Airbus A340-500 (HS-TLA,
Chiang Kham) at Suvarnabhumi Airport in 2008 Suvarnabhumi was officially opened for limited domestic flight service on 15 September 2006, and opened for most domestic and all international commercial flights on 28 September 2006. The airport is located on what had formerly been known as Nong Nguhao in
Racha Thewa in
Bang Phli,
Samut Prakan province, as well as the districts of
Bang Kapi,
Lat Krabang,
Bang Na, and
Prawet in the eastern side of Bangkok, about from downtown. The terminal building was designed by
Helmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn Architects. It was constructed primarily by
ITO JV. The airport had the world's tallest free-standing
control tower () from 2006 to 2014 and for a time held the title for the world's fourth largest single-building
airport terminal (). Suvarnabhumi was reassigned the
IATA airport code,
BKK, from
Don Mueang after that airport ceased international commercial flights.
Motorway 7 connects the airport, Bangkok, and the heavily industrial
eastern seaboard of Thailand, where most export manufacturing takes place. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, the airport was temporarily converted to a hospital and
vaccination center.
Land purchase, initial early phase of construction "The Japanese government would end up assisting the new airport project as ODA, and in 1996, the project took a step forward with the signing of a loan agreement between the Government of Thailand and the Japanese government. Then, in 1996, Second Bangkok International Airport Company Ltd. (SBIA) was established as the project implementation organization, and the project got underway."
Airport tests and official opening The airport was due to open in late 2004. Still, a series of
budget overruns, construction flaws, and
allegations of corruption plagued the project. A further delay was caused by the discovery that the airport had been built over an old graveyard. Superstitious construction workers claimed to have seen ghosts there. On 23 September 2005, the Thai airport authority held a ceremony where 99 Buddhist monks chanted to appease the spirits. Full tests of the airport took place on 3 and 29 July 2006. Six local airlines—
Thai Airways International,
Nok Air,
Thai AirAsia,
Bangkok Airways,
PBair, and
One-Two-Go Airlines—used the airport as a base for twenty domestic flights. Suvarnabhumi officially opened at 03:00 on 28 September 2006, taking over all flights from Don Mueang. The first flight to arrive was a
Lufthansa Cargo flight LH8442 from
Mumbai at 03:05. The first Asian commercial arrival was
Japan Airlines at 03:30. The next arrival was
Aerosvit flight VV171 from
Kyiv at 04:30, and the first cargo departure was
Saudi Arabian Airlines flight SV-984 to
Riyadh at 05:00. Aerosvit also had the first passenger departure (VV172 to Kyiv) around 05:30.
Initial difficulties Difficulties were reported in the first few days of the airport's operation. On the first day alone, sluggish luggage handling was common—the first passenger arrival by Aerosvit took an hour for the luggage to start coming out, and some flights did not have their luggage coming out even after four hours. Flights were delayed (Thai Airways claimed that 17 of 19 flights were delayed that day), and there were failures with the check-in system. Subsequent problems included the failure of the cargo computer system, and the departure boards displaying the wrong information, resulting in confused passengers (unlike Don Mueang, there were no "final calls" issued). Months after its opening, issues of congestion, construction quality, signage, provision of facilities, and soil subsidence continued to plague the project, prompting calls to reopen Don Mueang to allow for repairs to be made. Expert opinions varied widely on the extent of Suvarnabhumi's problems as well as their root cause. Most airlines stated that damage to the airport was minimal. Prime Minister
Surayud Chulanont reopened Don Mueang for domestic flights voluntarily on 16 February 2007, with 71 weekly flights moved back initially, but no international flights.
Capacity and safety issues Tarmac problems In January 2007, ruts were discovered in the runways at Suvarnabhumi. The east runway was scheduled to close for repairs. Expert opinions varied as to the cause of the ruts. On 27 January 2007, the Department of Civil Aviation declined to renew the airport's safety certificate, which had expired the previous day. The
ICAO requires that international airports hold aerodrome safety certificates, but Suvarnabhumi continued to operate because the ICAO requirement had yet to be adopted as part of Thai law. As of early 2016, tarmac problems persisted at Suvarnabhumi. Soft spots on the tarmac, taxiways, and apron area had not been permanently fixed. Aircraft were getting stuck on the soft surfaces that are the result of sub-standard materials. "The constant resurfacing of the tarmac, taxiways and apron area with asphalt is an unacceptable patchwork solution. We literally need a "concrete" solution", said Tony Tyler,
IATA's director general and CEO.
Plans to re-open Don Mueang for domestic flights In January 2007, Thai Airways announced a plan to move some of its domestic operations back to
Don Mueang International Airport due to overcrowding. Three days later, the Ministry of Transport recommended temporarily reopening Don Mueang while repair work on the runways at Suvarnabhumi proceeded. At that time,
Thai Airways said it would shift most of its domestic flights back to Don Mueang while keeping flights with high international passenger connections such as
Chiang Mai and
Phuket at Suvarnabhumi. On 28 March 2009, Thai Airways discontinued all domestic flights from Don Mueang. Bangkok Airways and
One-Two-GO Airlines had similar plans, but Bangkok Airways remained at Suvarnabhumi.
Thai AirAsia said it would not move unless it could shift both its international and domestic operations, prompting them to stay at Suvarnabhumi for the time being.
Nok Air and
PBair were undecided, but Nok Air later relocated all flights to Don Mueang, where they operate today. As of January 2010, only Nok Air and One-Two-GO operated domestic flights from Don Mueang Airport. PBair have ceased operations altogether. One-Two-GO was integrated into
Orient Thai Airlines in July 2010, but continued to operate from Don Mueang Airport until liquidation in 2018. As of 1 October 2012, Air Asia has moved all of its Bangkok operations to Don Mueang International Airport (DMK) from Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK).
Repair and upgrades Airports of Thailand found that the cost of fixing 60 identified problems at the airport would be less than one percent of the total airline cost and the problems could be fixed in four to five years. Dr Narupol Chaiyut, a member of a committee overseeing service problems at the new airport, estimated that 70 percent of the problems would be fixed in 2007. Twenty of the sixty problems were successfully fixed by February 2007.
Installation of safety glass barriers In September 2013, following a series of fatal falls, Airports of Thailand allocated 30 million baht to install 2.5-meter-high glass barriers along the fourth-floor departure hall. This measure was implemented to enhance safety standards after three incidents occurred within a five-month period. Although the installation significantly reduced the frequency of incidents in this area, sporadic attempts continued as individuals sought to circumvent the barriers or access other zones. In response, the airport maintained strict surveillance protocols, which facilitated successful interventions by security personnel in later years. ==Architectural design==