Singapore Airlines Opens Lounge At Suvarnabhumi

[george]

Singapore Airlines opens lounge at Suvarnabhumi

Suvarnabhumi adds area for elite flyers

BANGKOK: -- Singapore Airlines (SIA) has opened its own premium passenger lounge at Suvarnabhumi Airport, moving away from the common facilities operated by Thai Airways International (THAI).

For the first 20 months following the inauguration of Bangkok's new international airport, SIA shared the THAI-run lounges, which serve business and first-class passengers of member airlines of Star Alliance to which both THAI and SIA belong.

Under the so-called "move under one roof" guideline, Star Alliance, the world's largest airline alliance group, encourages its member airlines to share airport lounges to streamline costs.

However, executives of SIA's Bangkok office said the airline's decision to build its own lounge, known as SilverKris, at Suvarnabhumi was in response to suggestions from its passengers.

"Our regular premium customers have been giving us feedback that they would like to see Singapore Airlines have its own new and modern SilverKris Lounge at Suvarnabhumi," an SIA spokeswoman explained.

"It is part of our long-term commitment to our customer base in Thailand," she noted, adding the airline did not build the lounge earlier at Suvarnabhumi because it wanted to ensure that all flight-handling operations were smoothly transferred to the new airport.

SIA flies with high frequency in and out of Bangkok - some days as many as seven or eight departures - and it needed to ensure flight-handling operations were carried out smoothly.

It cost more than 28 million baht to build the luxurious lounge, which covers an area of 313 square metres with 102 seats on Level 3, Concourse A.

Formally opened recently, the lounge is designed in modern-contemporary style, with walls decorated in rich timber, with full-height fabric-laminated glass panels to enhance privacy.

The high ceiling offers a sense of space, while full-length windows allow waiting passengers to enjoy views of the garden outside, as they relax in seats upholstered in nature-touch fabric or rich leather.

The SilverKris Lounge is equipped with 50-inch plasma televisions, a small business area and a WiFi network for wireless Internet connection anywhere within the lounge.

The facility, open daily from 5:15 am to 11 pm except on Thursdays when it closes at 7 pm, was designed by Bangkok-based Leo International Design Group and construction was managed by Jim & Hall's (Thailand) Co.

Under the Star Alliance lounge policy, passengers travelling in the premium classes and those who are travelling in the economy class with Star Alliance Gold Card status are eligible to use any of the Star Alliance lounges whenever they are travelling with any of the Star Alliance carriers.

-- Bangkok Post 2008-06-16

[geriatrickid]

They do this just to make those obliged to fly on legacy carriers squirm with envy. SQ lounges still offer hot and edible food vs USA, and most EU carriersthat offer a 10gm bag of stale crackers if you are lucky.