“International” will soon grace again Bangkok Don Muang airport! And as soon as by next month (most probably), following a reverted decision from the Thai government…
BANGKOK- This is one of the usual u-turns that any Thai governments is so fond of. On Monday afternoon, a cabinet decision from Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra confirmed the reopening of Bangkok old airport in Don Muang to low cost airlines, including the ones serving international destinations. The decision was taken as Bangkok’s current prime airport at Suvarnabhumi is suffering from increasing congestion. Built to accommodate 42 million passengers a year, Suvarnabhumi received in financial year 2011/12 close to 48 million passengers. And it is likely to pass the 50 million mark in 2012. Expansion work started at the airport a month ago. But due to the delayed launch of this expansion –originally planned in 2010, additional space to accommodate growth at Suvarnabhumi is unlikely to be available before 2016 or 2017.
Reopening again Don Muang to international traffic reverts a decision from the precedent government to turn Bangkok former airport into a centre for aviation activities and exhibition area. It was indeed a weird idea. The airport with a capacity for over 30 million passengers stayed to 80% unused since the official opening of Suvarnabhumi in September 2006. In financial year 2011/12, Don Muang accommodated close to four million passengers, 98% of them on domestic flights from budget carriers Nok Air and Orient Thai. Now it seems that the AirAsia group might emigrate again to Don Muang, a request the airline had in 2005 already! Thai AirAsia (TAA) accommodated some 7.2 million passengers in 2011 and is expecting to transport over 8 million travellers this year. By adding also AirAsia Bhd (Malaysia) and Indonesia AirAsia, the number is close to 9.5 to 10 million passengers annually. A transfer would definitely bring some relief to Suvarnabhumi at least for three years…
The transfer has not been officially confirmed by TAA yet. But a press conference is due to come next week… And according to internal sources at Don Muang, TAA could possible start to operate at Don Muang from July. Currently both Nok Air and Orient Thai use Terminal 1 which has a total capacity of handling 14.5 million passengers a year. More should be then known by next week.
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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.
