Air India, India's flagship carrier has been given green signal by the Government of Thailand to operate its flights from the new Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok from 28th September, 2006. AI348, operating on the Delhi-Bangkok-Shanghai route will be the first AI flight to take-off for Shanghai at 15.05hrs on 28th September 2006 from the new international aviation hub of Bangkok.
The SuvarnabhumiInternationalAirport, Bangkok not only measures five times the size of the existing DonMuangBangkokInternationalAirport, but also brings with it other record breaking features. Covering a total area of 563,000 sq m, it is 10,000 sq m bigger than the former record holder, Hong Kong's Chep Lap Kok airport. With an investment of 731 million Baht and standing 132.2 meters tall, the airport's new air traffic control tower has set a new world record by overtaking the former record holder Kuala Lumpur International Airport by 10meters.
The new air traffic control tower enables all air traffic controllers an optimal 360 degrees view of all operating surfaces, the length of runways, taxi-ways and aircraft stands in its entirety. Despite its height and surrounding glass panels, the control tower can resist surface winds of up to 200km per sq m and wind speeds of 165kph. It's special design and structure also enables it to withstand earthquakes measuring a magnitude of 5 on the Ritcher scale.
