Airbus pulls out of U-Tapao airport project

[webfact]

Airbus pulls out of U-Tapao airport project

By THE NATION

 

 

A planned 11-billion-baht joint venture between Airbus and Thai Airways to develop a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Rayong’s U-Tapao Airport has fallen victim to the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Airbus failed to deliver its proposal by the deadline on Monday (April 20), Cherdphan Chotikhun, executive vice president of THAI's Technical Department, revealed. That left the national carrier seeking a new solution, or else it will have to return the land earmarked for the facility to the Navy.

 

Airbus SAS was only private corporation which passed the THAI’s special bidding process for the MRO, which is one of five core projects in the government’s flagship Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).

 

THAI reasoned that Airbus was not in a position to join the venture after being hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis. The crisis has sent revenues in the aviation industry tumbling as most of the world’s fleet stands idle.

 

Airbus had initially been set to submit its proposal on March 6.

 

Cherdphan insisted, however, that the MRO project would continue with new bidding since it was an important part of the airline’s recovery plan.

 

“The new bid document will be in line with current investment conditions and be proposed to the board of directors in May [next month],” he said.

 

The government’s targeted completion date for U-Tapao’s MRO facility is 2022-2023. However, if THAI pulls out of the project, the MRO area will be returned to the Navy for construction of the Eastern Airport City, in line with the EEC development plan.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30386502

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-04-22

 

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[kingdong]

Merely the start,things are going to get a lot worse before they start getting better.

[Damrongsak]

Life has a way of interfering in big business.

 

"Airbus SAS was only private corporation which passed the THAI’s special bidding process..."

 

They do make huge aircraft that can carry an enormous number of brown envelopes.

[plachon]

Makes perfect sense. Air travel is going to decrease markedly in future years and flight costs are going to increase greatly. No more cheap, subsidised flying.  The industry will contract and the skies will become less crowded, as people holiday closer to home and more meetings are held remotely via online technology. So the MICE market and general tourism in Thailand will shrink. No bounce back to BAU, no matter what fantasists imagine that this is just a temporary blip in the economy.

[ChrisY1]

3 hours ago, plachon said:

Makes perfect sense. Air travel is going to decrease markedly in future years and flight costs are going to increase greatly. No more cheap, subsidised flying.  The industry will contract and the skies will become less crowded, as people holiday closer to home and more meetings are held remotely via online technology. So the MICE market and general tourism in Thailand will shrink. No bounce back to BAU, no matter what fantasists imagine that this is just a temporary blip in the economy.

Not exactly correct.....airline people have reported often that when flights resume in earnest, most flights will be extremely cheap....the thinking being that it will take quite a while for people to get back into the flight mode, and cheap flights will pave the way for increasing passenger and flight numbers

[PETERTHEEATER]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

was an important part of the airline’s recovery plan

.......it WAS or it IS? This airline will never recover, it will go to the wall.and the debts written off to the taxpayers.

[BobbyL]

Erm, not sure this is true - Airbus and Thai Airways to develop a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Rayong’s U-Tapao Airport has fallen victim to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

 

Airbus said they were not joining this project about 7 or 8 weeks ago. I can imagine their decision had absolutely nothing to do with COVID. I am guessing it was based on the fact that THAI are losing approx 1 billlion THB / month and are being ran as a show pony by ex military / air force personnel who have little to no experience in aviation sector management.

[JAG]

11 minutes ago, BobbyL said:

Erm, not sure this is true - Airbus and Thai Airways to develop a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Rayong’s U-Tapao Airport has fallen victim to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

 

Airbus said they were not joining this project about 7 or 8 weeks ago. I can imagine their decision had absolutely nothing to do with COVID. I am guessing it was based on the fact that THAI are losing approx 1 billlion THB / month and are being ran as a show pony by ex military / air force personnel who have little to no experience in aviation sector management.

As an excuse it saves enormous loss of face. Can't really go public with "no one will touch our plans with a very long bargepole" can they?

[Creasy]

CP can do it

[Cake Monster]

1 hour ago, BobbyL said:

Erm, not sure this is true - Airbus and Thai Airways to develop a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Rayong’s U-Tapao Airport has fallen victim to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

 

Airbus said they were not joining this project about 7 or 8 weeks ago. I can imagine their decision had absolutely nothing to do with COVID. I am guessing it was based on the fact that THAI are losing approx 1 billlion THB / month and are being ran as a show pony by ex military / air force personnel who have little to no experience in aviation sector management.

You are indeed correct in stating that ' Airbus SAS " pulled out of the U-Tapao project in collaboration with " Thai Airways " several weeks ago.

Their decision could not possibly have been influenced in any way by the Covid19 Outbreak, and was based purely on the fact that they were  not going to jump into bed with either " Thai " , or the Thai Government.

However, the loss of Airbus to U-Tapao, will be just another kick in the nuts to the Government over the beloved EEC project, which has already seen several high profile losses for future Investment.

[iaminwa]

Another rubbish news report  - Airbus have stated many times last year they were not interested in this.

 

I can see this government blaming a lot of stuff on COVID.

[colinneil]

As already stated Airbus pulled out of the U Tapao project several weeks ago.

So it is clear Thai airways and the government are just using the virus as a face saving gimmick.

[Kullstar]

Not quite enough brown envelopes then?  

[lujanit]

40 minutes ago, colinneil said:

As already stated Airbus pulled out of the U Tapao project several weeks ago.

So it is clear Thai airways and the government are just using the virus as a face saving gimmick.

Doesn’t Airbus already have a MRO in Malaysia?  Why build another so geographically close?

[NCC1701A]

i am using covid19 as an excuse to eat bad food and not exercise. 

[yokat]

News of Airbus discussing it with THAI came out in the first half of 2019

THAI was looking for a private sector investor in December 2019

The deadline was March 6 2020.

March 7, Airbus doesn't show interest in the project: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30383566

April 22, THAI says it's because of the virus

 

The timeline doesn't really match with the pandemic, plane were still flying almost everywhere when this deadline was reached.

[nong38]

The mention of brown envelopes is disturbing, the PM was elected to stamp out corruption perhaps we should ask him for comment on how it is going on that front.

[Assurancetourix]

2 hours ago, BobbyL said:

Erm, not sure this is true - Airbus and Thai Airways to develop a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Rayong’s U-Tapao Airport has fallen victim to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

 

Airbus said they were not joining this project about 7 or 8 weeks ago. I can imagine their decision had absolutely nothing to do with COVID. I am guessing it was based on the fact that THAI are losing approx 1 billlion THB / month and are being ran as a show pony by ex military / air force personnel who have little to no experience in aviation sector management.

Quite right especially that this kind of hub has already existed for several years in China and works very well.
I always wondered what Airbus had come to do in this galley that sank before going to sea.

[transam]

27 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

i am using covid19 as an excuse to eat bad food and not exercise. 

I'm using it to paint garden ornaments, and that's true............????

[phkauf]

Damn, there goes one Hub! At least Thailand has about twenty more Hubs of whatever else to remain the Hub of Hubs.

[tyga]

The whole expansion of U Tapao makes no sense given the drastic turn of events. Every morning I see the earth movers clearing land for the second runway. This area was scrubland and a wonderful habitat for birds and other wildlife which would visit my garden. I can't see this runway being needed for a very long time. Same for the high speed rail link. Pattaya is doomed in its present state and size unless the Chinese tourists take up all the slack. So with no flights and no booming (pardon the pun) Pattaya, what's the point of an expensive rail link? Personally, I hope the whole U Tapao project gets scrapped because it was going to result in a lot of congestion, pollution and air traffic noise 24/7 over an lovely quiet area of Sattahip/Ban Chang. Already, all the main roads, and I do mean all of them at once are dug up and massively widened. The 332 makes no sense at all. Not content with ripping out all the mature trees on one side to put in 2 more lanes, they are now ripping out the trees on the other which would allow for around 10 lanes. Soon the motorway will be opened and the 332 redundant for all but local traffic by the time it is finished. Madness! None of this made any sense before and even less now, except for the contractors and the others directly involved. It is a tragedy to witness and not the first time I've witnessed the complete destruction of what was once a beautiful and tranquil part of the Thai countryside. So sad.

[Baerboxer]

7 hours ago, plachon said:

Makes perfect sense. Air travel is going to decrease markedly in future years and flight costs are going to increase greatly. No more cheap, subsidised flying.  The industry will contract and the skies will become less crowded, as people holiday closer to home and more meetings are held remotely via online technology. So the MICE market and general tourism in Thailand will shrink. No bounce back to BAU, no matter what fantasists imagine that this is just a temporary blip in the economy.

 

That's more or less exactly what some "experts' were saying after 9/11; after 2008.

 

There was massive business increases in video teleconferencing after 9/11. Lasted all of a few months!

 

People won't go back to giving up what they like. You underestimate people's ability to quickly forget what they don't like.

[Justgrazing]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

 

THAI reasoned that Airbus was not in a position to join the venture after being hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis

Nothing to do with CV19 .. Airbus did not want their reputation sullied by association with a rag , tag and bobtail operator .. 

And THAI's ridiculous response of suggesting A B had not submitted on time underlines that .. 

Thailand could always try Comac the Chinese commercial aircraft manufacturer .. 

[GalaxyMan]

2 hours ago, nong38 said:

The mention of brown envelopes is disturbing, the PM was elected to stamp out corruption perhaps we should ask him for comment on how it is going on that front.

He'd need to ask his brother... ????

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, PETERTHEEATER said:

.......it WAS or it IS? This airline will never recover, it will go to the wall.and the debts written off to the taxpayers.

The government will continue to bail-out the airline... Thai flagship airline will not go to the wall.

 

[tamsam6]

"Airbus SAS was only private corporation which passed the THAI’s special bidding process for the MRO"

"Special bidding process"

[billd766]

2 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

i am using covid19 as an excuse to eat bad food and not exercise. 

I don't need an excuse to eat bad food and not exercise.

[JAG]

29 minutes ago, Justgrazing said:

Thailand could always try Comac the Chinese commercial aircraft manufacturer .. 

Ah yes, one of their launch customers is "Ghengis Khan Airlines"!

[JAG]

9 minutes ago, tamsam6 said:

"Airbus SAS was only private corporation which passed the THAI’s special bidding process for the MRO"

"Special bidding process"

What a singularly (in)appropriate euphemism!

[transam]

You lot may scoff, but I heard Yorkshire Airlines is biting at their heels, thinking of expanding, as their locals keep coming here.........????