Additional facilities for passengers’ screening are now available at Bangkok international airport.
Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport’s new international departure Security Screening Check Point started to be operation on June 15,2012. Commenting on the new facilities, Somchai Sawasdeepon, General Manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport, Airports of Thailand Plc (AOT), declared that “the new and improved Security Screening Check Points for International Departures helps speeding-up the flow and ease congestion of passengers.”
The newly built Check Points are on a mezzanine level, directly above the eastside and westside Passport Control areas. The Check Point situated above Passport Control 2 (eastside), behind check-in counters rows K and L, is now completed and ready for operations. The new Check Point has a total area of around 1,600 square meters and capacity to handle 3,600 passengers per hour, an increase of 2.5 times the capacity of the old Check Point. The area is now equipped with twelve X-Ray machines and two CT80 Scanners (3-D X-Ray) for luggage checking, and six Walk-Through Metal Detectors and two new Body Scanners, capable of detecting all metal, non-metal objects and drugs, for passenger checking.
The new lane will also provide additional convenience to passengers. Until now some passengers had to throw away their valuables in liquid or gel form that exceed the carry on board limit. With the new security channels, passengers are allowed to hand back their valuables to their family, or take them back once they come again to Bangkok. A second international departure Security Screening Check Point is under construction and should be ready for operations sometime in August 2012. It will then give Suvarnabhumi Airport a capacity to handle 7,200 passengers per hour.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
