Aviation to expand from growing economy: Aerothai

 

BANGKOK, 29 November 2017 (NNT) – Thailand's aviation sector is expected to expand in 2018 thanks to a growing economy, Aeronautical Radio of Thailand (Aerothai) President Sarinee Saangprasit said. 

She said flight arrivals and departures to and from Thailand next year are projected to grow by seven percent, with the number of flights exceeding one million due to the growing economy. 

She said many airlines are changing types of their aircraft to bigger models to increase the number of seats while Aerothai is ensuring Thailand's air traffic will be able to accommodate the increased flights over the next 20 years during which the number of flights is expected to reach 2-3 million flights each year. 

The air traffic expansion plan will be concluded in mid-2018, and will be further proposed to the Ministry of Transport and the Cabinet. 

The overall number of flights arriving in and departing from airports in Thailand in 2017 amounted to about 990,000 flights, marking a five percent increase from last year but was earlier forecast to reach nine percent. The decline was primarily due to a sluggish global economy, zero-dollar tour scams and restricted flight schedules. 

Meanwhile, Suvarnabhumi international airport is suffering from flight delays exceeding the international standard which only allows for 20 percent of all flights to be delayed due to weather conditions and runway improvement works. 

The flight delays at Chaing Mai and Phuket airports have not exceeded the global standard. 

Aerothai is now working with 130 airlines and ground operators at airports to have an advanced plan coping with the situation in which an airliner is required to hover before landing and to take care of passengers.

 

-- nnt 2017-11-29

For God sake stop pulling my leg it starting to hurt from the laughing. They can't keep lifts or escalators running, aircraft's no way or maybe I am scared of local maintenance.

Better get the work underway, on Swampy's third (and fourth !) runways, and expanding the parking-facilities at my local Chiang Mai airport, then !

 

And consider hiring/training a few more Immigration-officers, too !

I would like to see more provincial airports that can offer flights to other destinations within Thailand besides Bangkok . It seems that all flights must start from Bangkok . 

4 hours ago, Ricardo said:

Better get the work underway, on Swampy's third (and fourth !) runways, and expanding the parking-facilities at my local Chiang Mai airport, then !

 

And consider hiring/training a few more Immigration-officers, too !

 

 

Here in Chiang Mai, yes there is an urgent need to expand the airports' facilities and aircraft movement capabilities and it's been said before there is plenty of room to do just that; an extra runway and many extra parking bays etc., at the existing site which is an ideal location.

 

There has been mention of a new location, some 44 kilometres from CM city.

 

One downside of an airport being so far away from the city it serves is the lack of competitiveness with high speed trains and in time there will be at least several routes up and down Thailand.

 

One earlier estimate of the time from Bkk central to CM city by high speed train was 2hrs 45 minutes. Plus the passenger can board the train 1 minute before departure, no check-in line, no waiting at the departure gate etc., and on arrival close to the city centre again no waiting time for luggage because on most high speed trains the passenger puts their own big luggage into the racks installed on every carriage, so no waiting time to collect luggage.

 

Overall the total time is better than the total overall time for a flight. Then having to travel 44 K from airport to city means the total time is way better by using the high sped train.  

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Aerothai is now working with 130 airlines and ground operators at airports to have an advanced plan coping with the situation in which an airliner is required to hover before landing and to take care of passengers.

"airliner required to hover before landing"

That's going to be a tall order there.

22 minutes ago, scorecard said:

Here in Chiang Mai, yes there is an urgent need to expand the airports' facilities and aircraft movement capabilities and it's been said before there is plenty of room to do just that; an extra runway and many extra parking bays etc., at the existing site which is an ideal location.

Ditto all you said for Don Muang airport. 

3 hours ago, scorecard said:

Here in Chiang Mai, yes there is an urgent need to expand the airports' facilities and aircraft movement capabilities and it's been said before there is plenty of room to do just that; an extra runway and many extra parking bays etc., at the existing site which is an ideal location.

 

Even with just the one runway, the existing airport could probably cope with 30+ million passengers per-year, although I wouldn't want to live under the flightpaths then, there's loads of space where the Wing-41 RTAF-base currently sits and there's more where the current small cargo-building/area is located.

 

So no need to rush for a new out-of-town location, it will be a long time before CNX is anywhere near to full-capacity, which must come as a disappointment to all the owners of land over at Sankampaeng.  Then again, perhaps commercial-logic isn't the only factor, driving that decision ?

 

3 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

There has been mention of a new location, some 44 kilometres from CM city.

 

One downside of an airport being so far away from the city it serves is the lack of competitiveness with high speed trains and in time there will be at least several routes up and down Thailand.

 

One earlier estimate of the time from Bkk central to CM city by high speed train was 2hrs 45 minutes. Plus the passenger can board the train 1 minute before departure, no check-in line, no waiting at the departure gate etc., and on arrival close to the city centre again no waiting time for luggage because on most high speed trains the passenger puts their own big luggage into the racks installed on every carriage, so no waiting time to collect luggage.

 

Overall the total time is better than the total overall time for a flight. Then having to travel 44 K from airport to city means the total time is way better by using the high sped train.  

 

The nice thing about planes is that, if there's the demand for a bit more capacity, it's very easy to lay-on an extra flight for the route-required & the few months of high-demand. And then to switch the plane back to other routes again.  The capital-investment is flexible about where & when it's applied.

 

Whereas building a high-speed railway-line is a long-term, and very fixed, investment.  Especially through the mountainous country of North-West Thailand.  Will the demand from Bangkok's new Ban Sue terminal to Chiang Mai ever be sufficient, and will they pay a high-enough fare, to justify such a link ? Flights currently start at under-B1k each-way.

 

Or will the demand be for a branch off the eventually-planned second medium-speed mostly-heavy-freight Chinese-line, with most of the passengers originating from up there, coming down to Thailand for their package-holidays ?  There has certainly been high growth in air-traffic from China in recent years, but those flights are from several originating-cities, not just from/via Kunming.

 

Interesting, as always, to watch & to speculate.