Airport Mismanagement

[soundman]

Airline loses customers after moving airports

By Boonsong Kositchotethana Thai Airways International's decision to move a large part of its domestic services to the old Don Muang airport has resulted in a loss of tens of thousands of passengers who require connecting flights.

The flag carrier could have lost as many as 70,000 foreign travellers, who were transferring from international flights to domestic destinations or travelling from domestic routes to overseas, since THAI started operating through the 93-year-old airport on March 25, according to insiders.

These travellers have turned to other carriers due to the hassle and long wait in connecting with international flights - all of which run through Suvarnabhumi Airport, a time-consuming 27 km away.

Many of these passengers who may travel on THAI flights from abroad have instead used the domestic services of Bangkok Airways and the budget carrier Thai AirAsia, which have continued to operate all flights through Suvarnabhumi.

THAI operates 31 domestic flights a day through Don Muang, offering more than 8,000 seats a day, while retaining 11 flights a day at the new airport.

THAI is one of the three local airlines that opted to offer domestic flights through the old airport after the government earlier this year decided, following several policy flip-flops, to reopen the old airport for non-connecting domestic services to reduce congestion at Suvarnabhumi.

The other two players at Don Muang are THAI's budget subsidiary Nok Airlines and the local no-frills airline One-Two-Go, both of which did not experience similar problems to THAI.The response from connecting passengers has caught the national carrier's management off-guard as they believed that domestic flights allocated at Suvarnabhumi should deal with the connection issue for foreign travellers.

The THAI domestic flights retained at Suvarnabhumi, which the airline anticipated to require connections to international destinations, are those from popular tourist spots such as Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket and Krabi.

The business loss prompted THAI's board to discuss the issue at its Monday meeting. No easy solution is seen though some executives said the airline may be compelled to cut some flights at Don Muang and return them to Suvarnabhumi.

THAI may be reluctant revert to Suvarnabhumi because it spearheaded the campaign to reopen the old airport.

THAI has spent about 20 million baht to re-establish its presence over at Don Muang.

Industry analysts said THAI's loss of connecting passengers reflects a major flaw in operating dual airports within close proximity.

The use of two airports has increased the flight transfer time in Bangkok from between two and three hours to between five and seven hours.

Critics said THAI may have underestimated the impact of passenger connectivity to its business as statistics show that there are always passengers on every THAI domestic flight who need to transfer to international flights.

THAI shares closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 46.50 baht, down 25 satang, in trade worth 51.36 million baht.

Soundman - After copping some flack for the position I took in some previous posts, I think this article goes to show that the two airport scenario in thailand isn't very workable.

Cheers,

Soundman.

[qualtrough]

I posted a summary of this article about a half hour ago so I imagine they will be merged at some point.

I agree with Soundman. The idea of reopening Don Muang was poorly thought out and had much more to do with political considerations than it did with issues of safety and capacity at the new airport. I am sure the point will come when they will again shut Don Muang. This time they should drive a stake through its heart by plowing up the runways. Then let out bids to develop that huge chunk of prime land into something else.

[samran]

I'm going on the record as saying it is workable.

I wonder though how much of Thai's decrease in market share was due to the move and how much is it due to their uncompetitive offering compared to both LCC's and other regional airlines. Thai airways is a bit of a clunky, government owned enterprise where the board membership is a sought after prize by many civil servants as a reward which keeps on giving (free first class travel) even after you've left the board.

It'll take time (forward planning isn't a huges strength of any government), but Don Muang is an excellent regional alternative. Given Suvanabhumi is near capacity already, the last thing a govermnent needs to spend money on is capital expansion when it has a perfectly good asset sitting down the road. Although it may well have been poltical, I challenge anyone to say that it was a fiscally irresponsible to utlise existing assets before building new ones.

But hey, people want to splash money around like old Thaksin, then they should run at the next elections.

[palm]

I'm going on the record as saying it is workable.

I wonder though how much of Thai's decrease in market share was due to the move and how much is it due to their uncompetitive offering compared to both LCC's and other regional airlines. Thai airways is a bit of a clunky, government owned enterprise where the board membership is a sought after prize by many civil servants as a reward which keeps on giving (free first class travel) even after you've left the board.

It'll take time (forward planning isn't a huges strength of any government), but Don Muang is an excellent regional alternative. Given Suvanabhumi is near capacity already, the last thing a govermnent needs to spend money on is capital expansion when it has a perfectly good asset sitting down the road. Although it may well have been poltical, I challenge anyone to say that it was a fiscally irresponsible to utlise existing assets before building new ones.

But hey, people want to splash money around like old Thaksin, then they should run at the next elections.

I flew to Phitsanulok for the day last week from Don Muang (with Thai Airways),and it was great - no mass scrum at check-in, or hoards of people milling about. And the flight was full, there and back.

Thai Airways should stop moaning, and become more competitive on their short haul routes. They charge more for a 40min domestic inland flight, than other airlines charge to HK and SG!

[Aussietraveller]

The problem that has been created is one of logistics for those passengers that are needing to fly into one airport and out of the other.

Changing airports is a PITA, but if someone could organise efficient transfers between airports, it could be a lot better.

The problem is not a lot different to transferring between Heathrow and Gatwick for example.

There are major traffic issues at times on the M25, which can take the transfer time from 1 hour to several hours.

Shanghai is also another example.

If Thai were to look at solutions that are used in other places, i am sure they could come up with something workable.

Perhaps get some of the Thai Execs to go to LHR and have a look.

They could bunk at Thaksins place to save a few Baht.

My 2 bobs worth...

[samran]

The problem that has been created is one of logistics for those passengers that are needing to fly into one airport and out of the other.

Changing airports is a PITA, but if someone could organise efficient transfers between airports, it could be a lot better.

The problem is not a lot different to transferring between Heathrow and Gatwick for example.

There are major traffic issues at times on the M25, which can take the transfer time from 1 hour to several hours.

Shanghai is also another example.

If Thai were to look at solutions that are used in other places, i am sure they could come up with something workable.

Perhaps get some of the Thai Execs to go to LHR and have a look.

They could bunk at Thaksins place to save a few Baht.

My 2 bobs worth...

I'm sure that there will be a government sponsored field trip to Europe and the UK at some point, where apart from shopping, visiting their kids at school, more shopping, the execs can 'study' how transfers and logistics are done at grown up cities with two or more airports.

No doubt as well, Fraport and the like are sniffing about as we speak, to help them make the necessary changes, for a small fee of course.

[PhilHarries]

The problem is not a lot different to transferring between Heathrow and Gatwick for example.

There are major traffic issues at times on the M25, which can take the transfer time from 1 hour to several hours.

Shanghai is also another example.

I think the difference is one of choice. If someone is flying to BKK and then on to a regional airport in Thailand and using THAI they have no choice if the domestic flight departs from DMK. Well they do have a choice, they can fly another airline, and it appears they are exercising that choice.

Flying into a UK regional airport the traveller also has a choice of, basically, via LHR or LGW and will choose the arline(s) that give the best route for shortest journey time (ignoring economic decisions). I would think, but am open to being corrected, that the number of people arriving at LHR then flying on domestic out of LGW, or vice versa, is a very small percentage of the total but those that do would factor in the transfer time when making their choice.