samak Posted December 26, 2006 Report Share Posted December 26, 2006 there are certainly a lot of things that need to be fixed, but to close the whole airport for this reason....but of course if they need a showcase for how corrupt the former government was, close it down for 3 months! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thalenoi Posted December 26, 2006 Report Share Posted December 26, 2006 gadflyyour thailand doom vision is also reinforced with your post! wonder that someone with such a negative view of Thailand lives here for so long! i actually started to like this new airport having flewn in and out 6 times each Samak, I hardly find anyone lately who talks positive living here, including myself. But it seems all of us have good reasons to stay here, and very good reasons better be for that matter As for the new airport: Chaos as soon as your taxi tries to unload you, security was on my driver pissing him off, the poor man could not even stop anywhere. departure hall is the most noisiest airport hall I ever experienced and besides air pollution nothing is worse than noise pollution (would you agree?) Long walks (even Atlanta Hartsfield opened in 1979 got this right by running an automatic train to concourses A, B and C; even smallish Tampa has a train) If you're hungry after check in, good luck to find some food places, and then pay 10x the price Those metal chairs... The luggage wait on arrival (at least DM was fast) The expensive shopping mall with some planes attached - a total misconception The factory design with inevitable choice of materials: metal, concrete, glass - 1950ties old design- main cause of the noise. The Transportation Center concept, a brillaint stupid idea. I have to live with CDG shutlle bus system to go anywhere, but that place is at least 30 years old and I don't forgive them... One you got through concourse security its the metallic desert awaiting you, the coldest airport on the planet. Arrivals hell (hall), limo AOT maffia, touts It is the worst airport i ever saw, even Aguanish airport has some charm, Suvanabhumi has none. Please refer to Changi, Frankfurt where you get from the train staircase up into departure hall, same Schiphol etc etc Even Brussels is not as bad with his new departure hall (an example of silence, although the horrible long walk to concourse A) 0/10 for Savanboum, blow it away and start all over is my advice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jxxxl Posted December 26, 2006 Report Share Posted December 26, 2006 gadflyyour thailand doom vision is also reinforced with your post! wonder that someone with such a negative view of Thailand lives here for so long! i actually started to like this new airport having flewn in and out 6 times each Samak' date=' I hardly find anyone lately who talks positive living here, including myself. But it seems all of us have good reasons to stay here, and very good reasons better be for that matter As for the new airport: Chaos as soon as your taxi tries to unload you, security was on my driver pissing him off, the poor man could not even stop anywhere. departure hall is the most noisiest airport hall I ever experienced and besides air pollution nothing is worse than noise pollution (would you agree?) Long walks (even Atlanta Hartsfield opened in 1979 got this right by running an automatic train to concourses A, B and C; even smallish Tampa has a train) If you're hungry after check in, good luck to find some food places, and then pay 10x the price Those metal chairs... The luggage wait on arrival (at least DM was fast) The expensive shopping mall with some planes attached - a total misconception The factory design with inevitable choice of materials: metal, concrete, glass - 1950ties old design- main cause of the noise. The Transportation Center concept, a brillaint stupid idea. I have to live with CDG shutlle bus system to go anywhere, but that place is at least 30 years old and I don't forgive them... One you got through concourse security its the metallic desert awaiting you, the coldest airport on the planet. Arrivals hell (hall), limo AOT maffia, touts It is the worst airport i ever saw, even Aguanish airport has some charm, Suvanabhumi has none. Please refer to Changi, Frankfurt where you get from the train staircase up into departure hall, same Schiphol etc etc Even Brussels is not as bad with his new departure hall (an example of silence, although the horrible long walk to concourse A) 0/10 for Savanboum, blow it away and start all over is my advice[/quote'] Agree with all the above. It's also very very dark which adds to the prison-like feel. A Thai friend close to the project told me the project directors chose 30% of the lighting capacity recommended by the contractor; to save money of course. And for those of you thinking of blaming the western subcontractors, I can tell you they have little control of what actually gets implemented after the plans are agreed. If the customer wants to cut costs, the subs aren't going to stick to the original plan, that's for sure. For a new airport in this day and age, this project is a disgrace. I can't think of many things that make it better than DM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gadfly Posted December 26, 2006 Report Share Posted December 26, 2006 Unless it is something very specific, I don't think anyone is going to buy into the let's blame the foreign contractors strategy (unless, of course, that anyone is located in Thailand and only has access to local news sources). There are already rampant allegations of kickbacks and corruption at the new airport. Those allegations existed before the government change and have increased since the change. The GE InVision/CTX scanner scandal - which only became public (Thai officials knew about it beforehand) because of a disclosure made by GE to the US government when it wanted to buy InVision - happened well before the coup. Remember how the government threatened lawsuits against any news organization if they reported cracks in the runway? Now, the government itself is claiming there are problems. I am not really an airport basher since I don't see - and certainly don't won't to see or experience during take-off or landing - any cracks in the run way, and as for the other stuff... Well I am not an architect, I don't shop in airports and I honestly enjoy the long walk to the plane (which, judging from the Thais I travel with, puts me in a minority of one). My point was this: Thai officialdom has inflicted a great deal of damage on itself lately. Last week's move on capital in-flows by the Bank of Thailand was a tremendous blunder. Even other Thai government officials - but not the Bank of Thailand itself - have implicitly admitted this was a boneheaded move. There is talking of taking measures to criminalize the exisiting preference share structures used by 14,000 to 100,000 foreign companies. The way the government changed (no opinions expressed on this by me) didn't exactly get a warm reception outside of Thailand, particulalry in Europe. We could go on, but I don't think I need to make the point; we're already there. So my point is: if there really are serious flaws in the airport so that they need to close it now, and if this comes up now, at the holiday season, it's going to look tremendously bad. The track record here lately is less than stellar, and all of what is getting reported now is being judged by all of other news coming outside of Thailand. That is how things work. If foreign contractors are blamed for the problems (a feeble effort was made with the Tsunami scandal), it's going to look even worse. If that makes me Mr. doom and gloom, so be it. I just see it as painfully obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bust Posted December 26, 2006 Report Share Posted December 26, 2006 Just out of curiosity, does anyone know whether it is privately owned or government owned? As for the 30% reduction in lighting, could be in line with the new energy polocies the former government introduced. These came into effect long after the original design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted December 27, 2006 Report Share Posted December 27, 2006 Government owned, of course. Swampypoom was decades in the works. In the meantime, various governments disagreed on whether to build the thing or even where! Chawalit once had all work stopped because he wanted the new airport bult near Nakhorn Pathom. That's when he was a deputy PM. Later, when he had become PM, he decided it should be south of Bangkok with runways extending out over the ocean. Whilst all this was going on, Don Muang was remodelled and upgraded so that it looks nothing like the airport I arrived at in the 1970s. But Mr T was a big backer of anything that would make him look good. Thus he rushed work ahead on Swampypoom, setting an opening date that everyone said was unrealistic. As to substandard construction, that was discovered well before Swampypoom opened. But Mr T brought legal threats against newspapers that dared to report it. All in all, it's a surprise that Swampypoom even exists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThaiHome Posted December 27, 2006 Report Share Posted December 27, 2006 This is going to get really, really nasty, and could even open some can of worms nobody wants to. What went on there is fairly small, which is why it was done so clumsily. TH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh_Hoy Posted December 27, 2006 Report Share Posted December 27, 2006 Rumor has it that they will be closing the airport at midnight so that the runways can be repaired and that savings in employee costs associated with other aspects of running the airport for the closing hours can be reprogrammed to make the repairs. Hope nobody gets diverted to Singapore for the night. HH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damen Posted December 27, 2006 Report Share Posted December 27, 2006 I've yet to fly into the new airport and after reading this thread, wonder if I will next week It sounds like I should not be checking any luggage if I can help it? Go to departures to catch a taxi, just like DM. Any other tips to spend as little time as possible in this place? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kojis Posted December 27, 2006 Report Share Posted December 27, 2006 Hope it's just talk in the wind... if they cancel all contracts including corruption...Thailand would prolly go back to dirt roads... it seems the right time to pick on Thaksin achievements... Anyway I'm typing from the TG F lounge and it's a great place. the Biz lounge is also a definite improvement over Don muang along the whole airport, including the location, closer to high industrialised and touristy areas. Yet I got utterly pissed off -and worried- tonight when I ended up by the custom office alone with the guy at the other end of the number Securicor/Oneservice gave me saying it was a wrong number with drunken voices aroud him ...than not picking up the phone anymore... than an agent with a totally different mobile number showed up 45 mns late... Securicor bastards found it smart to DOUBLE their rates but still can't get their act together. PM if you need a better agent,I'll sure get a couple of numbers within a few days. Than could enjoy Suvanboomboom TG F experience... close to perfect... already drunk on Moet in the lounge ... some very sexy girl came to have me fill a satisfaction form while I started to relax in the large private room... than smashed the champagne glass on the table... poor tall perfectly made up sexy assed thing looked like she would have rather never lived than create that mess... relax... tomorrow I'm doing cool chinese GF three ways... life's OK... as is the new airport... kindasorta... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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