Despite to be only six years old, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport is suffering of increasing congestion. Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is now asking to review the masterplan to speed up expansion…
BANGKOK- Thailand’s capital airports are struggling to cope with strong increases in passengers’ traffic, showing that planning at the time of Suvarnabhumi airport’s construction was far below the expected needs. Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport, which opened with much fanfare in September 2006 was designed from day 1 to accommodate a traffic of 42 to 45 million passengers a year at a time when old Don Mueang airport was already flirting with 40 million passengers a year. From January to September 2012, traffic grew at the airport by 12.5% reaching already 40.5 million passengers. On a year to year basis, traffic over the last 12 months reached 52.36 million, an absolute record. The six-year old airport starts in fact to show that it cannot cope anymore with the growth: queues are everywhere from check-in to security and to immigration counters.
The deterioration of travel conditions request now urgent expansion measures. Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has then ordered a review of the Suvarnabhumi airport expansion plan to make sure it keeps up with an increase in passenger numbers. According to Thailand’s Ministry of Transport, the review of the plan will focus on expansion phases 3 and 4 which might already be outdated, as they were drawn a decade ago. The airport must now look at the possible numbers of passengers to be accommodated over the next decade. The airport is likely to see over 70 million passengers passing through its doors by then, far more than the next expansion phase which foresees to boost capacity to 65 million passengers. Any further expansion at the airport will then request to look at higher number in a range to 90 to 100 million to be sure that Suvarnabhumi will have sufficient capacity ahead and can anticipate any further growth. The Ministry of Transport will hold a workshop on Oct 29 to get input from all agencies concerned, including the airline and tourism industries.
The Ministry would like also to see Airports of Thailand (AOT) to study development plans for other international airports such as Chiang Mai and Phuket. Revised planning could be completed by early next year.
To anticipate high growth during the coming peak season, Somchai Sawasdeepon, Suvarnabhumi airport director, said that improvements will be done at immigration counters. Immigration officers will be increased to 200 and electronic machines added to speed up the process. AOT hopes also that more airlines will move to Don Mueang airport, following its reopening on October 1st to accommodate international traffic. Don Mueang airport can for now serve up to 16 million passengers a year and once Terminal 2 is reopened 25 million passengers. From January to September 2012, the old airport accommodates 2.5 million passengers prior to AirAsia move. It is now expected to see up to 12 million passengers in 2013…
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.
