Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport

Location
Car: The airport is about 30 km (18 miles) east of the capital city district and is located in Racha Thewa, a village in the administrative district of Bang Phli, which in turn is part of the province and also the capital Samut Prakan. The airport is located at 15 km (9 miles) on the motorway and is easy to reach on the motorway 7 (Bangkok-Chon Buri) on which a toll must be paid or via the toll road Bang Na-Trat Expressway (national road 34).

Bus: A total of four express bus lines AE1-AE4 and 12 regular bus services (549 -559) operated by Bangkok Mass Transit (BMTA) connect the airport with the inner city district of the Thai capital. A further 12 buses also operate services to more distant provinces. The bus route 389 for example goes to the seaside resort of Pattaya about 120 km (85 miles) south east; bus route 825 runs to the border town of Nong Khai on the Mekong about 600 km (320 miles) north-east; and the bus route 9907 goes to the provincial capital Chantaburi located about 230 km (130 miles) south-east.

Train: From the spring of 2010 after four years of construction, the prestigious Suvarnabhumi Airport Link (Blue Line) will be in operation: an express train from the airport to the downtown district stations of Lat Krabang, Ban Thap Chang, Hua Mak, Rakhamhaeng, Makkasan, Ratchaprarop and Phaya Thai. The journey time from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi to the City Air Terminal at the Makkasan Railway Station is expected to only last 15 minutes.

History
The opening of Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, currently the most modern airport in Southeast Asia, took place at the end of September 2006. Planning and development of the concepts was already complete back in the 1960s but due to economic turmoil and successive governments, construction was delayed for several decades, meaning that the building of the airport was the longest lasting airport project in the world.

The site of the airport, located about 22 km (14 miles) north of the Gulf of Thailand, was acquired in 1973, but the decision to build the 2.5 million dollar airport was only taken in the 1990s when passenger numbers meant that the old airport Don Muaeng had reached the limits of its capacity and there was no longer any possibility of expanding the existing area.

In 1994, the famous American architects Murphy / Jahn of Chicago were won over for the project. These architects had in 1988-1990 been involved in the construction of the 257m high tower at the Frankfurt Fair, which had become a worldwide sensation. However, since the Kingdom of Thailand, as so many of the other so-called emerging South-East Asian "tiger economies", plunged into a financial crisis in 1997, the actual construction of the airport did not actually begin until early 2002. The project was financed by the Japanese state-regulated bank "Japan Bank for International Cooperation" (JBIC), which, along with the National Airport Management Airports of Thailand (AOT), provided 50% of the total costs. Only 3 years later, regular test operations began under the provisional IATA code of NBK, which was changed to BKK in 2006 after full and regular operations began.