Return to Transcripts main page
Business Traveller
New Travel Restrictions in United Kingdom And U.S. Explained; Bangkok Ready to Open New Airport
Aired September 09, 2006 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR: On this month's CNN BUSINESS TRAVELER, it's taken 40 years, now it's finally ready, or is it? We'll be behind the scenes of Bangkok's new international airport, a breath of fresh air of Asian aviation. Low cost carriers give passengers a new choice.
And how to relax the way that locals (INAUDIBLE) on Bibi (ph) Island.
Hello and welcome to CNN BUSINESS TRAVELER. I'm Richard Quest. We had originally intended to present this program from Bangkok's new international airport, but recent events have meant we've had to rethink those plans. The travel industry has been in upheaval following an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airlines.
For those of us who spend our lives on the road, one thing has become much clearer, the new restrictions on hand baggage and what we can take on board planes means that our traveling life has become that much more difficult.
So, we will be in Bangkok in this program in just a moment. First though, we must get to grips with these new travel restrictions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST (voice-over): August the 10th, a bleak day for global travelers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this point we welcome viewers in the United States to bring you news coming from Scotland Yard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Officials believe the aim of the plot was to explode devices carried aboard planes in hand held luggage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to remember London's Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest international airport, bar non.
QUEST: The security clamp down was swift, no hand baggage, no liquids or gels, no mobiles or iPods, and most disturbing for the business traveler, no laptops were allowed in the cabin. Six days later, and those draconian restrictions were eased. You still can't take liquids or gels on board, but you can now, at least, have your laptop.
(on camera): The British restrictions are the most stringent in the world. This is the size of the bag you are allowed to take on board. It must fit into one of these boxes. And even if your journey started in another country, and they allowed you on board with a bigger bag, when you get to London, you will have to check it into the hold.
(voice-over): The new rules seem to suggest there's a direct link between bag size and security. And yet security experts say that's far from the case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The key thing you need to remember about a plane when it's in the air is that it's a pressurized environment. The amount of explosives to rupture the hull of a plane and cause it to come down, obviously causing catastrophic loss, is actually really rather small. So, the size of the case wouldn't make much difference to the explosives.
QUEST: Still, authorities world wide aren't taking any chances. They have imposed new rules that frankly are almost impossible to understand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anyone with any type of liquids and (INAUDIBLE), toiletries or cosmetics, they are not permitted through security at present.
QUEST: Britain's banned a comprehensive list of items on all flights from the United Kingdom. Across the Atlantic, the United States takes it further, banning the items for all flights to and from the country. Back in Europe, Germany applies the U.S. rules on all flights, but only to the United States.
Next door in France, the government is stricter. There no liquids and gels are allowed on flights to the U.S., U.K. and Israel. And further up field it's just as bad. India and other countries have banned liquids and gels on all out bound flights.
Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong haven't imposed rules of their own, but they do warn passengers of restrictions elsewhere.
(on camera): Business travel dramatically increases in these next few weeks, through September, October and into November. And I don't think we've seen yet that surge of business travelers. A number of them probably were hit as leisure travelers and have seen some of these issues they've had to face, and it's just, I think, a question of time to see whether or not there are trips that are canceled, or more travelers just do there and back in a day, if they can, or they resign themselves and pack and equip themselves in such a way that when they go on a trip, they go on an even longer trip.
(voice-over): We are being advised to check with our airlines for updates daily.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: You can find a full list of links to the world's major airlines on our website at CNN.com/BUSINESSTRAVELER. And if you've got any questions about the new security restrictions, we would like to have them. It's the usual e-mail address, Quest@CNN.com. We received one such question from Ayman O'Neill (ph) in Scotland. Now he writes to us, as a well travelled fellow hack I have a simple, but important, question, what carry on bags do I prefer? Sir, it's not so much of what we prefer anymore, but what fits the new rules.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST (voice-over): To be on the safe side, we have compiled a list of bags that fit the new U.K. very strict restrictions. Forty five by 35 by 16 centimeters. Tumi's (ph) generation four laptop portfolio is the most expensive at 400 dollars. Samsonite's new laptop pillow messenger bag is slightly smaller and includes two bags in one.
The new bug from Crumpler (ph) provides the most depth of our picks, available from the end of September. Landoriana Ducks (ph) is the smallest, but extra straps mean you can use it as a laptop bag and a backpack.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: If you've got a query, anything related to life on the road as a business traveler, send us an e-mail, QUEST@CNN.com.
After the break, with only weeks to go before it's official opening, we take you inside the pride of Bangkok.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: It wasn't just airports in the United Kingdom and the United States that clamped down on security after the alleged terror plots. Authorities in Thailand also tightened procedures at their new airport in Bangkok, and the airport's not even open yet. Public tours were canceled, but not before BUSINESS TRAVELER went inside for a sneak preview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST (voice-over): Suvanabhumi. In Thai it means golden land. Suvanabhumi Airport is Bangkok's long awaited answer to the aging and overcrowded Don Juan. A shiny new terminal, built to handle 45 million passengers a year, and built on a former swamp, where villagers once caught Cobras. I was here seven weeks ago. I was surprised to find shops weren't built and floors weren't laid.
(on camera): It seems to me there's a lot of work still to be done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, (INAUDIBLE) is something like this, we need only two weeks. (INAUDIBLE)
QUEST: So it's just cosmetic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
QUEST (voice-over): After numerous delays Thailand has had a tough task convincing the skeptics that this time the airport will open as planned.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One hundred percent, no postponing. It's going to be opened at 3:00 on the 28th of September.
QUEST (on camera): Let me tie you down on this, will it open in a meaningful sense? I don't mean one commercial flight just to get it started, serious operations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we will close the operation at Don Juan Airport after 3:00 of 28th of September this year.
QUEST (on camera): Far from delaying the opening, Thai authorities are actually bringing it forward. Limited domestic flights will start two weeks early. This airport is one of the government's top priorities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once in a lifetime the people like me can witness the transfer of the new airport, open up the new airport, transfer it from one old one to the new one. It's once in a lifetime. You are not -- you are not viewed new airports so many times.
QUEST: Will you be very angry if things go wrong on the 28th?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I don't think it will go wrong, because we are really cautious and we were really deliberate on every step that we are doing.
QUEST: Getting an airport ready is a very complex task. You have to test just about every system, including how are you going to get people off planes in an emergency. We're very luck. We're here today for the test of the evacuation procedures.
(voice-over): Here passengers have been recruited to act as you or I would in an emergency. There's been a mid-air fire aboard engine one. The plane lands and taxis down the runway, where rescue crews race to put out the flames. They've even added the smoke.
An emergency rescue is one of the most impressive tests of a new airport, but it's the more mundane and complex functions that are crucial to get right for everyday service.
(on camera): If only all passengers were as well behaved as this, sitting quietly, waiting for their flights to be called, but, of course, we're not. These are trial passengers, with (INAUDIBLE) tickets and passports, as they try to put the new Bangkok Airport to the test.
(voice-over): In a matter of weeks it will be real passengers, with real baggage, and real flights to catch around the world. There's concern that the airport's systems aren't ready and that the airlines who will use it haven't had proper time to prepare.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it ready? We won't know. The only people who know whether or not the airport's ready would be the Air Force of Thailand, there the ones conducting the tests.
QUEST: For the prime minister it's crucial that this airport opens with some degree of success on September the 28th, because three weeks later he is due to face the voters in a general election and if he wins that election, there's another promise to keep, this time to CNN BUSINESS TRAVELER.
(on camera): (INAUDIBLE) in Singapore and Hong Kong's have both won airport of the year award.
PRIME MINISTER THAKSIN SHINAWATRA, THAILAND: Next year it's going to be Bangkok.
QUEST: Make me a promise prime minister, when you win the award, you will personally show me around.
SHINAWATRA: Yes, definitely. OK, OK, deal.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: New Bangkok tower to CNN BUSINESS TRAVELER, you are cleared to break, and when you come back, caution, turbulence from new Asian low cost carriers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People think I am crazy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: The business traveler who spent millions giving rural Thai life a five star makeover. We escape after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Welcome back to CNN BUSINESS TRAVELER, where I have reached the top of the tree. I'm in the control tower at the new airport. This is the tallest tower in the world, and, as you can see, it gives an excellent vista of the new airport.
At the moment these controllers are undergoing training and tests, but in a few weeks they will be controlling up to 76 aircraft movements every hour. And they wouldn't welcome me sitting here. Many of the planes arriving at Bangkok will be from low cost carriers. The industry is booming and if the European experience is anything to go by, the Asian low cost carriers will be the growth area for years to come.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST (voice-over): It's close to midnight and we are impatient to board our plane, that's running three hours late. This is what it's like flying low cost in Asia. With these delays it all feels very familiar.
This is Air Asia. Just five years old, it's the region's longest serving budget carrier.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They had a huge head start over anybody else. They saw the market. They took advantage of it. They were very savvy in the operations. They knew what to do.
QUEST: It didn't take long for others to follow. National carriers have joined in with their own low cost ventures, Tiger Airways from Singapore Airlines, Jet Star by Quantus. And while the airlines have been quick to adopt the low cost model, there are now 33 in Asia, passengers in the region are still catching up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: European countries and also in the U.S., there's a lot more publicity and a lot more knowledge about low cost carriers. Probably in another few years time the Asian market will probably catch up with that understanding. So the product is a little bit ahead of the market.
QUEST: It's not just the idea of budget air travel that's a new concept for Asian passengers, it goes to the very basics. For instance, buying your ticket. Many people in Thailand don't have access to the Internet or to credit cards, so Thai Airways' sister airline Noc (ph) Air tackled the problem by inventing a way people could pay through an ATM.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can get a pay card, go to the ATM machines, go to 7-11 and use that pay card and pay for discount tickets. That's the most convenience you can find.
QUEST: Asia also presents greater geographic challengers than say, the United States or Europe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are not many cities at the definition, compared to the market in Europe and in the U.S.
QUEST: Newer destinations means more competition. For Noc Air and other carriers it's not the rivals that are the greatest threat. Like any airline anywhere, it's the rising cost of fuel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Back here in Bangkok, of the 51 gates with air bridges, five have been specially designed to handle the Air Bus A-380. You can see some of the differences behind me. There are three bridges, one designed to go to the upper deck, two for the lower deck passengers.
Now let's catch up with other developments in our countdown to the Super Jumbo.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST (voice-over): The lines were long, the passengers eager, but then this was no ordinary European flight. More than 400 Air Bus staff joined cabin experts to test the A-380 at near full capacity.
They took a seven hour tour of Europe, under strict instructions to test everything they could. It's the last time you will see the Super Jumbo's interior looking quite like this because each airline has a different look and configuration.
Singapore Airlines, the first to fly the 380, will unveil its cabin design next month. Air Bus says the flight was a success.
Back in the office there was yet more change. In his first major move as chief executive Christian Strife (ph) removed Charles Champion as head of the A-380 program. He's been replaced by Mario Heiman, an Air Bus executive, better known for managing Air Bus' single isle jets.
We'll bring you more next month as we count down to the Super Jumbo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Now then, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to realize I am about to enjoy a Thai barbecue. The best part about this, maybe, isn't the food, but that it comes at the end of a perfect day in the islands, a wonderful way to escape.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST (voice-over): If you want to see these residents of (INAUDIBLE) you have to get up early. This particular Thai island is usually known for backpackers, not business travelers. (INAUDIBLE), himself a business traveler, saw an opportunity to build a five star resort and base it on a rural Thai village.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People think I am crazy because, you know, I am doing just 52 (INAUDIBLE) of Thai simple hut on the (INAUDIBLE) and it cost me 12 million U.S. dollars.
QUEST: Now, 12 million U.S. dollars buys you a lot of rustic luxury. The huts are hidden behind rows of Vivolla (ph) plants, from which the resort takes it's name. They don't provide complete privacy yet, but then the resort has only been opened since December and that's caused a few teething problems. Both the electricity and the water are known to have failed. Vivolla may be based on a Thai village, but when I walked down the beach, I saw the real thing.
The sea gypsy villagers have lived here for generations. Life on the island really is a world away from the pressures of the office, (INAUDIBLE) and those endless e-mails.
Dawn eventually brings dusk and an evening feast, pillow on the beach, sea food caught in the local sea, and something to drink. I can escape.
If you've been anywhere interesting, send us a postcard, Quest@CNN.com.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Escaping on the Islands of Thailand. Now, I had better make the most of this empty airport before the other 45 million passengers come to join me. Because that's CNN BUSINESS TRAVELER for this month. I'm Richard Quest, reporting from B.K.K, the same letters, but a new airport. Wherever your travels may take you, I hope it's profitable, and I'll see you next month.
Where are the planes? Where are the planes? END
TO ORDER VIDEOTAPES AND TRANSCRIPTS OF CNN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE THE SECURE ONLINE ORDER FROM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
