Chotisak Aspaviriya, president of Airports of Thailand Plc (AOT), the company that manages the recently opened Suvarnabhumi Airport, still looked red-eyed one afternoon last week when he was about to give a press interview.

"I've been deprived of sleep for several consecutive nights since the airport's opening on September 28. For the past one week, I've only been able to get about four hours of sleep each night. I go to bed at around one in the morning, after things start to slow down, and get up around five since the peak air traffic here starts after that. In this initial phase, I like to be on hand to help ensure that everything is all right.

"The airport hotel has been my home for a while now. My family has also moved here," said Chotisak, a former banker and restaurateur who was picked by the recently deposed Thaksin Shinawatra government to run the partly state-owned AOT in April.

The publicly traded AOT oversees all major international airports, including the US$3-billion (Bt112-billion) state-of-the-art Suvarnabhumi Airport, Thailand's newest international gateway.

"At university, I studied law. After graduation, I started my career at Bangkok Bank, at a time when Khun Chairat Kamnuan was still one of the bank's senior executives. Later, I joined Siam City Bank. Then my wife and I moved to the US, where we opened a Thai restaurant. We were over there for two or three years. As for the AOT job, I was probably the last person to have submitted an application. The contract, which started on April 3, is for four years," says Chotisak, who has no prior experience with airport management.

Still, his AOT was able to open Suvarnabhumi Airport, which has the world's largest single passenger terminal, on schedule and with only minor problems - despite the staging of a coup d'etat that overthrew the Thaksin government on Sept 19.

In the week after the airport's September 28 opening, most of the complaints centred around extensive delays in baggage recovery, problems at the check-in counter, abrupt changes of departure gates and an inadequate number of restrooms in some sections of the sprawling 500,000sqm terminal. There were also some delays in the clearance of air cargo.

"We're fixing these problems. Other than what has been reported, I think the opening has been quite okay so far. We've probably done better than the recent opening of airports in Hong Kong, Malaysia or Denver. For instance, Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok Airport had to be shut down temporarily after computer glitches and the motors in its baggage conveyor belt broke down when it opened nine years ago.

"We've learned from their experiences. As a result, I personally asked our chief engineer to order several critical spare parts worth Bt5 million-Bt6 million, especially spare motors for the baggage-handling system. We had them shipped via airfreight here just before Suvarnabhumi opened to ensure that we wouldn't have to shut down for an extended period if there were similar problems. After all, I'd like to say that we did not fail as some foreign media have suggested. I'd like all Thais and foreigners to be confident in the management of this new airport.

"As a hands-on manager, I prefer to be informed of problems promptly by my subordinates so that top management can find speedy solutions. On the opening night, I got no sleep at all. Everyone working here knew they could get me virtually around the clock. I carry four mobile phones. I just used up one phone's battery this morning," said Chotisak.

The AOT president also recalled that the first few days after the opening were hectic partly because so many Thais had shown up for sightseeing. On the first day, the number of non-passenger visitors who stopped by the airport was estimated to be as high as 100,000 people - on average, the new airport expects to serve 80,000 passengers per day, so this was quite a crowd."

With all those non-passengers wandering about the passenger terminal, there were complaints that there were not enough toilets and that some toilets did not work properly.

And those early days were also tinged with danger. Chotisak recalled that he had personally come face to face with large cobras three times since he became the president of AOT.

"On July 1, which was AOT's founding anniversary, we held a merit-making ceremony at Suvarnabhumi Airport. On my way to the site, my car had to stop abruptly in the middle of the road because there was a large cobra lying there. On another two occasions, I also saw large snakes near the airport's grounds. This area was previously called the Cobra Swamp. Afterwards, we decided to hold merit-making ceremonies every week. I believe there are sacred spirits around the place.

"In addition, we decided to build a giant teak wood spirit house after one of our subcontractors' employees became a medium during a religious ceremony and claimed that a spirit had asked that we build the house," he said.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

nop1122@yahoo.com