Suvarṇabhūmi literally means "land of gold".[b] The name was chosen byKing Bhumibol Adulyadej whose name includesBhūmi, referring to the "Buddhist golden kingdom", thought to have been to the east of theGanges, possibly somewhere in Southeast Asia. In Thailand, government proclamations and national museums insist that Suvarnabhumi was somewhere on the coast of the central plains, near the ancient city ofU Thong, which might be the origin of theIndianisedDvaravati culture.[16] Although the claims have not been substantiated, the Thai government named the new Bangkok airport Suvarnabhumi Airport, in celebration of this tradition.
AThaiAirbus A340-500 (HS-TLA,Chiang Kham) at Suvarnabhumi Airport in 2008A Siamland flying service (HS-CPG) smallest plane International Passengers[17][18] operations at Suvarnabhumi
Suvarnabhumi was officially opened for limited domestic flight service on 15 September 2006, and opened for most domestic and all international commercial flights on 28 September 2006.[19]
The airport is located on what had formerly been known as Nong Nguhao[a] inRacha Thewa inBang Phli,Samut Prakan province, as well as the districts ofBang Kapi,Lat Krabang,Bang Na, andPrawet in the eastern side of Bangkok, about 25 kilometres (16 mi) from downtown. The terminal building was designed byHelmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn Architects. It was constructed primarily byITO JV. The airport had the world's tallest free-standingcontrol tower (132.2 metres or 434 feet) from 2006 to 2014[20] and for a time held the title for the world's fourth largest single-buildingairport terminal (563,000 square metres or 6,060,000 square feet).[citation needed]
Suvarnabhumi was reassigned theIATA airport code,BKK, fromDon Mueang after that airport ceased international commercial flights.Motorway 7 connects the airport, Bangkok, and the heavily industrialeastern seaboard of Thailand, where most export manufacturing takes place.
Check-in hall at Suvarnabhumi Airport, seen from the upper level
"The Japanese government would end up assisting the new airport project as ODA, and in 1996, the project took a step forward with the signing of a loan agreement between the Government of Thailand and the Japanese government. Then, in 1996, Second Bangkok International Airport Company Ltd. (SBIA) was established as the project implementation organization, and the project got underway."[23]
A further delay was caused by the discovery that the airport had been built over an old graveyard. Superstitious construction workers claimed to have seen ghosts there. On 23 September 2005, the Thai airport authority held a ceremony where 99 Buddhist monks chanted to appease the spirits.[24]
Suvarnabhumi officially opened at 03:00 on 28 September 2006, taking over all flights from Don Mueang. The first flight to arrive was aLufthansa Cargo flight LH8442 fromMumbai at 03:05.[27] The first Asian commercial arrival wasJapan Airlines at 03:30. The next arrival wasAerosvit flight VV171 fromKyiv at 04:30, and the first cargo departure wasSaudi Arabian Airlines flight SV-984 toRiyadh at 05:00.[28] Aerosvit also had the first passenger departure (VV172 to Kyiv) around 05:30.[29]
Difficulties were reported in the first few days of the airport's operation. On the first day alone, sluggish luggage handling was common—the first passenger arrival by Aerosvit took an hour for the luggage to start coming out, and some flights did not have their luggage coming out even after four hours. Flights were delayed (Thai Airways claimed that 17 of 19 flights were delayed that day), and there were failures with the check-in system.[30][31] Subsequent problems included the failure of the cargo computer system, and the departure boards displaying the wrong information, resulting in confused passengers (unlike Don Mueang, there were no "final calls" issued).[32]
Months after its opening, issues of congestion, construction quality, signage, provision of facilities, and soil subsidence continued to plague the project, prompting calls to reopen Don Mueang to allow for repairs to be made.[33] Expert opinions varied widely on the extent of Suvarnabhumi's problems as well as their root cause. Most airlines stated that damage to the airport was minimal.[34][35] Prime MinisterSurayud Chulanont reopened Don Mueang for domestic flights voluntarily on 16 February 2007, with 71 weekly flights moved back initially, but no international flights.[36]
In January 2007, ruts were discovered in the runways at Suvarnabhumi.[37] The east runway was scheduled to close for repairs. Expert opinions varied as to the cause of the ruts.[34] Airport authorities and airline representatives maintained that the airport was still safe and resisted suggestions that the airport should be completely closed and all flights moved back to Don Mueang.[38]
On 27 January 2007, the Department of Civil Aviation declined to renew the airport's safety certificate, which had expired the previous day. TheICAO requires that international airports hold aerodrome safety certificates, but Suvarnabhumi continued to operate because the ICAO requirement had yet to be adopted as part of Thai law.[39]
As of early 2016, tarmac problems persisted at Suvarnabhumi. Soft spots on the tarmac, taxiways, and apron area had not been permanently fixed. Aircraft were getting stuck on the soft surfaces that are the result of sub-standard materials. "The constant resurfacing of the tarmac, taxiways and apron area with asphalt is an unacceptable patchwork solution. We literally need a "concrete" solution", said Tony Tyler,IATA's director general and CEO.[40]
Airport traffic control tower (ATCT) at Suvarnabhumi Airport. At 132.2 meters, it is the world's third tallest ATC tower[41]
In January 2007, Thai Airways announced a plan to move some of its domestic operations back toDon Mueang International Airport due to overcrowding. Three days later, the Ministry of Transport recommended temporarily reopening Don Mueang while repair work on the runways at Suvarnabhumi proceeded. At that time,Thai Airways said it would shift most of its domestic flights back to Don Mueang while keeping flights with high international passenger connections such asChiang Mai andPhuket at Suvarnabhumi. On 28 March 2009, Thai Airways discontinued all domestic flights from Don Mueang. Bangkok Airways andOne-Two-GO Airlines had similar plans, but Bangkok Airways remained at Suvarnabhumi.Thai AirAsia said it would not move unless it could shift both its international and domestic operations, prompting them to stay at Suvarnabhumi for the time being.Nok Air andPBair were undecided, but Nok Air later relocated all flights to Don Mueang, where they operate today.[42][43] As of January 2010, only Nok Air and One-Two-GO operated domestic flights from Don Mueang Airport. PBair have ceased operations altogether. One-Two-GO was integrated intoOrient Thai Airlines in July 2010, but continued to operate from Don Mueang Airport until liquidation in 2018.As of 1 October 2012, Air Asia has moved all of its Bangkok operations to Don Mueang International Airport (DMK) from Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK).[44]
Airports of Thailand found that the cost of fixing 60 identified problems at the airport would be less than one percent of the total airline cost and the problems could be fixed in four to five years. Dr Narupol Chaiyut, a member of a committee overseeing service problems at the new airport, estimated that 70 percent of the problems would be fixed in 2007. Twenty of the 60 problems were successfully fixed by February 2007.[45]
A depiction of the "Churning of theOcean of Milk",Samudra manthana, at the airport Concourse Design: 5-pin arch-truss-girders with glazed facades and a translucent fabric membrane set-up, spanning across to bridge the 27 m spacing between the glass facades
Suvarnabhumi Airport's main terminal roof is designed with structural elements and bays placed in acantilevered, wavelike form to appear to "float" over the concourse beneath. This overall design principle was to express the former essence of the site, from which water had to be drained before construction could begin. The eight composite 2,710-ton trusses supporting the canopy of the main terminal are essentially diagrams of the bending moments acting on them, with the greatest depth at mid-span and over the supports.[46]
The result ofHelmut Jahn's vision is a structure with performance materials serve in their total composition and in use more than in their conventional roles. This maximizes daylight use in comfort with substantial energy life-cycle cost savings. The installed cooling system reduced up to 50 percent compared to a conventional system. A translucent membrane with three layers was developed to mediate between the interior and exterior climate, dealing with noise and temperature transmission, while still allowing natural flow of daylight into building along with views of greenery outside.[47]
The airport was ranked number 48 among the world's top 100 airports in 2020. OtherASEAN airports in 2020 were ranked:Changi Airport, 1;Kuala Lumpur International Airport, 63;Jakarta–Soekarno-Hatta, 35;Hanoi, 87.[48] Suvarnabhumi was ranked 46 in 2019,[49] 38 in 2017[50] and 36 in 2016.[51] According to theThailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) in 2018, the airport's ranking had not improved over the past six years. Customer complaints included lengthy immigration waiting times, transit day room issues, insufficient numbers of chairs and phone charging points, insufficient English-speaking staff, and poor information displays.[52][53]
As of 18 April 2024, the airport was ranked 58th by theSkytrax World Airport Awards 2024.[54][55][56]
On 25 January 2007, due to work upgrading the taxiways which suffered from small cracks, a few incoming flights were delayed and several flights were safely diverted toU-Tapao International Airport in Rayong Province.[57]
On 26 November 2008, an illegal occupation of the airport took place byPeople's Alliance for Democracy, closing the departure lounge and blocking exits and leaving almost 3,000 passengers stranded in the main terminal and another 350,000 stranded inside the country, as all flights were grounded. The People's Alliance for Democracy seized the control tower at 12:00.[58] On 2 December 2008, protesters agreed to leave the airport as they had been illegally protesting and permitted the resumption of flights. Security checks, clean-ups, and re-certification once the illegal occupation ended delayed the airport from being fully functional until 5 December 2008.[59]
On 5 January 2019, the airport gained international attention when aSaudi Arabian ex-Muslim,Rahaf Mohammed, fleeing an abusive family that punished children who did not follow their religion, was accosted by Thai authorities at the behest of Saudi Arabia and sent to one of the airport's hotels to await repatriation back to her family and country. Fearing that she could be killed for being a disgrace to her family and religion, she barricaded herself in the hotel room, opened aTwitter account to plead for her freedom, and requested assistance fromUnited Nations agents to get her to theWestern world, away from her family, as aresettled refugee. As her pleas for help went viral, Thai agents agreed to let her go toCanada to start a new lifewithoutIslam.[60]
In January 2021, a motorist drove his car through security gates and onto the tarmac at the airport while it was in use. It was later revealed that the driver had been under the influence of methamphetamine, which was also discovered in the trunk of the car. The driver claimed that he had taken a wrong turn.[61][62]
Costing an estimated 155 billionbaht (US$5 billion), the airport has three parallelrunways (60 m wide, 4,000 m and 3,700 m long) and two paralleltaxiways to accommodate simultaneous departures and arrivals.[64]
The main passenger terminal building, with a capacity of handling 76 flight operations per hour, co-locates the international and domestic terminals, though assigning them to different parts of the concourse. In the initial phase of construction, it was capable of handling 45 million passengers and three million tonnes ofcargo per year.The airport's main passenger terminal was, at the time of construction, the world's largest passenger terminal ever constructed in one phase at 563,000 square metres (6,060,000 sq ft). The airport air-traffic control tower was the tallest in the world at 135 metres (443 ft) from 2006 to 2014.[20]
From the opening of Suvarnabhumi in 2006 to early 2017, eight people had fallen to their deaths from upper-floor walkways, prompting the airport to spend 33 million baht in 2013 building glass barriers to prevent people from falling and/or taking their lives.[65]
Departures hall
Arrivals hall
Concourse A at the northeast handles domestic flights only
A 600-room hotel, now operated asHyatt Regency, is located above theairport rail link station and in front of the main passenger terminal building. It originally opened in 2006 asNovotel, but was rebranded as Hyatt Regency in February 2025.
Suvarnabhumi Airport map based on OSM graphics, actualized up to mid-2023
By mid-2015, the airport was handling more than 800 flights per day, higher than its 600-flight capacity. It has exceeded its capacity of 45 million passengers per year.[66]
Airports of Thailand (AOT) approved an investment budget for the expansion of Suvarnabhumi Airport and construction was expected to be completed by April 2023.[67] The plan was to strengthen Suvarnabhumi Airport's position as a regional aviation hub. Phase Two would raise the airport's capacity to 65 million passengers a year and would be undertaken in parallel with the construction of a new domestic terminal.[68] The new domestic terminal will be intended to accommodate more than 30 million passengers annually by 2027.[69]
The two expansion projects are part of the overall airport enlargement that would see Suvarnabhumi raise its annual passenger handling capacity to 125 million passengers, 90 million international and 35 million domestic passengers by 2024 at an estimated cost of 163 billion baht (US$5.25 billion/€3.62 billion). The expansion includes the construction of one additional runway of 3,700 metres (12,100 ft), subsequent enlargement of domestic and international terminals, and improvements to parking bays, car parks, and other airport infrastructure.[70]
In March 2024, Prime MinisterSrettha Thavisin said the third runway would open in October 2024, with a long-term target capacity of 150 million passengers.[71] The runway was opened for full aircraft operations on 1 November 2024, increasing the operational capacity from 68 to 94 flights/hour.[72]
A new midfield concourse called SAT-1 partially opened in September 2023[73] and is expected to fully open from early 2024.[74] It is linked to the current main terminal via an undergroundautomated people mover (APM) system. The new people mover was provided bySiemens using theNeoVAL technology.[75] The new satellite terminal has a total of 28 gates, with eight for theAirbus A380 andBoeing 747-8[76] super jumbo jet.[77] Spanning around 251,400 square meters, it will increase the airport's annual passenger handling capacity from 45 million to 60 million.[76] The SAT-1 terminal was nominated as one of six airport terminals for the Prix Versailles World's Most Beautiful Airports Architectural Award for 2024, which was announced atUNESCO.[78][79]
On 29 October 2024, it was reported that Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AOT) revised Suvarnabhumi's masterplan for expansion. The revision included cancelling a planned second Midfield Satellite Concourse (which would have been south of the existing satellite concourse) in favor of a massive new terminal on the airport's southern end. AOT made the revision due to fears that a second Midfield Satellite Concourse would not be enough to meet future demand. The new South Terminal will cost 120 billion baht ($3.7 billion USD) and have a capacity of 70 million passengers annually. It is set to open by the end of 2031. Alongside the new South Terminal, AOT is also planning the east terminal expansion project, which will add 81,000 square meters of space for passengers. Lastly, AOT has confirmed a fourth runway to be constructed east of Runway 1/19. The new runway will cost 20 billion baht ($615 million USD) and will be at least 12,000 feet in length, similar to the other runways at Suvarnabhumi. Bidding for contracts for the fourth runway is set to open in 2027, likely meaning that the runway will be completed alongside the new South Terminal. When fully complete, these projects will allow Suvarnabhumi Airport to serve 150 million passengers every year.[80]
APM vehicle at the SAT-1 terminal stop
Thai elephant architecture at SAT-1 terminal
Thai Airways Boeing 777-2D7Pathum Wan in front of SAT-1
Suvarnabhumi accounted forthe largest share of air traffic at Thailand's airports in 2023, handling 51.7 million passengers in 2023, up by 80 percent from the previous year despite its passenger capacity of only 45 million a year.International Passengers handled 2024 more than 700000 people at 21 city and Domestic Passenser handled 2024 more than 6200 people at 16 Airport in 14 Province[223]
Comparison of passenger volume, aircraft movements and cargo volume atSuvarnabhumi Airport, by year
8 September 2013: Thai Airways International Flight 679, anAirbus A330-300, (HS-TEF,Song Dao), arriving fromGuangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN) had arunway excursion from runway 19L while landing in heavy rain with extensive damage to the airplane and the runway. The aircraft was evacuated using the emergency slides with only minor injuries among the 288 passengers and 14 crew members.[236][237] Preliminary investigation determined the cause of the accident to be the rightlanding gear collapsing as a result of a damagedbogie.[237] In the aftermath of the accident, Thai Airways had the logos of the aircraft painted over in black, prompting widespread criticism of attempted cover-up. An airline official initially said that the practice was part of the "crisis communication rule" recommended byStar Alliance. This was denied by the group, and Thai Airways later clarified that the "de-identifying" of aircraft was its own practice and not Star Alliance policy.[238][239] The controversy prompted discussion over the appropriateness and effectiveness of the practice as a brand-protection policy.[240] The airframe has since been converted to a roadside attraction called Airways Land, featuring a cafe and event space, onMittraphap Road inSida District,Nakhon Ratchasima Province.[241]
1 July 2020: ABoeing 767-200 (Z-WPF) flight UM462 with two passengers and 17 crew fromAir Zimbabwe made an emergency landing because the left engine had shut down.[244]
In December 2015,Airports of Thailand introduced the Sky Lane (Thai:สกายเลน), a cycling track around the Suvarnabhumi airport perimeter. The entrance to the Sky Lane is located in the northeastern corner of the airport area. Cyclists can bring their bicycles and bike here for free. The Sky Lane is a controlled-access, one-direction, two-lane track built only for cycling, so the riders can be ensured that they will not be bothered by any vehicle. The Sky Lane's length is 23.5 km, making it the longest in Asia.[250] Sky Lane's facilities, which are specially designed for cyclists, include medical facilities, shops, food & beverage, track, parking lot and a rest area. The entrance gate is open from 06:00 to 18:00.[251]On 23 November 2018,King Vajiralongkorn presided over the official opening of cycling lane at Suvarnabhumi airport and denominated the track as Happy and Healthy Bike Lane (Thai:สนามลู่ปั่นจักรยานเจริญสุขมงคลจิต).[252]
^"Bangkok Airport". BBC Three. 2015. Retrieved21 December 2017.Series in which young Brits pass through Bangkok Airport to embark on adventures of a lifetime.
^Damrong Rachanubhab, "History of Siam in the Period Antecedent to the Founding of Ayuddhya by King Phra Chao U Thong",Miscellaneous Articles: Written for the Journal of the Siam Society by His late Royal Highness Prince Damrong, Bangkok, 1962, pp. 49–88, p. 54; Promsak Jermsawatdi,Thai Art with Indian Influences, New Delhi, Abhinav Publications, 1979, pp. 16–24. William J. Gedney, "A Possible Early Thai Route to the Sea",Journal of the Siam Society, Volume 76, 1988, pp. 12–16.[1]Archived 30 December 2016 at theWayback Machine
^Brandler, Hannah (5 March 2024)."British Airways unveils cabin upgrades, free messaging and route resumptions to Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok".businesstraveller.com. Business Traveller. Retrieved14 September 2024.The carrier will restart flights from London to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur from October and November respectively. The airline [...] will now return from 28 October. A three-times-weekly service between Gatwick and Bangkok will be operated on a three-class Boeing 777-200ER aircraft...
^"Condor launches inaugural flight to Sanya".condor-newsroom.condor.com. Condor. Retrieved23 November 2025.The flight includes a brief stopover in Bangkok before continuing to Sanya
^"Kenya Airways again eyes direct flights to Beijing, China".ch-aviation.com. ch-aviation. Retrieved21 November 2025.Kenya Airways currently serves Guangzhou 3x weekly via Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, with fifth freedom rights on the Bangkok-Guangzhou segment, using a B787-8.
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