Bangkok’s new Suvanabhumi Airport
I’ve been hearing and reading lots of incredible things about Bangkok’s new airport as I was planning my almost annual pilgrimage to the city of angels.
Never mind the expected chaos, lost luggage and long queues that invariably come with any new system, except for Singapore where you can expect things to run like clockwork right off the bat.
Things that seem implausible - like how arriving passengers have to take a shuttle bus to another terminal 3km away to take a metered taxi. This could go into a segment of “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not”.
There are airport “limousines” for those who want to take a taxi directly from the arrival terminal instead of lugging their stuff onto a shuttle bus to go to the metered taxi area located 3km away. Gosh, why would the bright sparks at the Thai airport management think anyone would want to do that?
Just as the word “limousines” suggest, their flat fare is a sky-high THB1,000 (S$43). That’s excluding from any surcharge and toll. For a place like Bangkok where it’s more a backpacker’s paradise than for upscale tourists, that is really mind-boggling.
If you want to take the airport shuttle to the city, again, you will have to take a bus to the Transport Centre where buses will take you to various parts of the city. A train service is planned by 2007, but most don’t expect to see it operational before the next coup.
Wait, there’s more. The international airport tax will increase from THB500 to THB700 in February 1, 2007. After clearing immigration, it can take 30 minutes to walk to the furthest international gate. 30 minutes!!! Seeing as how my luck has been, I’m sure my flight will depart from the second furthest, if not the furthest gate.
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