Airports of Thailand to invest B4.4bn in Suvarnabhumi expansion

[Guest reader]

From Bangkok Post

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2739561/airports-of-thailand-to-invest-b4-4bn-in-suvarnabhumi-expansion

[macaroni21]

On a related note, I departed Bangkok last month via the satellite terminal. Here are some pictures I took, which should give you an idea of the shiny new addition to the airport.

The gates for the satellite terminal are numbered starting with the letter "S", as you can see from the sign hanging from the ceiling in the main terminal. 

Follow the signs and they will lead you to a set of escalators going down deep into the basement.

 

 

More escalators, but this time there are staff to make sure that you're headed in the right direction. 

Then you're down into an utterly sterile space where you wait for the shuttle train.

To be continued.

 

 

 

[macaroni21]

After a short ride, I think about 5 minutes, the shuttle train arrives at another shockingly sterile station on the satellite terminal end.  Go up the escalators.

Once up, the first thing that you see is a phalanx of duty-free shops, But of course. Actually, they're not that many. Perhaps more will open when passenger traffic increases, but....

Here's a map of the satellite terminal. The commercial spaces are coloured in tan or dun. As you can see there are not that many spaces earmarked and most of those lots in the middle part of the terminal are already occupied. So I don't think there will ever be many more of these duty-free and brandname shops. In any case, I have long wondered who the heck goes to airports to buy fancy brand merchandise. But then, Thailand has long been a bit behind in its thinking, still catering to glamour travel when the age of mass travel (complete with football yobs) has been upon us for decades.

They did learn from the mistakes when the main terminal was first built- which for some mysterious reason had next to no toilets for the public or passengers. In the main terminal, they went totally overboard in allocating spaces for commerical use (RENTAL INCOME!!!) such that basic amenities like toilets and sitting areas were totally sacrificed. Looking at the map above, the toilets appear to be plentiful in the satellite terminal. 

The floor above the concourse level has lounges. Or maybe just the one lounge "Miracle Lounge". As members of the board may know, I don't fly business class (waste of money, and not being plus-sized, no need for larger seats) or care for lounges, so I didn't go up to explore.

There were only four F&B outlets in the staellite terminal. Fortunately, I was flying on a full-service airline. If one were on a low-cost airline that does not serve meals on board (other than instant noodles, etc, at ridiculous prices) and needed to eat before boarding, options would be limited to McDonalds, Burgerking, Ginger Farm Kitchen and Koh Hup (which also serves burgers + some Thai dishes). The airport authority does not look very smart in its choices of F&B; they could have had a wider range of food.

Another difference from the main terminal is the way the gates now do not come with them own designated waiting rooms. It's open-plan now. There were few flights out of the satellite terminal, so it was mostly deserted.

Another proof as to how behind the curve the airport designers/authority are lies in the provision of charging points. These are few and far between. You would think that every row of seats should be equipped with them, but no, only about one in five or six rows. So that means roughly one set of outlets for every 50 seats. I tried to charge my phone just to test them out (I really didn't need charging, but just wanted to try) and guess what?  There was no juice. The electrical outlets, even when installed, had no electricity! 

I tried another one. Also dead.

In this picture, notice how only the front row has charging points. The rows behind do not.