Suvarnabhumi expansion due 2017

April 17, 2013 by Wanwisa Ngamsangchaikit  
Filed under Aviation, News

 

BANGKOK, 17 April 2013: Airports of Thailand says the second phase of Suvarnabhumi Airport will go ahead and should be completed by 2017, but will it be enough to keep pace with passenger traffic?
AoT officials privately say no, realising past political strife and delays in securing funds for the second and third phases make it almost impossible to catch up with passenger traffic increases.
According to local news reports, AoT board chairman, Sita Divari, said political instabilities as well as other issues delayed the start of the second expansion phase at Suvarnabhumi airport.
“It is already 2013 and we have not started construction of phase two, so we need to fast-track plans to properly cater to the increase in traffic.”
The country’s main international airport has the capacity to comfortably accommodate 45 million passengers a year, but it is already handling 51 million passengers. By the end of the year it could easily reach 55 million and 60 million in 2014, causing considerable inconvenience to passengers and delays in aircraft movements.
The earliest the second phase can open is late 2017 if nothing hinders construction. Even if the second phase was ready it would only increase handling capacity by another 15 million passengers to reach a total 60 million. AoT is chasing the tail of a travel boom and the chances of getting ahead of the capacity curve are now remote.
It would take a third phase of expansion right now to jump ahead of capacity trends  and that phase is only at the blueprint stage  waiting for an environmental impact assessment before it can move to the next level of planning.
AoT has been slow to recognise it needs to urgently develop and provide attractive incentives to get airlines to move to other airports. Chiang Mai could be a hub for European and Chinese bound flights.
As long as the country is bound to a single airport gateway policy it will not be able to fully diversify the benefits of tourism across the country. Phuket and Chiang Mai are the  two most obvious secondary gateways that could be developed to relieve pressure on the Bangkok gateway.
To some degree it is already happening in Phuket driven by commercial demand. It will take a little more planning and persuasion to build a similar hub in Chiang Mai.
In the long-term, Thailand needs three to four strategically placed international airports across the country to meet both inbound travel demand and fast growing outbound travel and cargo markets. To serve local demand, airports in the provinces need international services to points in Asia especially ASEAN cities following the adoption of the  AEC in 2015. This will allow trade to expand within the community between secondary cities directly without incurring the additional transport costs of routing exports and passengers through Bangkok.
The bid to open Don Mueang Airport to all international airlines rather than limiting it to those that offer just point-to-point services, could take some of the heat off Suvarnabhumi Airport, but to be successful the airport rail link has to be extended to Don Mueang. The two airports are 50 km apart.
The AoT board chairman said: “We have drafted plans to build a train system connecting Don Mueang Airport to the Makkasan’s Airport Link Station, which connects to Suvarnabhumi Airport. Makkasan will act as a main hub connecting to both airports.”
Airports of Thailand kick started its second development phase at Suvarnabhumi Airport, last year, signing a project management contract identifying a construction start date in 2015 with the project due for completion in 2017.
AoT signed off on a project management contract worth Bt809 million with EPM Consortium to supervise the second phase project from 1 June 2012 to 31 March 2018.
The second phase comprises of a 216,000 sqm satellite terminal with 28 aerobridges and aprons; a tunnel and mass transport system connecting the main and the satellite buildings; eastward extension of the main terminal; airline offices and parking buildings and supporting infrastructure.
Once completed, the handling capacity at the airport will be raised to 60 million passengers a year, from the present 45 million. The overall investment covers Bt62.5 billion including the Bt809.9 million management contract. The airport authority said around 80% would come from AoT’s cash flow, while around 20% would be covered by loans from Thai banks.
In the master plan, Suvarnabhumi Airport has five development phases that will ultimately give it a capacity of 120 million passengers a year and four runways.
The third runway is not in the second phase plan, but it is under environmental impact assessment. Once the project passes the EIA, AoT could proceed with that as a separate project to the second phase development.