Suvarnabhumi Airport Report

[TAA Matt]

Hey Guys,

 

As you are all aware I recently returned from a holiday in Phuket and which I had to go through Suvarnabhumi Airport in transit.

 

Let me tell you the airport is massive. To give you an indication of the size, the passengers on my arriving flight who were continuing onto London (QF302/BA10) would have to walk 25 mins to the lounge and 25 mins back to the aircraft if they had of wished to get off the aircraft. This was in the not much longer than an hour they had until they taxied back out.

 

More signage is needed, when getting off the plane and going to collect baggage and go through customs the only way to get there is to 'follow the crowd'. They still have a few problems with baggage, very slow to get.

 

Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport is great, however once again signage is bare and very hard to get to the hotel. The underground walkway is not yet constructed and you have to get on a minibus to get to the hotel.

 

Check-in was good and fast. Lots and lots of checkin counters and with Thai all domestic flights you check in at the one desk hence you can check in at any of of all the Thai domestic check in counters.

 

They seem to have removed the problem of the majority of flights having leave from remote stands and passengers having to be ferried by bus to the aircraft. Both my International flights left and arrived at aerobridges. But on both domestic flights, despite many aerobridges being free departed and arrived at a remote stand - which is disappointing. Although it doesn?t entirely bother me because it makes me actually realize and truly appreciate the true size of the aircraft and it amazes me more how it flies.

 

Design of the airport - what can I say? Absolutely phenomenal. Truly an engineering marvel.

 

Overall, a great airport and I look forward to visiting in the future. Im sure ive left stuff out so please don?t hesitate to ask me questions.

 

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Photos

 

Lobby - Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of many baggage carousels

 

 

 

 

do-it-yourself bagagge wrapping facility

 

 

See that BUSINESS CLASS haha i wish, i only get to check in there because dad is QF Silver/OneWorld Ruby.

 

 

 

 

 

[TAA Matt]

By the way sorry for the poor quality of photograph, I actually scaled the quality down to make uploading to imageshack quicker and so they loaded quicker on the forum here. The photos were taken with mums new camera, it is a Cannon EOS 400D i think it is, i dont know if thats a good camera or not it would seem like nothing to a good spotter like chainy im sure :lol:

 

 

[Guest David747]

Hello Matt

 

Thanks so much for sharing that with us. I'm glad you had a wonderful time!!! :D Do you know if it has any decent viewing areas?

 

David...

 

 

[Guest Glenn]

Canon 400D is the latest model out. There's a post here on TAA about it. I think it's in the hobbies forum.

 

Nice report and as promised you delivered. I'll have another read and look at the pics more closely once I've caught up with everything.

 

 

[TAA Matt]

David, unfortunately i didnt have any time for spotting. And I really want to go back and do some it woudl be a fantastic place for some. Have the airport terminal in the background and in other shots having the worlds tallest control tower would be great shots.

 

 

[Tony Haynes]

Spotting in the terminal is not good. From the bus terminal which is just outside the entrance to the airport are good spots for taking shots of the arrivals.

 

 

[Uncle Chop Chop]

I just seen this post even thought it was posted in Octber of last Year and from just looking at the Pictures I can already say that I want to go there and do some serious Photography.

 

 

[TAA Matt]

Yes, Tony is right. Spotting from inside the terminal is absolutely pointless, as you cant even get near the glass, i dont really know how to explain it, but the walkway where you walk wont allow you near the glass.

 

If you find a good spot for spotting, you would be able to get some fantastic shots if you are lucky enough to get one with both runways being used.

 

The best airport I would have to say for spotting inside the terminal would have to be Honolulu International, as alot of the airport is open - no glass, nothing. I remember going into a Duty free shop then turning around because i heard such a loud noise, it was a JAL 747 taking off :lol: