hold seven football fields, no matter what brand of football you play.
Even though the airport isn’t open yet, and there aren’t any passengers, there was still a lot of luggage stacked at the check-in counters when I visited.  This, it was explained, is for testing the outbound baggage handling.  Every belt and pathway has to be checked, fine-tuned and re-checked to make sure the bags end up where they’re supposed to before the airport can open.

Although the airport is a very modern building of steel and glass, there are still some details to make sure you know you’re in Thailand.  At the intersections of the glass and fabric-roofed concourses are traditionally styled wooden Thai pavillions, and Thai “angels” (apsaras) are etched into the glass doors of the jetways, as well as many of the entrances.  Arriving passengers are greeted at immigration by giant “laksa” statues, like those found in the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  Walls, what few there are, also have murals reminiscent of temple paintings as well, although most of these were covered with protective plastic when I visited.

The new airport has a very bright and airy feel to it.  It’s completely unlike the old Don Muang airport in almost every way.  Where the old airport was somewhat gloomy in spots, and even brutal in it’s architecture, the new airport is full of light and hope.

For those who don’t yet know the details, the new airport is east of Bangkok.  It is actually better served by roads than the old airport, with two major highways linking it to downtown Bangkok, as well as the east coast, with resorts such as Pattaya only about an hour away.  The travel time from the new airport to the city center should be around 45 minutes.  There is also a rail link under construction, which should be completed in 2007.  The official name of the new airport is “Suwannabum” (spelling varies), which means “the golden land” and was an old name for the area that is now Thailand.

If you’d like to see more pictures, have a look at my online photo gallery.

Posted by michael under Just back from...