Bangkok Airport Link Delayed Again

Posted on Monday 8 June 2009 by Michael

That sound you hear is the other shoe dropping. Today’s Bangkok Post makes official what most of us have already known for a while: the new airport rail link won’t open on August 12 as previously announced by the minister of transport. Not only that, it won’t even be ready for test runs on that date, as previously thought.

The plan now is for public testing to start on 5 December – the date we previously thought full service would start. Regular service won’t start until March, or later, 2010. It isn’t clear from the news report whether check-in services at the city terminal will be ready by March, or if they too will be delayed another six months or more. That would mean it would be close to the end of 2010 before you could check your bags in at the city terminal.

Fares have been announced for the new link. The express train, running non-stop between the airport and city terminal, will cost 150 Baht. The regular train, which will stop at every station, will cost from 15 to 45 Baht, depending on the distance.

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Posted in Airport Updates

PB Air Set to Expand

Posted on Thursday 28 May 2009 by Michael

I’m finally starting to get back on top of things after my extended trip to Indonesia and the subsequent unexpected stay in the hospital. I’ve got a few news stories backed up. Here’s the first:

Thailand’s small PB Airline is set to expand its route network, after upgrading planes and getting profitable in these, the toughest of times for air travel. According to the Bangkok Post, the little airline plans to add Mae Sot to its list of unique destinations, which includes Lampang, Nan, Nakhon Phanom, Sakhon Nakhon, Buri Ram and Roi-Et. Mae Sot flights begin on 5 June.

The airline also hopes to return to Chumpon later this year, a destination that it first opened up many years ago, but which it later abandoned.

PB Air now flies ATR-72 turboprops instead of the small Embraer executive jets it used for many years. This has given them a greater capacity at a better fuel efficiency than they had before.

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Posted in Airlines

Thermal Scanners Come out of Storage

Posted on Wednesday 29 April 2009 by Michael

Thermal scanners, which measure people’s skin temperatures, are once again becoming a fixture at airports around Asia. These were first introduced during the SARS scare in 2004, and are being dusted off once again in light of concerns about swine flu. The scanners help easily identify people coming off arriving flights who might have an elevated temperature, which could be an early sign of being sick. The hope is that health officials will be able to catch possible flu carriers when they enter the country (although, catching them before they get on the plane would seem to be a much better idea.)

There’s some doubt about how effective this measure will be in preventing the spread of swine flu, but governments have to do something, or at least be seen to be doing something. The scanners are in place at most international airports in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and many other countries. The delay they cause on arrival is usually minimal, if any.

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Posted in Airport Updates