Thai Airasia Makes Suvarnabhumi Switch Early

[george]

Thai AirAsia makes Suvarnabhumi switch early

BANGKOK: -- Low cost carrier Thai AirAsia will be the first airline to move its entire operation to Suvarnabhumi Airport, which does not fully open until September 28.

Thai AirAsia will be the fourth airline to offer service from Suvarnabhumi. Thai Airways International, Bangkok Airways and Jetstar have already moved some of their flights to the new airport as part of a soft opening earlier this month.

Tassapon Bijleveld, AirAsia’s CEO, said the move from Bangkok International Airport (Don Muang) to the new hub began Friday and will be complete by Sunday evening.

Beginning at 8.40 PM on Sunday, all AirAsia flights will originate from Suvarnabhumi. Competing airlines are expected to make similar changes by September 28.

AirAsia’s domestic routes include Chiang Mai, Phuket, Hat Yai and Chiang Rai, while international destinations stop in Singapore, Hanoi, Macau and Malaysia.

Despite its faith in Suvarnabhumi’s potential, the carrier will wait one to two months before introducing new flights in order to give the airport time to resolve any problems, said Tassapon.

AirAsia plans to add flights to southern parts of China and Indochina.

--TNA 2006-09-24

[astral]

I guess it will be chaos this week for anyone who has an international flight connecting to a domestic?

[phazey]

A collegue of mine came in on it this morning. He said the security is more intense than DM, and half the passengers went to DM instead - told so by their travel agents no doubt. Luckily a bus was laid on between the two airports to transfer the passengers to SB

smoothly ?

[ashacat]

I'm flying with AirAsia from Suvanabumi on Wednesday. Looking forward to checking it out.

[jing]

http://www.hflight.net/forum/b-suvarnabhumi/m-1159167960/

[nephilim]

I landed from penang on Monday morning - it's a nice airport, in a 1993 architecture way. If you know london, it feels like the Jubilee line. Security was either light or very well hidden. Passport control was being monitored so the staff were pretending to be extra vigilant, inspecting visas from countrys they didn't recognise and so on. I was even "asked" "you have been to China". I just said yes. I mean, so what?

Also, there was no signs of any finished shops. I hope they manage it for the 28th.

One other thing: I had read that there were no taxis at the aiport and that you had to take a shuttle bus 3km to find them... well, it's not the case. There's loads of them right outside the arrivals area, cost to Sukhumvit very similar to the cost from DM.

Nice not to arrive in grotty old DM though.