Operations at Bangkok move to new airport this week

oneworld member airlines are preparing to move operations at alliance hub Bangkok to the city's new airport Suvarnabhumi later this week. Services by all the alliance's carriers will depart from and arrive at the new facility with effect from Thursday (28 September).

The first oneworld flight to arrive at the new airport is scheduled to be Cathay Pacific's CX709 from Hong Kong, due to land at Surarnabhumi at 23:50 on Wednesday.

Four of oneworld's current member airlines serve Bangkok:

• Cathay Pacific offers up to seven daily round trips to and from its Hong Kong hub, dailies to and from Singapore, four round trips a week to and from Colombo, four to and from Dubai, operating via Mumbai, and three to and from Karachi.
• British Airways and Qantas both operate daily services to and from London and Sydney.
• Finnair has a daily schedule to and from its Helsinki hub

All three of the carriers lining up to join the alliance early next year also operate there:

• Japan Airlines, with twice-dailies to and from Tokyo Narita increasing to thrice daily from the end of next month, and dailies to and from both Nagoya and Osaka Kansai.
• Malév, three times a week to and from its Budapest hub from mid November.
• Royal Jordanian, five round trips to and from its Amman base.

In line with the alliance's policy to co-locate its member airlines together at airports wherever there are opportunities and it makes sense to do so, its carriers serving Bangkok will be housed adjacent to one another in the new airport's West Wing. British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas will have check-in desks in zone N, with JAL in zone R and Finnair, Malév and Royal Jordanian across the lobby in zone S.

Suvarnabhumi - pronounced "su-wan-na-poom" and meaning Golden Land - is 30 kms east of Bangkok. It will have an initial capacity for 45 million passengers and three million tonnes of cargo a year. It will take over the three-letter IATA airport code BKK from the city's old airport. A railway linking the airport with the city centre is due to open in 2008.

• Take an airport tour at www.bangkokairportonline.com