Thailand to double airport capacity, surpassing Singapore's Changi

Airport high-speed railway could draw China-Japan investment, says minister

YUKAKO ONO, Nikkei staff writer

 

BANGKOK -- Thailand is embarking on a building spree that promises to more than double the passenger capacity of airports in and around Bangkok, propelling the Thai capital past regional hub Singapore by that measure.

 

In an interview with the Nikkei Asian Review on Thursday, Thai Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said the new U-Tapao airport, a former military air base southeast of Bangkok, will handle up to 60 million passengers a year once it is fully renovated into a civil airport. The entire transformation is expected to take 20 years.

 

Currently, the airport accommodates around 300,000 passengers a year, mostly tourists on chartered flights to and from China and Russia. 

 

Full story: https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Interview/Thailand-to-double-airport-capacity-surpassing-Singapore-s-Changi

 

-- NIKKEI ASIAN REVIEW 2018-2018-09-17

Hopefully they will employ some extra immigration officers, to avoid the disgraceful queues at most of the country's airports. Changi at any time of day, you are through in minutes. Here an hour, sometimes two or more are way too regular, which is a shitty way to arrive in a country, especially if you have flown long haul.

One wonders why they didn't build an airport with double the capacity in the first place, instead of building swampy Suvarnabhumi, which reached its designed capacity within half a dozen years, 

Just now, Aj Mick said:

One wonders why they didn't build an airport with double the capacity in the first place, instead of building swampy Suvarnabhumi, which reached its designed capacity within half a dozen years, 

When Swampy was first proposed it was designed to be a lot larger that Don Muang to to accommodate foreseen expansion in the industry at the time and give DM back to the air force.

Unfortunately it took almost 20 years to get the project off the ground and the goal posts had well and truly moved in that time. As a result DM has to be reopened and then upgraded to meet "unforeseen" demand.

23 minutes ago, webfact said:

The entire transformation is expected to take 20 years.

20 years is a meaningless promise in Thailand where even 90 days is no guarantee. 

 

Why does the TH government always talk about what they WILL DO instead of what they HAVE DONE?

8 minutes ago, Chang_paarp said:

When Swampy was first proposed it was designed to be a lot larger that Don Muang to to accommodate foreseen expansion in the industry at the time and give DM back to the air force.

Unfortunately it took almost 20 years to get the project off the ground and the goal posts had well and truly moved in that time. As a result DM has to be reopened and then upgraded to meet "unforeseen" demand.

To explain it another way, they can't manage or execute large projects here. Too much corruption and too much politics. Just like Swampy. 

  Thailand is embarking on a building spree?

Surely the correct headline should have been..... Thailand embarking on a corruption spree that will guarantee lots of money for those in the right place.  

1 hour ago, darksidedog said:

Hopefully they will employ some extra immigration officers, to avoid the disgraceful queues at most of the country's airports. Changi at any time of day, you are through in minutes. Here an hour, sometimes two or more are way too regular, which is a shitty way to arrive in a country, especially if you have flown long haul.

Exactly...

The most popular destination and overloaded capacity, yet they've done nothing to improve on the usual problems that multiply - for years.

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Thailand to double airport capacity, surpassing Singapore's Changi

 

Today's release of hot air can be attributed to.......

 

Envy........Changi's Jewel Opening Soon

1 hour ago, webfact said:

 . . . it will handle up to 60 million passengers a year once it is fully renovated into a civil airport.'

60M passengers? That's the present total - i.e. domestic and international - capacity of Swampy. And they say 'the transformation is expected to take 20 years' . . . in other words, the fact that, in only five or ten years, hardly anything will have improved at U-Tapao can be put down to this ridiculously long time-scale. They've done the maths, they've calculated that they want to make U-Tapao 200 times more capable than it is now. All they need to do, having made these grandiose noises, is design it, award construction contracts and build the damn thing . . . 5 years, tops. Just more electioneering hot air if you ask me.

3 hours ago, Aj Mick said:

One wonders why they didn't build an airport with double the capacity in the first place, instead of building swampy Suvarnabhumi, which reached its designed capacity within half a dozen years, 

There are of course always the issues of available funds and what the planning parameters tell us - at the time - about future trends. In this instance at least, the Thais are no different from anywhere else in the world - other than the Chinese.

 

On the latter, I have been in 2010 in a railway station in central China - it was brand new & huge, with hardly a train to be seen besides my one. I asked why so huge for a small city. The officials smiled and said: In 10 years there will be 10 million people living here.

A couple of troll posts have been removed from this thread.

Dont forget the holding areas for all those queues at the immigration and the taxi bay on arrival, will you! 

4 hours ago, Aj Mick said:

One wonders why they didn't build an airport with double the capacity in the first place, instead of building swampy Suvarnabhumi, which reached its designed capacity within half a dozen years, 

$$$$$$$££££££££¥¥¥¥¥¥??????

Edited September 17, 20187 yr by overherebc

Needs to be hundreds more "special" immigration desks/facilities....all working 100% on the system country wide.

If the system fails, it would be a nightmare for all......and then they won't know who's in the country!

5 hours ago, Aj Mick said:

One wonders why they didn't build an airport with double the capacity in the first place, instead of building swampy Suvarnabhumi, which reached its designed capacity within half a dozen years, 

 

 

The answer is that it was first planned in 1973 and they took decades to get around to building it. Updating the capacity obviously never occurred to them, as within a very short space of time they had to beg airlines to return to the old airport as they 'no hab loom' for all the people at the new one. Now the old one is also overcrowded. So much for forward planning. Now, 20 years from now, there will be a third 'Bangkok' airport.

No point in saying capacity will exceed Singapore as they probably haven't even checked to see what number Singapore expects 20 years from now.

Regime will be gone soon. THE China sell out will be stopped. Fake news and soldiers removed back to barracks. END

5 hours ago, darksidedog said:

Hopefully they will employ some extra immigration officers, to avoid the disgraceful queues at most of the country's airports. Changi at any time of day, you are through in minutes. Here an hour, sometimes two or more are way too regular, which is a shitty way to arrive in a country, especially if you have flown long haul.

They will do nothing 

I like changi you have the light rail and dont have to walk kilometers with small children and lugauge, it has a good atmosphere and plenty to do like the free movie theatre etc.  Bangkok is drab, have to walk miles and even have to get a bus to the actual plane

6 hours ago, Fex Bluse said:

To explain it another way, they can't manage or execute large projects here. Too much corruption and too much politics. Just like Swampy. 

There is some truth to this.  The fact is, Asian cultures in general suffer the side effects of the status system.  In a Western culture, where individuality is regarded highly, it is less likely that a superior will prevent the expression of others' ideas via an autocratic management style.  In collectivist societies, however, innovation is repressed by the higher value of respect of one's superiors--a value which takes precedence over the expression of one's own ideas in order to save face, both for the superior and for oneself.  In the end, any organization where essentially one mind, the one at the top, controls everything, cannot well compete against an organization where many minds work collaboratively.

I hope u-tapao will have connecting flight to SG. Probably quicker to board there, fly to SG and transit than trying to get to swampy and through the immigration there.

Wonderful. Of course, it goes without saying that longcuts would get in the way of progress, so everything will be shortcut. 

More Bullshit to baffle what few brains are out there !

Build another airport to bring in more passengers to an already capacity filled city with little or no expansion to infrastructure or mass transit system.. Just shoe horn in the money.!

Having read all posts so far I can confirm that every single one is negative.

 

I passed through Suvarnabhumi last week in both directions - less than 20 minutes through pp control leaving, less than 30 minutes returning. Seems ok to me.

 

I did notice that farangs were under 5% of the travellers in the airport. And if this thread is an indication of farang opinion in Thailand, I can only hope that the %age will decrease even further in the future.

Edited September 17, 20187 yr by My Thai Life

3 minutes ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

Personal anecdotes are a waste of time here. 

Personal anecdotes have been a major part of this thread, or did you close your eyes to the others because they fitted your prejudices?

 

But if you don't like my anecdote, how about this: "US and Europe air traffic surpassed by China & Asia-Pacific"

 

http://www.asiaone.com/travel/us-and-europe-air-traffic-surpassed-china-asia-pacific-changis-gain

 

Also confrmed on the IATA website.

 

So, Thailand is planning accordingly... and still the farangs complain. Gives them something to do I suppose.

 

 

41 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Build another airport to bring in more passengers to an already capacity filled city with little or no expansion to infrastructure or mass transit system.. Just shoe horn in the money.!

I've heard they're planning on sticking an extra hundred floors on the Baiyoke Sky Tower. Well, if there's no room, sideways . . . all these extra bodies will have to sleep somewhere. Like I said earlier . . . just more electioneering hot air.

Quality comes to mind not Quantity.   

Agree chainrong. Quantity but not quality when operational performance and customer experience in particular are taken into account.

While I would agree that Thailand's airport expansion is necessary and the high speed train will help-  where is any planning for job creation in Issan?   While incomes continue to rise along with an expanding middle class in Bangkok; Samut Prakan; Chonburi and Rayong-  there is not much work in Issan other than farming and even that is diminishing with the use of tractors and automation.

 

Thailand's economy is expanding but there is not an even distribution of the wealth.  Thailand appears to be emulating Europe and America which has seen uneven prosperity.

 

I would hope that Thailand comes up with a 20 year plan and an Issan Economic Corridor or the country is going to have huge disparity; lack of opportunity as their youth move into adulthood and expanded crime. There is not enough social planning; everything continues to be about money and foreign investment but that money and investment remains entrenched in the already wealthy.