(BANGKOK) In the bustling steel-and-glass departure hall of South-east Asia's biggest airport, Serirat Prasutanond begins a daily walk in search of problems and complaints.
There has been no shortage of either in the six months since the opening of Bangkok's US$4 billion Suvarnabhumi Airport, a sprawling structure marred by graft scandals, rutted taxiways, poor planning and a shortage of toilets.
But Mr Serirat - a 25-year industry veteran named Suvarnabhumi's general manager in February after his predecessor was sacked - insists the airport is finally coming right.
'After meetings and signing papers all day, it's a good time to walk through the airport,' Mr Serirat, 56, said of his evening inspection tours when Suvarnabhumi is at its busiest.
'I can see the problems and fix them,' he told Reuters next to a busy check-in queue in the world record 563,000 sq m terminal.
With 12 million tourists a year and Thailand's aspirations to be a regional trading and meeting centre, Suvarnabhumi - which means 'Golden Land' in Thai - has been touted as a rival air hub to Singapore and Hong Kong.
But since its opening on Sept 28 the futuristic airport, which handles 125,000 passengers and 800 take-offs and landings a day, has faced relentless criticism.
'Airlines are not getting value for money for what they are paying at Suvarnabhumi,' Albert Tjoeng, spokesman for International Air Transport Association, said of a 15 per cent rise in landing and parking fees on April 1.
'The increased charges are unreasonable, especially given the operational deficiencies at the airport,' he said of fees which make Suvarnabhumi pricier than Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
Mr Serirat disagrees, saying the fees charged to 90 airlines were still lower than other leading Asian airports.
'It's normal practice. When we lift the fees, the airlines don't want to pay,' he said, rejecting airline complaints they were not consulted.
Every new airport has teething problems, said Mr Serirat, who has zeroed in on 61 faults since he took over. Among them, the air conditioning system has been fine-tuned to reduce 'hot spots' in the glass-enclosed terminal shaped like a philo-pastry sitting in tropical sunshine.
Workers are building extra toilets and more signs direct visitors to immigration counters, bank machines and taxi stands.
'I know all the problems and the problems will be resolved by the end of this year,' Mr Serirat said, noting that the number of complaints had halved to 150 last month.
Christoph Hampel, a German businessman who lives in Bangkok and flies four times a month, said the airport was still too noisy, but it had come a long way since the first week when he carried hand luggage to avoid baggage delays.
'Sure they had start-up problems, but it was better than Hong Kong,' he said, referring to the computer glitches and other system problems that plagued Chek Lap Kok airport in 1998.
But some of Suvarnabhumi's faults will be tougher to fix. Many fliers complain about taxi 'mafias' and their touts who pounce on bleary-eyed passengers in the cramped arrivals hall.
'I don't think there is a set rate. They just do whatever they want to do,' said Robin Tonsaker, a Canadian tourist on a six-and-a-half month tour of Asia and Europe.
Airport officials are working with the police to root out the mafias, Mr Serirat said. 'We can't solve this problem alone.'
Arriving passengers also gripe about taking buses from their plane to the terminal while parking gates sit empty. This is an airline decision, Mr Serirat said.
A controversy about rutted taxiways, which one diplomat said had been so mishandled by the post-coup government that it fuelled fears abroad that 'Bangkok was not a safe place to land a plane', appears to have subsided for now. Mr Serirat said repairs would be finished by the end of April.
Some experts have blamed poor drainage, but he said engineers were still studying the problem. The airport was safe, he said.
'From the opening of Suvarnabhumi until now, no airline, no captain has cancelled a flight. That is the guarantee for safety,' he said.
When it opened, airport experts said Suvarnabhumi would reach its capacity of 45 million passengers a year soon unless expansion plans were accelerated.
That pressure has eased since Don Muang, the aged but dependable airport Suvarnabhumi replaced, was brought out of mothballs last month to handle 140 domestic flights ferrying about 18,000 passengers a day. The move has some travellers worried about missing flights and only three airlines offer services there. But Mr Serirat said two airports were common in other major cities.
'We would have reached capacity this year or next. It gives us time,' he said. 'By 2009 I want to make Suvarnabhumi one of the top 10 in the world. Please wait and see.' - Reuters
