BANGKOK'S SUVARNABHUMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Postponed to 'no later' than July of next year

By Amornrat Mahitthirook
Source: The Bangkok Post, July 29

After keeping mum on just how long it would be delayed, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra declared yesterday the opening of Suvarnabhumi international airport would be postponed to no later than July of next year.

The prime minister picked yesterday's visit to the airport in Samut Prakan's Bang Phi district to announce the new schedule.

`After the assessment on the construction progress, the airport can be opened either in June or July 2006 at the latest,'' he said after chairing a committee responsible for the airport, including airport officials and construction firms.

`The delay is common for new airports. They cannot be opened on schedule,'' Mr Thaksin said. The delay has long been expected by officials and building firms given that work is behind schedule. One of the concerns has been the elevated road leading to the airport terminal which will only be completed by Feb 9 of next year, according to the prime minister.

Mr Thaksin had previously set Sept 29 this year as the launch date for the new airport. Then he retracted his statement, saying what he meant was the deadline for all construction jobs to be done.

After inspecting construction at the site, including work inside the terminal, at the concourse and on the conveyor belts for nearly two hours, Mr Thaksin said he was confident a substantial amount of work would be complete by Sept 29, but final touches on details before handing the project over to New Bangkok International Airport Co would take some time afterwards. He also went inside the departure terminal to see the check-in counters and the testing of the conveyor belts.

After the construction, the airport must transfer all systems from Don Muang airport, and it then needs a test-run and approval from the International Civil Aviation Organisation for commercial use.

When most construction projects are finished in the next two months, including runways, Mr Thaksin said he would be one of the passengers on a plane testing a landing on Sept 29 and then lead runners onto the runways in a marathon event to be organised that day.

The New Year countdown would also be held at the new airport, he said.

With the capacity to serve 45 million passengers, Suvarnabhumi, whose construction cost is almost 120 billion baht, will replace Don Muang and is touted to become the aviation hub of Southeast Asia, competing with Singapore, Malaysia and even Hong Kong.

It will be equipped with the controversial CTX 9000 bomb scanners. The first two of the 26 machines are due to arrive today .

Despite the delay, Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit said he was satisfied with the construction progress and said the prime minister had agreed to join monthly talks with airport officials and construction firms to resolve any problems going forward.

Key discussion points during the meeting at the airport site were the rising raw material costs mentioned by construction companies and the payment delay for work related to the luggage bomb detectors, said a source at the talks.

Mr Thaksin refused to help construction firms in terms of easing higher costs, saying they had to honour the agreements they had signed with the airport agency.

Thawatchai Suthiprapha, the project manager of ITO Joint Venture, the consortium building Suvarnabhumi, said he would hold talks with GE InVision on plans to install the CTX machines today.