New Bangkok international airport opens on Sep 28

Bangkok, Sep 27: Bangkok's new international airport, with the world's largest passenger terminal and tallest air traffic control tower will start operations tomorrow with the arrival of a Mumbai flight.

'Suvarnabhumi' (land of gold) airport in neighbouring Samut Prakan province will take over from Bangkok's Don Muang which closes down early tomorrow after nine decades of service.

A Lufthansa cargo plane from Mumbai is scheduled to land at Suvarnabhumi a few minutes after Don Muang shuts down at 3 am (local time) tomorrow.

In the pipeline for over four decades and designed by German architect Helmut Jahn, Suvarnabhumi has a single passenger terminal building covering more than half a million square metres.

This is about 10,000 sq mt larger than the Chep Lap Kok airport in Hong Kong which till now had the largest passenger terminal in the world.

A 132.2 mt air traffic control tower the world's highest will guide 76 flights to land and take off every hour on the nearly eight kilometre of runways of Bangkok's new airport.

The tubular tower with a 15-metre diameter has aluminum and glass walls which can withstand wind speeds of up to 200 km per hour and is 10 metre higher than the one at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, which until now was the world's tallest.

UNI