PM Believes Operating Both Suvarnabhumi And Don Muang Airports Will Improve Travel Quality

[Jai Dee]

PM believes operating both Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang Airports will improve travel quality

The Prime Minister, Gen. Surayud Chulanont, believes that relocating domestic commercial air operations from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Don Muang Airport will improve the quality of service for travelers.

Gen. Surayud says the relocation of commerical air services from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Don Muang Airport is due to repairs currently underway at Suvarnabhumi runways. He affirms that these repairs will have no adverse effects on airport operations and will improve air management.

The Prime Minister says the decision to turn both Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang into twin international airports required input from many parties. Initial expectations are for Suvarnabhumi Airport to be Thailand's aviation center, with Don Muang Airport playing a supportive role. In the future electric trains will connect both airports in order to increase passenger convenience.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 29 June 2007

[Mid]

confirmation and further exposing of the original lie ...............................

[samran]

It would be better if they let the airports price their services differently, and accordingly. Let the airlines make up their own minds as to where they prefer to fly to.

[chinthee]

Well, for Thai Airways, this seems to be very inefficient. They should hub everything at the new airport. This will make them less profitable doing what they're doing I think.

[Soju]

Well, it sounds like they are talking of moving all domestic flights to Don Muang now, rather than just selective flights. The only question then is how much of Thailand's tourism business they will kill as a result of this. I predict a large percent. Goodbye Thailand, hello Malaysia.

The excuse of runway repairs is obviously just an excuse. If the move was just temporary while they repaired the runways there'd be no need for a rail link between the airports. I'm guessing that the way things work in Thailand it'll be 10 years or more before any direct link will be opened, and even after it is opened it will still be very inconvenient to have to transfer between the airports.

I can't see the tourist businesses in Thailand being very happy about this, other than Bangkok or Pattaya based businesses. Phuket, Chiang Mai, Krabi, etc. will suffer huge losses.

Air Asia I think will also suffer being they're now able to take advantage of the situation, being they and Bangkok Air are the only domestic airlines operating 100% out of Suvarnabhumi at the present. Moving their domestic operations to Don Muang will mean they will have extreme difficulty in aircraft utilization being they will no longer be able to have the same planes turnaround from a domestic flight to go out on an international flight.

To do it right, they need to make Don Muang an international airport and have the airlines choose one airport or the other, not split between the two. Thai Airways moves all their operations to Suvarnabhumi, while Air Asia, Nok Air, and all the LCCs move all their operations to DMK. Similar to Kuala Lumpur where the LCC terminal is separate and quite a distance from the main terminal, requiring a lengthy transfer. Splitting the airports strictly along domestic/international lines simply won't work in Thailand, where a huge percent of the traffic is tourist-based. Other countries can successfully implement separate domestic and international airports because they are not so tourist dependent, but Thailand can't afford to do this.

[MiG16]

of course Don Muang has to remain open....

how else would the Military make money out of that plot of land they own .....

....speaking from a non-engineering point...being the non-engineer simple person that I am.....

who know maybe it will be better for the country's economy too? cos with rental income...perhaps we can hope the military will allocate less of a budget increase to their operation, and also not try to get public enterprise funds to buy military equipment?

yeh better let them have their rental

[Mid]

love the avitar .............

[wileycoyote]

Well, it sounds like they are talking of moving all domestic flights to Don Muang now, rather than just selective flights. The only question then is how much of Thailand's tourism business they will kill as a result of this. I predict a large percent. Goodbye Thailand, hello Malaysia.

I can't see the tourist businesses in Thailand being very happy about this, other than Bangkok or Pattaya based businesses. Phuket, Chiang Mai, Krabi, etc. will suffer huge losses.

Splitting the airports strictly along domestic/international lines simply won't work in Thailand, where a huge percent of the traffic is tourist-based. Other countries can successfully implement separate domestic and international airports because they are not so tourist dependent, but Thailand can't afford to do this.

I agree,this a nightmare for onward domestic connections.

I remember when TAT stated that tourism should be devolved to the provinces to encourage economic growth?

No one wants a preferred connection 3 -4 hours after their inbound flight.

The other problem for provincial airports is that they will not be able to secure new international flights as carriers will have enough logistic problems juggling between DMK and BKK

This is a mess !

Wiley Coyote

[pansted00]

As usual , with quotes from supposedly educated governement officials, this makes no sense.

The real problem is that Swanpypoon is already running at its maximum capacity ( 45 Million/year if I'm not wrong).

There is a plan at AOT to start building phase 2 of Swanpypoon which would bring an extra 15 Million/year capacity, more than enough to bring back all domestic flights from DMK and cope with the expected traffic growth.

This plan has been more or less nipped in the bud since the opening of the airport and the military coup.

I see several reasons to that :

1) The men in uniforms are happy with the reopening of DMK for obvious financial benefits.

2) AOT, which must finance phase 2, may not have the financial capacity to do so, so soon after financing the main airport.

3) I smell something motre fishy also, maybe related to the runway cracks and other problems at BKK. It could be that if they want to build phase 2 , the way the main airport should have been to prevent those problems, the real price tag could be several times what they expected.

Probably other "political" and "local" reasons which I ignore .

[Shah Jahan]

living in chiang mai and having to come through BKK for most international flights, currently the 2 airport situation is barely acceptable - meaning I a thankful for Air Asia though i really dont like to fly them. On me alone, Nok Air has lost 10k's + of business from me due to their change as I will schedule my flight from CNX-BKK to match my international flight out - which means its usally Air Asia or THAI if I can catch them at the right time (not usually)

there are many situations that end up being quote inconvenient and I have to take ealier flights and wait in airports for longer because the only inbound flight goes to DMK.

In fact the only thing DMK is good for is that if I have some business in BKK and need to stay for a few days, then it is closer to my hotel on Ratchada - so I save 100 baht on a cab.

I know for the CNS who has never left Thailand, except to go to Macau to gamble, that they don't see why you cant have a different domestic and international terminal, but for those of us that travel and work frequently out of LOS (ie..the ones who bring in the money) split terminals is a nightmare

[deminister]

No comment needed, this government is always right, as their power comes from the barrel of a gun.

[think_too_mut]

Splitting the airports strictly along domestic/international lines simply won't work in Thailand, where a huge percent of the traffic is tourist-based. Other countries can successfully implement separate domestic and international airports because they are not so tourist dependent, but Thailand can't afford to do this.

Tokyo has Narita (200,000 slots a year with 20K more coming up since the owner of the house in the middle of NRT has lost his case at court) and Haneda (220,000 slots).

Most of the traffic is not tourism driven and they can do that.

Bangkok has 165,000 slots and depends heavily on tourism.

[Soju]

Not to mention that Japan has several major international airports - Narita, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, etc. Thailand has one major international airport, plus only a handful of flights to Phuket and Chiang Mai, and I think possibly one flight each to Krabi and Udon Thani. For almost all passengers, BKK is their only choice for entry into Thailand.

The other factor in Japan is that they have a superb rail network, including the bullet trains. Japanese use the trains extensively and would likely use the train rather than a domestic flight, unless the distance was quite long.

Korea is another country with separate international and domestic airports serving Seoul, but they also have Busan international serving the southern part of Korea. Also they have an extensive rail network, though not as good as Japan's. But the domestic and international airports are connected by an expressway on which I've never seen a traffic jam, thus the time to get between airports is very predictable. I've never made the connection but ride by the domestic airport on each and every trip to the international airport and it's less than 30 minutes apart. If there happened to be some extreme weather conditions that affected the highway, you could alternately take the new rail link, though that is normally a bit slower than the highway. So even though it's a bit inconvenient, at least the connection is reliable and dependable and you can comfortably book domestic connections, allowing for 45 minutes additional time to connect, and not have to worry about traffic. With BKK - DMK, you cannot do that, being the traffic is such an unpredictable factor. And I think the proposed rail link involves going into Bangkok, changing trains, then continuing on. Any direct express link between the airports I believe is a very long term project.

The other thing to consider is that in Japan and Korea, foreigners make up only a small percent of the travelers. Most passengers on Japanese flights are Japanese, and most passengers on Korean flights are Koreans. The older domestic airports are located close to the city center, while the newer international airports are located quite a distance further, well outside the city. The majority of passengers on domestic flights are that country's nationals flying strictly domestic, without any international connections. So it may be inconvenient for those making international-to-domestic connections, but those passengers are but a minority. So given an international airport that doesn't have the capacity to handle all flights, it makes sense for them to split it along the lines of international to one airport and domestic to another. There are some exceptions however even then, with some international flights going to the domestic airport and/or domestic flights to the international airport. The domestic airport being the airport closest to the city makes sense, because time is likely more important for domestic travelers. Nobody wants to waste four hours getting to a distant airport, together with check-in time, when they could just hop on the bullet train and be to their destination in less time, and for less money. For international flights, other transportation methods aren't typically feasible, so you have to live with the much further commute to the airport if you're flying internationally.

Thailand's case, however, is quite different. In addition to the large foreign tourist numbers transiting to domestic destinations, you also have two airports that are very close distance wise to the center of Bangkok. There is no huge advantage of one airport over the other with regards to commute time. It is practically identical in travel time for the average Bangkokian to reach Don Muang or Suvarnabhumi. Thus splitting airports along domestic/international lines doesn't make sense here, like it does in other places, due to totally different circumstances.

By far the best solution is to have all flights out of Suvarnabhumi, with perhaps some token flights to Don Muang if they want to keep it active. If Suvarnabhumi cannot handle that capacity, then a more logical solution needs to be found, rather than blindly divide it between international and domestic.

[Soju]

for those of us that travel and work frequently out of LOS (ie..the ones who bring in the money) split terminals is a nightmare

Yes, it is the one's with the money who are willing to pay for added convenience, that Thailand is going to alienate by doing this. If someone pays a lot to fly on Thai Airways, so that they can have a seamless, fast connection, but find out they have an inconvenient airport transfer and lose a lot of time, they will seek other options if such options are available. For businessmen, or people visiting family/friends, there is no option. For some travelers, they only want to go to Thailand and no other place is an option. But for a lot of tourists, other countries will start to look much more attractive. The budget travelers are just as much inconvenienced by this as are those with money to spend, but typically the budget traveler is willing to put up with a moderate amount of inconvenience in exchange for saving some money. But the ones with money, the ones precisely that Thailand has recently stated that they want to target as preferred tourists, are the ones who will most likely spend their money elsewhere if they feel they are being too inconvenienced.

Take a typical vacation scenario, where you have one week plus and additional weekend, so nine days total. You leave your country on a Saturday morning, arrive in BKK late Saturday afternoon, transit to your favorite domestic destination on Saturday night, and get a good night's sleep. You then spend a full week, from Sunday morning, till late Saturday afternoon / early evening enjoying your vacation, depart Saturday evening and connect to a late Saturday night flight back home. You have seven days to enjoy your vacation. By moving all domestic flights to DMK, you now will likely change the same scenario for many travelers so that when they arrive, there is no way they can reliably make their domestic connection, especially considering evening traffic. So they instead have to stay in Bangkok, even though that's not what they want to do. They then take the first flight of the morning to their destination, but arrive too late to get in a full day's activities. Lots of tourists like booking day tours, but most of these will have already departed by the time they arrive, so one full day of their vacation is "wasted", leaving them to find something else to do. Not to mention they may be a bit tired from the domestic flight and transfer to their hotel, and maybe even have to wait a couple hours before their room is ready for check-in. On the return, the same thing happens. Normally they could have scheduled a full day's worth of activities, and then gone directly to the airport, with perhaps a quick stop at their hotel to shower/change/pick up their bags. But being they now have to transfer, they have to take a much earlier flight, perhaps at noon, so their entire day is wasted being only a couple hours in the early morning are not enough to do anything. So a seven-day vacation becomes a five-day vacation. Someone may prefer Thailand over other places, but if they consider losing two days of their valuable vacation time, they may very well opt for choosing a different country where they can enjoy the full seven days.

[chinthee]

Obviously, there are a number of capital cities where multiple airports work. I've lived and worked in two of them: New York and Moscow.

In New York, JFK is the rough equivalent of BKK, but other airports also have extensive international flights, such as Newark. You can't compare New York, because from JFK you can get anywhere domestically with connecting flights, with little need to get to another airport like LaGuardia. So, the connection issue is not a problem here.

In Moscow, it is (used to be when I lived there) more similar to the Bangkok setup. You had one international airport, Sheremetyvo 2, and three domestic airports that served the entire former Soviet empire. Two of the domestic terminals were at least a 2 hour drive from the international terminal, Domodedovo (now also int'l), and Vnukovo. Of course, it was a supreme hassle if you were attempting to connect quickly inland, but then, one didn't go to Moscow in those days for fun, and if you were there for business you just accepted this hassle along with the danger and the other long list of inconveniences.

But, we don't expect this in the land of smiles, do we? I think that we all got spoiled by the ease and predictability of Don Muang. It may have been old and creaky with long waits through immigration, but the old girl worked. I miss her. I don't like the long walks through shopping malls. Call me old fashioned. I also love Changi and HKG. In other words, I like airports that are efficient, and that allow airlines to operate at the lowest cost so they remain healthy in an already hard-to-make-a-profit industry.

Now, the new reality is the multiple airport hassle. I really feel for those now making the trek upcountry or downcountry who travel often for business, and have to connect. Just one more additional hassle for you folks. However, for many leisure travellers I would think they often stop in Bangkok anyway as part of their tours. I know many don't and just want to reach the beach ASAP. In any event, as other posters have pointed out, this does eat away at precious holiday days.

The current situation is not elegant. It's a patch job. Don't know what the future will bring here.

[Krub]

Therea re only advantages to operate a single airport well connected to the city it serves both for the airlines and mostly for the passengers.

Split operations is both inconvenient and more costly