Some airlines against transfer of international flights to Don Mueang
November 26th, 2007 by admin
Some airlines against transfer of international flights to Don Mueang
BANGKOK: — Senior executives of some airline companies have voiced their objection to transferring selected international flights from Suvarnabhumi Airport to the former international gateway of Don Mueang airport now being used for domestic flights.
They cited possibly higher operational costs, while transportation between the two airports was still a hassle
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
3 Responses to “Some airlines against transfer of international flights to Don Mueang”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Airports of Thailand wants to use the abandoned Don Muang airport for international flights to help serve Bangkok passenger traffic and delay the expansion of Suvarnabhumi airport.
The idea has been opposed, however, by the agencies involved, which insist that the AoT use only Suvarnabhumi for the sake of transport convenience.
AoT adviser Passakorn Suwankanit said Suvarnabhumi airport would reach its full capacity of 45 million passengers a year in 2009 even if Don Muang airport served all domestic flights.
In his opinion, even though Suvarnabhumi could be expanded under its second- and third-phase development, traffic would reach saturation point by 2015.
“The best way out is to use Don Muang as the airport for both domestic and international flights of low-cost airlines.
“This will enable us to delay the expansion of Suvarnabhumi airport for five years,” Mr Passakorn said at a workshop attended by AoT executives and airlines’ representatives. He expects the traffic of low-cost airlines to grow by 20-30 per cent annually.
Today, Don Muang airport serves only the domestic flights of Thai Airways International (THAI), One-Two-Go and Nok Air. They voluntarily returned to Don Muang to help relieve congestion at Suvarnabhumi which is operated with one passenger terminal at its northern part and two runways.
Unless more flights are removed to Don Muang, Suvarnabhumi airport will need its third and fourth runways and another passenger terminal in the next five years and that would mean that construction work has to begin at once, Mr Passakorn said.
AoT vice president Kulya Pakakrong said AoT had only 14 billion baht in cash and was about to pay 10 billion baht for extra work done before the opening of Suvarnabhumi airport last year.
Development of the 120 billion baht Suvarnabhumi airport resulted in an annual interest burden of two billion baht to AoT. The airport’s expansion would cost AoT about 67 billion baht.
If the work had to start right away, AoT would have to take out loans for the total amount and that would raise its annual interest burden to about six billion baht, she said.
Kannika Khemawuthanont, deputy director-general of the Civil Aviation Department, insisted that using only Suvarnabhumi airport for Bangkok would be more convenient for passengers on connecting flights and cargo transport and that would enable airlines to save on costs.
She suggested AoT improve its management to maximise the use of Suvarnabhumi without having to depend on Don Muang.
She said AoT had proven that it was able to do so in the case of Don Muang while the construction of Suvarnabhumi airport was under way.
Efficient management could boost Don Muang’s actual capacity to 38 million passengers annually compared to the original capacity that stood at 33 million passengers, she said.
Mrs Kannika also said the use of both Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi causes difficulties in air traffic control because the two facilities are too close to each other.
Chokechai Panyayong, asset management director of THAI, agreed that AoT could improve its management to increase the actual capacity of the existing facilities at Suvarnabhumi airport without having to use Don Muang.
He said only 30 per cent of the passengers using Suvarnabhumi airport were in transit, while the proportion at Changi airport in Singapore was 70 per cent.
The figure reflected problems at Suvarnabhumi, he said.
With improved management, AoT could delay expansion at Suvarnabhumi airport until it was really ready, he said.
Should Bangkok have the luxury of two international airports, or should it stick to a single airport system?
The issue has cropped up once in a while now that Don Mueang Airport has been reopened for domestic flights.
Some are lobbying for Don Mueang to handle international flights also and complement Suvarnabhumi. Airports of Thailand (AOT) is in favour of operating two international airports.
But Kannikar Kemavuthanon, deputy director-general of the Commercial Aviation Department, insists authorities still have strong conviction in the single airport system.
“This is the policy that we have been affirming all along because it would be convenient to passengers and strengthen the operation of airlines, which are now forming alliances to improve their services,” she said.
For instance, if a passenger travels from Europe to Bangkok and would like to take a reconnecting flight to Vietnam, he can do so without any problem by flying the same airline or through one of the airlines that is part of the alliance. But if Don Mueang becomes another international airport and the passenger is required to commute to Suvarnabhumi to board the aircraft, he would be put to great inconvenience because the current transport system between the two airports is poor.
Moreover, Kannikar said the dual international airport system would push up the cargo-handling costs of airline companies and cargo agents because they would need to transfer cargo from one airport to the other. Security measures would also become a major problem.
Assistant Professor Anukal Isarasena na Ayutthaya, director of transport study at Chulalongkorn University, said the dual international airport system could only work if there were an efficient transport system between the two airports so that both cargo and passengers could be transferred within 30 minutes.
“Since we need to compete with other regional airports, we have to give priority to providing convenience to passengers. Connecting flights must be efficient and not time-consuming,” he said. “Besides, Suvarnabhumi is ideal to become a transit airport.”
The AOT, however, sees benefits in operating the dual international airport system.
About 14 years ago, the AOT hired General Engineering as consultant to study the airport master plan. It wanted to know how it could maximise the benefits of having two airports.
Suvarnabhumi was originally envisaged as the primary airport, which would provide services to all airlines with dense intercontinental and regional markets. It would handle some domestic trunk routes such as Bangkok-Chiang Mai, or Bangkok-Phuket.
Don Mueang, on the other hand, was to become the secondary airport, for international routes without connecting flights, as well as domestic flights, charter flights and general aviation. In the AOT’s perception, reopening Don Mueang Airport to international services would save it an estimated Bt67-billion investment in Phase II at Suvarnabhumi. Phase II involves construction of the third runway, passenger terminals and additional docking areas.
Suvarnabhumi is presently built to handle 45 million passengers a year. Its runways can handle 78 flights an hour. This capacity will be achieved over the next two years. Without expansion, Suvarnabhumi would suffer from congestion and flight delays.
If the authorities decide on the single airport system, Phase II and Phase III investment must begin concurrently because, over the next four years, the number of passengers at Suvarnabhumi is expected to reach 60 million a year.
But Kannikar argues that the AOT should improve its efficiency to raise productivity. Don Mueang used to face a similar problem. It was capable of handling only 33 million passengers a year, but increased efficiency raised its capacity to 39 million.
“The government has already sent a clear signal to the international community that it would pursue a single airport system. To change its mind after one year, and reconsider the dual airport system, I think, will lead to confusion and a loss of confidence among the international community,” she said.
Airlines are united in vigorously opposing a proposal to shift a significant amount of commercial air traffic back to Don Mueang airport.
The Board of Airlines’ Representatives in Thailand (BAR) issued a strong statement yesterday as authorities considered a plan to transfer domestic and low-cost carrier (LCC) flights _ including international routes _ to the old airport, which currently serves only non-connecting domestic flights.
”We fiercely opposed to the idea,” said Brian Sinclair-Thompson, the head of the industry group representing 64 international carriers operating through Thailand.
On Monday, the Thai Airways International union threatened to take action if the government insisted on opening the 93-year-old airport for international flights now serviced by Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Transport authorities and Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT), which operates Thailand’s six major airports, are pushing the idea to shift flights to Don Mueang to ease pressure on Suvarnabhumi, which is operating near its capacity of 45 million passengers barely one year after opening.
Having spent billions of baht to establish a presence at the new site, the airline industry is advocating Suvarnabhumi as Bangkok’s sole airport.Airlines, especially full-service carriers, are also concerned that by allowing certain LCCs to operate through Don Mueang, they would have an unfair cost advantage and gain other benefits.
”We want to know how would [the authorities] define who is going back to Don Mueang and what timeframe,” said Mr Sinclair-Thompson, adding that more and more LCCs were moving toward the legacy airline model in terms of distribution and carrying cargo.
The BAR head said Thailand has no option but to pursue the expansion of Suvarnabhumi through building a mid-field terminal and a third runway to increase capacity to 60 million passengers a year.
Mr Sinclair-Thompson suggested that authorities consider private investment as a way to pay for the Suvarnabhumi expansion. This approach was successfully implemented at Germany’s Munich Airport with Lufthansa as a key partner.
Bangkok is losing out to others in the region in attracting foreign visitors, Mr Sinclair-Thompson said.
”The average visitor arrival growth to Asia in the year to date is about 12.5%, but Thailand lags behind at 3%, so my concern is that if we don’t get [Suvarnabhumi] to work efficiently as soon as possible, it is going to affect tourism proceeds.”