Bangkok Suvarnabhumi is plagged by undercapacity almost since it opened its doors in 2006. Expansion plans have been aired already in 2010 but so far, nothing happened at the airport. With the military junta now asking Airports of Thailand to revise expansion costs, further delay in the airport’s expansion seems unavoidable…
BANGKOK – Four years ago, the then-President of Airports of Thailand (AOT) unveiled to the media the future expansion plan of Suvarnabhumi Airport. A satellite was due to be constructed and finished by 2015, then by 2016. It would bring instantly an additional capacity for 15 million passengers. Time has passed and Bangkok Suvarnabhumi accommodates now 51 million passengers, six million more than its initial capacity of 45 million passengers.
But ten days ago, the Military Junta found that the airport was spending to much on its expansion and on a new screening system. During a meeting with journalist, news agencies reported that AOT President Makin Petplai explained that the National Council for Peace and Order‘s committee on the examination of government spending has told AOT to review the cost of its second-phase Suvarnabhumi Airport expansion project.
AOT is now forced to revise its copy and decided to postpone for now the expansion plan of Suvarnabhumi. However, expansion capacity at Don Mueang Airport, now Bangkok main gateway for low cost airlines including AirAsia, will go as scheduled. Until next year, the capacity of Don Mueang will be back to 30 million passengers a year, as it used to be prior to the opening of Suvarnabhumi. This year Don Mueang should accommodate 18 million passengers.
Following this, AOT postponed the project although it was in the process of finding a construction supervisor and staging a bidding contest. Suvarnabhumi Airport needs urgently to expand if it wants to preserve its leadership as a top Southeast Asian airport. But as usual, politics are melting down with the project and at this speed, the completion of the second phase of Suvarnabhumi might not turn a reality before 2019 at best…
The AOT president projected that the number of air passengers at Thai airports under AOT’s supervision should grow by 2-3 per cent this year, compared with 9.5 per cent last year, while that at other airports in Asia Pacific should increase by 6.5 per cent on average.
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.
