Singapore Changi

Posted on Friday 20 March 2009 by Michael

Changi always has been one of my favorites. Of course, it’s one of the world’s favorite airports. It recently took the number two spot in all of Asia, just behind South Korea’s Inchon airport. One of the reasons given for the rise up from the number three spot is the new Terminal 3, opened about a year ago. I gave myself some extra time at the airport just so I could have a good look around.

The grand departure hall of Changi’s Terminal 3

It’s easy to see why Terminal 3 has garnered Changi even more fans. Although thoroughly ultra modern in design, the building, and the departure hall in particular, recalls that golden age of travel, when a plane or train journey was truly an event, and the buildings really made one feel they were embarking on some grand adventure. Although the terminal building is considerably smaller than Bangkok’s new airport, it feels bigger and more spacious. Feelings of nostalgia became particularly strong as I crossed the huge open space to approach the doors to immigration, with the large circular balcony overhead emblazoned with "DEPARTURES" in simple lighted letters. It was all very reminiscent of the grand railroad stations of America.

Once you pass through immigration, Terminal 3 is a little more like the Changi that many people love: a shopper’s paradise. Some people have compared Bangkok’s new airport to a shopping mall with an airport inside, but really, Suvarnabhumi is an ugly suburban strip mall compared to Changi. Wide carpeted aisles are lined with shops selling the latest gadgets, designer goods, and the usual duty free goods. Changi is famous for its many unique attractions. The main one at Terminal 3 is a butterfly garden, which is in addition to new versions of old favorites, such as a free movie theater and a paid lounge with gym, showers, massage and nap rooms. There is of course a full service transit hotel.

But, speaking of hotels, Changi also now has a proper airport hotel. Sitting between Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 is the new, and very distinctive, Crowne Plaza hotel. I’m afraid I just can’t describe the hotel. I took a quick look inside, and both the public areas as well as the exterior are very unlike any other building I’ve been in. You’ll just have to see this place for yourself.

Even though I’ve been talking almost exclusively about Terminal 3, my Thai flight actually departs from Terminal 1. Things are more or less the same here, although parts of the building are getting their own radical makeover in the wake of the success of Terminal 3.

See the photo gallery for more pictures of Terminal 3.

Tagged with: SIN, Singapore
Posted in In Transit

Emirates to Fly A380s to Bangkok

Posted on Thursday 19 March 2009 by Michael

According to a short news report published on the AME Info web site, Emirates is to shift one of its Airbus A380 super-jumbo jets onto one of its twice-daily flights between Dubai and Bangkok. The change takes effect on 1 June 2009, at the start of the summer travel season in the gulf, when many residents escape the searing heat to more pleasant destinations like Thailand (yes, believe it or not, Thailand is a nicer place to be than Dubai in August). The A380 is being redeployed off the airline’s New York JFK route. They didn’t say why, but it’s probably due to much lower demand thanks to the economic crisis.

I may be mistaken, but I think this will mark the first regularly scheduled A380 flights to Bangkok. The airport is supposedly ready for them, but it will be interesting to see how the first few flights go.

Tagged with: Bangkok, Emirates
Posted in Airlines

In-Transit: Bangkok

Posted on Wednesday 18 March 2009 by Michael

Since I added a news blog to this site, I thought it might be a good opportunity to write some "in transit" updates as I make my way through the region’s airports. Today, I’m in the Thai Airways lounge at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport, on my way to Singapore. I haven’t been to Singapore since the new Terminal 3 opened, so I’m looking forward to it.

Now, since this is my first in-transit post, I probably ought to make something clear: I’m in the business lounge, but I’m not flying business class. I hardly ever do, and since most of my flights around Southeast Asia are less than four hours long, it’s no big deal. But, what my flying lacks in quality I make up for in quantity. I rack up 40,000 to 60,000 miles a year, and so have qualified for Star Alliance "Gold" status for over three years now, and the biggest perk to having a gold card is access to the lounges. Free Internet, free food, what’s not to love?

Today I’m in one of the lounges on Concourse E, because my departure gate is on F. These lounges tend to be less crowded, since Thai mostly uses gates on Concourse C, on the other side of the airport, but there are so many morning flights that they often have to use whatever is available. The lounge is nice, as all the lounges at Bangkok are, with plenty of comfortable seats, power points for laptops, and lots of reading material for those that aren’t surfing the web.

A thunderstorm hit just as I arrived at the airport. Hopefully it will all be cleared up before I leave, and it won’t have delayed things too much. Things are all back to normal after last year’s closure, and you wouldn’t know anything had happened.