Scrapping the airport city check in at Makassan Station in Bangkok?

BANGKOK – With the opening of the Airport City Terminal at Makassan station back to 2010, authorities wanted to show that Bangkok was also offering a world class service similar to existing facilities at other Asian metropolis. In Asia, Hong Kong offers the best service with most airlines proposing check-in luggage to their passengers at Airport City Terminals in both Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Singapore Airlines has a dedicated check in facility at Orchard Road while Kuala Lumpur and Seoul have also check-in facilities for some airlines. Bangkok was due to be the next one. Except that the service never really took off.
 

According to the board chairman of the State Railway of Thailand, Chamroon Tangpaisalkit, only 200 passengers use the service of check in their luggage at Makassan Station each month. Which translates into an average of only seven bags being registered per day! The SRT now is mulling out the option of suspending the service, deemed as expensive, due to the low demand. Only two airlines started to offer the service a few years ago, Thai Airways International and Bangkok Airways. But today only Thai Airways International continues to provide this facility to its passengers. 
 

Why is Bangkok failing where other Asian cities have been successful. Once more, it all hangs to the way infrastructure developed in Thailand. The Airport City Station at Makassan is anything but convenient. It is relatively away from the main business areas of Sukhumvit or Silom. The access to the station by public transport has been terrible until last year, when finally a direct connecting bridge was opened between the nearby MRT station and the train station. While they are plenty of taxis in the area, they generally do not wait for clients at the station itself as demand is insufficient. Then of course, there has been a total lack of communication about the proposed service. 
 

SRT has reviewed the operation cost for the airline check in service and will now look with Airports of Thailand at ways to improve the use of Makassan facilities. A decision will then be taken ultimately to maintain or not the service. Makassan with its huge facilities has all chances to become a white elephant…