Flights cancelled to avoid opening chaos

BANGKOK: -- Airlines are beginning to cancel flights on September 28 in order to avoid the chaos expected on the day that Suvarnabhumi Airport is officially opened.

Local budget carrier Nok Air has announced it will cancel 30 flights on September 28, and Singapore Airlines and Air France have both informed the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) that they will cancel one flight each.

DCA director general Chaisak Angkasuwan said the two international cancellations involve a passenger service of Singapore airlines and a cargo flight of Air France.

-- The Nation 2006-09-06

those cancellations will add to the chaos even more.

all sounds strange about the budget airlines as they suppose to move earlier to test the new system

But , but , but !

There has been thread after thread about everybody being ready !

Have we all been HAD ?

Out of control again !?!

DOCA and AOT

It all seems logical to me and don't see that it will add to the confusion. All airports have problems on opening day and Suvarnabhumi will be no exception and all the airlines know it. The fewer flights coming in, the more easily the airport will be able to cope with whatever problems pop up. It's much easier for them to fix problems at an airport with only half the number of regular passengers than if it was at full capacity, and delays caused by problems will be much shorter. It also makes sense for some airlines to cancel some or all flights because many people are worried about problems with the opening of the new airport and are specifically changing their travel plans to another day, thus there won't likely be many full planes anyways. Cancelling flights without many passengers and avoiding any possible situation that could damage the airline's reputation seems to be a wise move, being they have the perfect excuse for doing so. Another point is that airlines need to move their offices and staff to the new airport, and it would be great if they had some training/orientation at the new airport. Cancelling all flights for the day and having the employees go to the new offices and setup is a great way to be sure things will run smoothly on the following day.

Odd you need to see what happens at Full Capacity then you can deal with what problems might occur. This is very strange way of testing how well your new airport can handle things.

Another point is that airlines need to move their offices and staff to the new airport, and it would be great if they had some training/orientation at the new airport.

Good points. And they especially need to know where they can plug in their Rice makers and make Som Tam

Seriously though, i bet there aren't many people on here who, when starting a new post/job don't get at least a few hours to familiarise themselves with the surroundings and procedures etc. The staff will need to know, for OUR safety, where the escape routes are, the fire procedures and other security procedures. Makes sense to me

Odd you need to see what happens at Full Capacity then you can deal with what problems might occur. This is very strange way of testing how well your new airport can handle things.

There will likely be many problems with the new airport, many of which will reveal themselves when running at less than full capacity. Other problems won't be revealed until running at full capacity. And some peak capacity problems may not be revealed directly, but can be estimated based on less than full capacity data. For example, a system that is rated to handle let's say 1,000 passenger per hour, is found to be running at near capacity with only 500 passengers per hour. Clearly this will be a problem once full capacity is reached and a solution can be sought before an actual problem occurs.

Getting at least some of those problems ironed out early will mean when a peak capacity problem occurs it won't be compounded by many other problems which will have been already solved by then. In any case, being this is not the peak season, the airport won't really be running at full capacity until late in the year when the mass of tourists arrive.