The Airport Link from the Phaya Thai and Makkasan areas of downtown Bangkok to Suvarnabhumi airport is set to open for passengers on Aug 12, the birthday of Her Majesty the Queen, deputy Transport Minister Sopon Zarum said on Friday.

He conceded some facilities, including the baggage carousel system, would not be ready on the opening day, but he said he needed to speed up its launch.

The luggage-loading service at Makkasan station would not be operational, so there might be some inconvenience for passengers with heavy bags.

The construction of the 28-km route is 96 per cent complete. There have been delays to work at some stations and route sections due to hold-ups in land acquisitions, said SRT deputy governor Prasert Attanan.

For security reasons Suvarnabhumi Airport will be closed from 9pm Tuesday, November 25th onwards after anti-government protesters blocked entrance of the airport.

Acting Airports of Thailand (AoT) president and Acting Suvarnabhumi Airport Director Serirat Prasutanont announced shortly after 9pm on Tuesday that the airport cancelled all departing flights.

For the time being incoming flights are still arriving, but airport operations have been greatly disrupted.

Hotline number for airport inquiries: 02-1321882 and 02-1321888.

Thai Airways flight information number: 02-3561111.

The long-awaited expansion of Suvarnabhumi Airport has been set in motion now that Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT) has agreed to proceed with the 78-billion-baht project.

The majority state-owned and SET-listed airport operator's board last Friday endorsed the Phase 2 development and will soon seek final consent from the Transport Ministry and the cabinet.

The expansion, which was supposed to have begun shortly after the airport opened in September 2006, would increase the passenger handling capacity of Thailand's gateway airport by 33%, to 60 million in the next six years from 45 million currently.

(TNA) – The long-delayed Suvarnabhumi airport railway link project is expected to be completed by the end of this year and to open for service early 2009, according to the project manager.

Speaking after leading a media tour to observe construction progress, Banjongsak Panthon, project manager and engineer, said the civil engineering portions of the airport railway link project is some 78.5 per cent complete and that the electrical and mechanical portions are about 80 per cent ready.

He said there is much progress in the construction of the station and railway system, with Tub Chang Station set to become the first to be completed in July. Now, it is 60 per cent complete.

Thai Airways International Public Company Limited received the Best First Class Lounge Award 2007 from Skytrax’s 2006/7 World Airline Survey. Mr. Edward Plaisted, CEO of Skytrax survey organization, said, "THAI’s new Royal First Class Lounge at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport has the most extensive choice of options to satisfy passenger demand, and combines these facilities with exclusive staff service attention to offer what our respondents name as the world’s Best."

In addition, Skytrax awarded THAI second place under the Best Airline of the Year 2007 category, up from fourth place in 2006.