Ask the pilot

Banished breast-feeders, impertinent imams, and big new changes for Boston and Bangkok.

By Patrick Smith

Read more: Technology & Business, Breastfeeding, Business, P. Smith, Ask the Pilot

Dec. 1, 2006 | This column does get mired in an air pocket of negativity, doesn't it? A scan of the archives since summer reveals a distinct pattern of casualty and complaint: midair collisions, death by skyscraper, endless airport security gripes You wouldn't know it by reading my latest installments, but not everything happening in the world of air travel is so unfortunate and distressing. Some recent news is downright good.

First stop Bangkok, where earlier this fall -- at 3:12 on the morning of Sept. 28, to be exact -- the dumpy Don Muang Airport finally closed its runways to regular commercial traffic. Moments after Qantas Flight 302 lifted off for Sydney, Australia, the lights were switched off. Almost simultaneously, across town, the lights came on at the sparkling new Suvarnabhumi Airport, the latest in a string of Asian megaterminals. The first passenger arrival was an Aerosvit 767 from Kiev, Ukraine. The opening comes about a year behind schedule.

Opened in 1914, Don Muang was one of the oldest big-city airports in the world, and was showing it. Dirty and overcrowded, it had become the fourth busiest airport in Asia, handling just under 39 million passengers in 2005. Many of Don Muang's long-haul flights arrived and departed in the wee hours, and it often seemed that at least half of those 39 million people could be found on any given night sleeping on the greasy concourse floors. Nowhere was a replacement more urgently needed.

Airports are a point of civic pride in the Far East. As evident in places like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul (Incheon), Osaka and Hong Kong, their grandiosity is taken seriously. Suvarnabhumi does not disappoint. The main terminal is the second-largest in existence, just behind Hong Kong's. Branching into seven concourses, the passenger complex covers more than half a million square meters. HKG might be marginally bigger, but it lacks Suvarnabhumi's flair. Visitors speak glowingly of the futuristic, glass-and-steel superstructure, the soaring archways and the wide, sunny atria greened with tropical trees. "Magnificent" is the word that keeps coming up. Inside, one finds all the amenities expected of an ultra-modern aerodrome: garden courtyards, a 1:4 Starbucks-to-passengers ratio, state-of-the-art automatic toilets, and, airports being airports, approximately 950 miles of duty-free shopping.

A separate budget airline terminal is slated for construction, to be used exclusively by low-cost airlines. For now, as in most newer airports around the globe, check-in for all carriers is consolidated in a central departure hall -- a foreign concept, as it were, to many Americans familiar with the piecemeal assemblage of buildings that make up the typical U.S. airport.

Bangkok is the region's most important tourist hub, and Suvarnabhumi will process up to 45 million passengers and 3 million tons of air freight each year. It has the tallest control tower on earth, and two enormous runways. (At 12,000 and 13,000 feet, the length is appreciated by the airline number crunchers. For some long-haul departures, Bangkok's performance-robbing heat and humidity might otherwise entail weight penalties.) It retains the well-known BKK code, and is served by more than 80 carriers, including Northwest and United. National flag carrier Thai Airways is headquartered there.

The name Suvarnabhumi (it's "su-wan-na-poom," with a silent "i"), refers to an ancient, possibly mythical Southeast Asian kingdom. I'm not sure that I like the idea of naming airports after imaginary places, especially ones you can't pronounce phonetically, but at least it has character. A more flavorful choice than "Bangkok International." I'm uncertain who or what the name Don Muang refers to. In my mind, it always had the unfortunate effect of conjuring up the image of a smiling Thai cowboy.

Suvarnabhumi had some teething problems in the first few days -- an uncooperative luggage system, inadequate signage, etc., -- but these have mostly been remedied. Forgive me, but if there's anything handicapping the airport in a permanent sense, maybe it's the metropolis of Bangkok itself, 25 kilometers to the west. A steam-cooked cauldron of noise and traffic jams, the Thai capital ranks as one of the author's least favorite cities.

From the American point of view, it's annoying that all the best airports are so far away. We've been blessed with some exciting new terminals in the past several years -- at DCA, SFO, DTW and elsewhere -- but there hasn't been a truly massive project, the kind that gets its own "NOVA" documentary or Discovery Channel show, since Denver. There are plenty of valid reasons for this, but still it's no fun.

Next page: A new and highly unfortunate word: "Lactivism"