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Friday, March 29, 2024

The Airport Of A King

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My first job out of college was with what was then the biggest international airline in the world, Pan Am.  It had a Satellite Office in Cebu City and when I decided to quit medical school to pursue my lifelong dream of traveling the world, I went into that office just to try my luck for a job, and presented my resumé to the lady manager.  Somebody up there must have willed the job for me, as I was led me to that office, not knowing that there was, in fact, a vacant position for a reservations and ticketing officer.  The manager interviewed me and, after what seemed like an eternity of questions, I was hired on-the-spot.

When I started work, it was a requirement of the airline to have its new employees trained immediately, at any of its international Training Centers—Hong Kong, London and New York.  Lucky for me, the basic two-week beginner’s course on Reservations and Ticketing was scheduled at the London Training Center around that time of the year, so my manager sent me there. Off to “visit the Queen” I was, and this was only two weeks after I got hired!

You can imagine how thrilled I was to live my dream, after making the bold decision of going against my parents’ wishes for me to become a doctor, and find employment, instead, in a company that will allow me to travel the world.  Since Pan Am flights from Manila were solely trans-Pacific, I had to take a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight to Bangkok and take the Pan Am flight from there to London.

I immediately noticed that Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport was huge compared to our own.  I was pleased to see all the shops along the hallways, teeming with items that tempted travellers like me to shell out their pocket money.  It was during that first trip to Bangkok, albeit on a connecting flight, that I had the opportunity to appreciate what an airport terminal really is for.

In spite of the Suvarnabhumi Airport’s terminal’s size, these moving sidewalks make it easy for passengers to get from one point to another

After that first trip to Europe, I must have used Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport again around seven or eight times, either for connections or as an arriving and departing passenger.  Each time, I was very comfortable in the airport and pleased with what it offered the travelling public.

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It was in late 2006, while doing publicity work for the local office of Thai Airways International, when I learned that Bangkok opened a new airport which covers an area of 3240 hectares, the Suvarnabhumi Airport (pronounced “swarnapoom”).  Sanskrit for “Golden Land,” the name Suvarnabhumi was chosen by the late King of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej himself, and refers to the Golden Kingdom proclaimed by the Hindu and Buddhist religions to be somewhere in Southeast Asia, which the late king believed to be Thailand.

Approximately 55 minutes away from downtown Bangkok through the Skyway, Suvarnabhumi Airport stands on what was previously a cobra swamp.  Designed by German-American architect Helmut Jahn, and built at a cost of $5 billion, the airport lays claim to having the world’s tallest free-standing control tower, 132 meters high.  The single-building airport terminal covers an area of more than half-a-million square meters, making it the fourth largest in the world, after that of Dubai, Beijing, and Hong Kong, in that order.  

Suvarnabhumi Airport is now used by 95 airlines and handles more than 56 million passengers yearly, 85 percent of which are international flights.  It has two runways and two taxiways, running parallel to each other, to accommodate simultaneous takeoffs and landings.  The terminal has 172 landing bays for the 800 flights it handles every day.  

I have actually been through Suvarnabhumi Airport countless times since it opened, but it was only during this recent trip to Thailand, when I had a three-hour layover prior to my connecting flight to Manila, that I really had the time to go around, marvel at its architectural design and appreciate its facilities.

The structure is nothing short of grand!  When I entered the departure lobby where all the airline check-in counters are, the sheer size and height of the trusses that support the main canopy of the terminal awed me.  The humongous interior space can easily accommodate a regular-sized helicopter flying freely inside the terminal. The roof’s design uses translucent membranes, maximizing daylight use and saving a substantial amount of energy.

The airport’s Control Tower is the tallest free-standing control tower in the world

The other thing I like about the terminal is its liberal use of pocket gardens, softening the look of steel and its other structural elements. And, of course, since it is in Thailand, you can expect the preponderance of attractive orchids.  Most of these pocket gardens are set up along the moving sidewalks that traverse the length and breadth of the terminal, giving travellers time to be awed by these iconic blooms of Thailand.

There are many other things I like about Suvarnabhumi Airport.  The air-conditioning is consistently cold, no matter which part of the building you are in.  The rest rooms always smell clean, even when all the cubicles and urinals are occupied.  It has information counters at strategic locations, making it easy for people to get directions when lost.  Most of all, it offers a wide array of food and beverage outlets that even include Thai restaurants offering traditional Thai cuisine, for those who may want to savor it one last time prior to departure. There are many other things that make the airport a class of its own. 

I guess the airport is a living testimony to the Thai people’s respect and love for their late king, who named it himself, by seeing to it that nobody will ever have any reason to criticize or complain about it.  Suvarnabhumi Airport will always stand tall in the perception of worldwide travellers that, indeed, it is The Airport Of A King, specially designed for those who want to travel like kings!

For feedback, I’m at bobzozobrado@gmail.com

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