Thai govt approves huge expansion of Suvarnabhumi airport - minister claims 2022 back to normal

[webfact]

Picture Daily News

 

The Thai government has decided to press ahead with the expansion and extension of three terminals at Suvarnabhumi airport, Bangkok's main hub.

 

Work on the northern expansion, West Wings and East Wings will cost 57 billion baht in total, reported Daily News.

 

A cabinet meeting rejected calls from the National Anti-Corruption Commission that the expansion should not go ahead as it would cause more harm than good, reported Daily News.

 

DPM Anutin Charnvirakul will be in charge of overseeing the project.

 

Thailand's transport minister Saksayam Chidchob said after a cabinet meeting attended by PM Prayuth Chan-ocha that it was sensible to do all the three projects at the same time because expansion work on Runway #3 will increase capacity to 90 million passengers per year.

 

Picture Daily News

 

Current capacity is 60 million per year.

 

He has ordered the Airports Authority of Thailand to speed up various studies.

 

He claimed that the airport was already very busy and with the vaccination program in Thailand in place passenger numbers would really increase come October and the fourth quarter.

 

He claimed that by 2022 numbers at the airport would be almost back to normal. 

 

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[Phuketshrew]

22 minutes ago, webfact said:

DPM Anutin Charnvirakul will be in charge of overseeing the project.

The Health Minister? Seriously? He must be close to the front of the queue at the trough ....

[asiasurfer]

Which normal? The new normal, or the new old normal. Or what? 

[Bkk Brian]

16 minutes ago, Phuketshrew said:

The Health Minister? Seriously? He must be close to the front of the queue at the trough ....

His family own Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction PCL which has carried out multiple large projects on Suvarnabhumi airport, at the very least a conflict of interest.

[trainman34014]

Ah yes; they need more space for all those redundant Thai Airways crates !

[Katipo]

4 hours ago, asiasurfer said:

Which normal? The new normal, or the new old normal. Or what? 

 

The normal where construction projects provide massive kickback for the senior officials involved.

[Dialemco]

Making Thailand even more reliant on International Tourism which unlikely to recover to same levels before Covid in the foreseeable future.

[RichardColeman]

Sure I told you all to buy shares in Thai cement recently - hope you heeded my advice 

[mr_lob]

I also predict Thai Airways needing 326 new aircraft to cope with millions of new visitors spending gazillions of baht each per person. They are just chomping at the bit to fly to the land of grimaces as soon as quarantine is dropped

[Inala]

Silly decision and a waste of money to build an expansion which will almost certainly lay as a white elephant for some time, till aviation recovers to former volumes.  

[Guderian]

At least Western governments, which got things so badly wrong a year ago while the Thai government did just about everything right, are now seeing cold, harsh reality, rather than the rose-tinted vision of sunny uplands that now seems to dominate the Thai government's view of the future. Vaccines aside, Boris and his advisors yesterday admitted that Covid will probably be with us forever, and there will almost certainly be a third wave later in the year. So we are all going to have to adapt and learn to live with the wretched virus, but that does not mean life is going to return to what we once thought of as normal, let alone spark a massive boom in tourism to Thailand. Prayut, Anutin, Pipat et al need to take the ice bucket challenge, it might clear their heads a bit.

[Ketyo]

7 hours ago, Phuketshrew said:

The Health Minister? Seriously? He must be close to the front of the queue at the trough ....

 

Anuthin is heir to a major construction company fortune. His family's company, Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction PCL, built several government mega-projects such as Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. An engineer, Anuthin served as president of Sino-Thai.

 

Is there any surprise that the Thai government approved the project and that Anutin is in charge?

 

Conflict of interest?

[Thomas Hannah]

2 hours ago, Katipo said:

 

The normal where construction projects provide massive kickback for the senior officials involved.

You could not have said it better.????

[klauskunkel]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

A cabinet meeting rejected calls from the National Anti-Corruption Commission that the expansion should not go ahead as it would cause more harm than good

Is that a hiccup? Didn't they get the memo?

[Sydebolle]

8 hours ago, Phuketshrew said:

The Health Minister? Seriously? He must be close to the front of the queue at the trough ....

His company built the initial airport already, now he hides behind his health ministry title and all the dirty farang, who know, that there‘s lots of lining of pockets going on ......... 

[Xonax]

2 weeks ago a lot of soil was being moved in Suvarnabhumi Airport, som people in charge must have had a good idea, that the expansion plan would be allowed to go ahead. 

[Sydebolle]

8 hours ago, Phuketshrew said:

The Health Minister? Seriously? He must be close to the front of the queue at the trough ....

His company built the initial airport already, now he hides behind his health ministry title and all the dirty farang, who know, that there‘s lots of lining of pockets going on ......... 

[Chang_paarp]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

He claimed that by 2022 numbers at the airport would be almost back to normal. 

At least this is a little more realistic than TAT's efforts.

[Sydebolle]

Anutin‘s officially declared wealth clocks only THB 4.2 billion (not million); his company built the airport and I guess, that of the THB 57 billion there is some loose change flowing his (and certainly many other) ways to line all those empty pockets on the way.

Thailand‘s biggest problem and enemy is its own people! 

[mfd101]

One of the hallmarks of incompetence is optimism.

[Millcx]

8 hours ago, Phuketshrew said:

The Health Minister? Seriously? He must be close to the front of the queue at the trough ....

Will we have to have a shower passport before entry ... 2022 .. No Chance .. 2025 maybe

[Bangkok Barry]

8 hours ago, Phuketshrew said:

The Health Minister? Seriously? He must be close to the front of the queue at the trough ....

He is clearly also at the front of the queue if Thailand ever gets a new PM. And, bearing in mind the comments he has made about foreigners, that is very, very disturbing.

[khunpeer]

dreamers...

[KhaoYai]

Nothing like a good construction project to help out when 'perks' are down.  Covid must have really damaged the usual kickback sources.

[DogNo1]

With efforts to lower carbon emissions gaining strength in various countries, I imagine that limits on the number of airplane flights may be enforced in future years.  It wouldn't take too many flights to erase the savings that America may achieve in carbon emissions with their green plan.   

[pacovl46]

Long overdue because the waiting cues in the airport are ridiculously long! It took me 3 hours in 2017 to go through immigration when I flew back home!  

[Burma Bill]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

DPM Anutin Charnvirakul will be in charge of overseeing the project.

 

Construction by Sino-Thai with cement supplied by SCG - another "gong" on the way?

Say no more!!

Edited March 24, 2021 by Burma Bill

[digger70]

9 hours ago, asiasurfer said:

Which normal? The new normal, or the new old normal. Or what? 

They haven't Figured that out as yet.

[George Aylesham]

Sea levels are rising fast: Bangkok is sinking fast. Won't the airport be under water by the time the three new terminals are finished?

[mrfill]

18 minutes ago, pacovl46 said:

Long overdue because the waiting cues in the airport are ridiculously long! It took me 3 hours in 2017 to go through immigration when I flew back home!  

 

So how will building a new runway and expanding terminals improve the queues?

 

Just having all the immigration desks open occasionally would fix that.