Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport (also known as Bangkok International Airport) is the main entry point into Thailand. The airport was build in 2006 at a cost of US$ 3.8 billion to replace the aging Don Muang airport north of Bangkok.
Although the initial plan was to close-down Don Muang airport after the opening of Suvarnabhumi on 15 September 2006, the old airport is currently still in service due to construction and congestion problems at Suvarnabhumi. A few airlines have decided to only use Don Muang airport: Nokair is one of them and Airasia moved all operations to Don Muang on 1 October 2012.
Most flights from Suvarnabhumi Airport are to Hong Kong and to Taipei but there are many more flights to other destinations as well, most of them by Thai Airways. Every day there are flights to 20 destinations from Suvarnabhumi Airport. Here are the most popular destinations:
Suvarnabhumi Airport has two parallel runways of 4,000m and 3,700m, 120 aircraft parking bays and is capable of receiving the Airbus A380. The airport is the busiest in South East Asia and is capable of handling a massive 45 million passengers a year. The main terminal is the fourth biggest passenger terminal in the world (after Dubai, Bejing and Hong Kong).
The Main Terminal at Suvarnabhumi Airport has four floors: bottom floor (level one) is the bus, train and taxi lobby, level 2 is the arrivals area, level 3 the meeting and commercial area and the top floor, level 4 is for departures.
The new Suvarnabhumi airport is located 30 km east of downtown Bangkok.
The airport has many options for getting into the city: by train, taxi, airport bus, public bus and even by helicopter.
Train: Airport Rail Link is a high-speed (160km/h) train service to Bangkok and is a convenient way of avoiding Bangkok rush hour traffic. The trains operate from 06:00 till midnight. The nonstop Express Line takes you to Makkasan station in 15 minutes for 150 baht. The slower City Line stops at all stations and will continue to Phaya Thai (45 baht).
Public bus: if you are on a budget you can take the public bus but it is a bit of a hassle. First get on the free shuttle bus to the Bus Terminal a few kilometers from the Passenger Terminal. The shuttle busses depart at Level 1 at the far right of the terminal. Public city buses depart every 20 minutes during daytime, less frequent in the night. A few long distance busses depart here too (to Pattaya, Trat and Rayong amongst others).
See for tickets and schedule: trains: srtet.co.th .
There will be numerous taxi touts asking 1000 or 2000 baht for a ride to the city. Ignore them and proceed to the metered taxi coupon stand at the first floor (Level 1). Depending on the distance and traffic a ride into Bangkok should take about an hour and costs about 300 to 450 baht (including toll fees).
All prices quoted here were found in July 2017
