News
Suvarnabhumi reopens 10 bays
Passengers at Suvarnabhumi Airport will be spared some hassles as Airports of Thailand Plc (AOT) has reactivated 10 aircraft parking bays that had been closed to facilitate the repair of a taxiway. This week's reopening of the parking bays, which had been closed since June, followed the recent completion of the taxiways on southwestern side of concourses D and E.
Back in service are parking bays D5, D6, D7, D8, E1, E3, E5, E7 and E9, as well as the remote parking bay 305, said Serirat Prasutanond, general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport.
That solved one of the problems requiring embarking and disembarking passengers to be transferred by coaches from remote bays to the terminal _ a major complaint lodged by passengers.
Suvarnabhumi Airport has 120 parking bays, 51 with contact gates and 69 remote gates.
The repairs involved construction flaws that continue to plague the 155- billion-baht airport since its opening in September last year.
AoT is now moving to fix the damaged surface of the northern tip of the western runway, coded 19L-01R, and another section of a taxiway, in the area known as B1-B2.
The repairs would result in the closure of a 500-metre section of the runway and the B1-B2 taxiway for 50 days, starting on Aug 15. However, the suspended section would not necessitate the full closure of the runway as the remaining length of 2,890 metres could still accommodate most aircraft, Mr Serirat explained.
Large and heavy aircraft such as the Boeing 747-400 will be assigned to the other runway on the eastern side, which is 4,000 metres long.
The airport is already using its capacity of 45 million passengers per year, and the need to fix construction flaws has added to the crowding and inconvenience at the airport.
Meanwhile, Mr Serirat confirmed that most of the 60 roof leaks at the passenger terminal and concourses had been fixed.
''Airport staff are on the lookout for any dripping and should any leakage be spotted, cleaners will immediately clean the place and the repairs will be carried out immediately after the rain stops,'' he said.
Source: Bangkok Post by Boonsong Kositchotethana
Thursday August 09, 2007
