Thailand’s National Council for Peace and
Order (NCPO) suspended plans earlier this week for an expansion of Bangkok’s
popular Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Mekhanin
Petchplai, a managing director of Airports of Thailand, said an NCPO panel on
public spending “advised the airport authorities to ‘reconsider’ the plan and
make it more transparent,” according to Khaosod.
Lt Gen
Anantaporn Kanchanarat, head of the committee, said “the estimated 60 billion
baht project was too expensive, despite the upgrade being necessary,” according
to the Bangkok
Post.
Though
more oversight and transparency on public spending on the expansion may be a
good thing, the airport already operates beyond its capacity and an expansion
would ease the burden. Fifty-one million passengers use the airport each year,
though the airport was built to accommodate 45 million.
“We are
willing to comply with every policy of NCPO. If they want us to adjust the
plan, we are willing to do so,” Khaosod quoted Mekhanin as saying. He also said
he will move the expansion along to be completed in 2015, allowing the airport
to increase its capacity to 60 million passengers.
Channel
News Asia reported that despite the suspension on the Suvarnabhumi
expansion, Airports of Thailand (AOT) will go ahead with plans to increase the
capacity at Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport. Suvarnabhumi primarily handles
international flights, while Don Mueang serves domestic and regional carriers
such as Nok Air and Air Asia. Anyone who has ever spent a few hours in DMK has
likely experienced heavy crowds and a decidedly less comfortable experience
than at Suvarnabhumi (though the service is efficient). Improvements at the
airport will allow DMK to better handle the “soaring number of air passengers”
traveling through there. DMK “is expected to serve 18 million passengers this year
and its improvement should then raise its capacity to more than 30 million
passengers annually,” Mekhanin said, according to Channel News Asia.
An
upgrade to DMK’s Terminal 2 is scheduled to be completed this October, the
Bangkok Post reported, which should allow for a passenger increase from 18
million to 30 million.
Mekhanin
did note that numbers are down for air passengers traveling through Thailand,
likely due to the volatile political situation. Khaosod said Mekhanin “expected
that growth in the number of visitors to Thai airport would only stand at 2-3%
by the end of 2014, which is far lower than the 9% rise from last year, as well
as the 6.5% growth enjoyed by other airports in the Asia-Pacific region this
year.” The Bangkok Post noted that several Thai airports saw a dip in passenger
numbers this year, due to an earthquake in Chiang Rai and bombings in the deep
south.
That
paper also quoted Mekhanin as saying 1.3 billion baht from the 2015 budget will
be used to upgrade a number of popular airports and better equip staff to “cope
with the increasing risks posed by terrorism, natural disasters and contagious
diseases.” For instance, contingency plans for tsunamis and earthquakes will be
worked out for Phuket and Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, respectively.
In
other Thailand travel news, Bangkok fell from its spot as Travel + Leisure
Magazine’s number one city to visit in the world. Bangkok didn’t even rank in
the top 10 worldwide on the 2014
list, though it came in at number three on the list of top cities in Asia.
Kyoto took over the number one spot on both lists, and Siem Reap came in fourth
in the world. Three mainland Chinese cities and Hong Kong made the Asia list,
as did Singapore, Hanoi, Tokyo, and of course Siem Reap and Kyoto.
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