Travelers assistance center opens at airport for New Year's holiday

BANGKOK: -- Having high expectations that large numbers of foreign tourists and local travelers would be traveling by air during the New Year weekend holiday, the management of Suvarnabhumi Airport will offer special traveler's assistance next week, Somchai Sawasdeepon, general manager of the airport, said Sunday.

The travelers center will be on the seventh floor of the passenger terminal building as airport officials believe that the airport will be more crowded with the greatest number passengers at any given time since it opened commercially September 28, Mr. Somchai said.

Services at the reception center include advice on facilities available at the airport, flight timetables, prevention of luggage delays and providing sufficient transportation facilities, he said.

Acknowledging problems such as insufficient toilets, delayed luggage delivery, and safety concerns--problems which have prevailed for almost three months, Mr. Somchai said the Airports of Thailand (AoT) and he himself personally would accept full responsibility.

He said the AoT is trying to resolve the problems, and that he believed they could be eliminated within six months.

--TNA 2006-12-17

Ha ha ha. Only in Thailand. Put the Assistance Center way up on the seventh floor where nobody knows it's there.

Services at the reception center include advice on facilities available at the airport, flight timetables, prevention of luggage delays and providing sufficient transportation facilities, he said.

How exactly does a reception center on the 7th floor advise about prevention of luggage delays?

Will all arriving passengers be routed via the 7'th floor ??????

About high holiday capacity crowds....

In last week's news:

AOT considering re-opening Don Muang because the new airport, after three months, is ALREADY AT CAPACITY. When AOT finally learns that 95% of the country's international and domestic flights do NOT necessarily have to go through BKK, is the day when they'll take a more rational approach to spreading airport capacity loads to major centers in Thailand (North, NorthEast, South, etc.) It is so maddening to live in the NE, and always have to fly to BKK first before flying to anywhere else in Thailand (or the world for that matter).

A similar problem exists in Japan where all roads (air routes) seem to HAVE to go through Tokyo. One of my friends mentioned one day, "You know, if Tokyo gets the Big One (quake), the whole country's gonna be f#cked." Same could be said for BKK and Thailand.

7th floor WAY OUT OF THE WAY just under the roof, for a RECEPTION AREA???. One long flight of stairs and slope to get there. How wonderful best laugh of the week! TIT

Dont they know people want help on Arrival level 2 or Departures level 4.

Oh i forgot its so that they can look down on the rest of us and watch the chaos below in Departures. Bit like the TAT offices for helping Tourists in Pattaya built on Buddha Hill way out of the line of fire for expecting Tourists who might be in popular places near the beach. Heaven forbid they might ask for help and disturb the TV watching!