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Revamped Don Muang Terminal Ready For Service


webfact

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I heard from a taxi driver that the old Domestic terminal was going to be taken over by Air Asia which they would solely use. Apparently Air Asia are increasing the number of flights and looking at new destinations in Thailand and internationally. Not sure if its true as ive heard nothing on the news.

I wonder what will happen to the Domestic Terminal now. Nothing, I guess. Don Muang should have become Bangkok's domestic airport, same as Haneda Airport in Tokyo. The reason why it hasn't become so is because the powers-to-be "forgot" to build a connecting skytrain between Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi. Amazing Thailand.

Interesting idea for AirAsia to have a Thai-hub which fails-to-connect-easily with all the other international-carriers, or all Thai Airways flights using Swampy, but might make more economic-sense if Air-Asia-Xpress were looking for a new second-hub for their long-haul operations ?

And I recall hearing a 'buzz' recently that Tony Fernandez was thinking of moving his Head-Office functions from KL to Indonesia ?

Perhaps he is planning to re-base his whole Air-Asia empire away from Malaysia ? Don Muang certainly has all the hanger-space he might want, as a main-base for engineering his growing-fleet, now that might actually make it worth keeping DM open for the long-term future ! :)

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Don Meung ... Hub of Empty Un-needed Airports ?

It may be empty and it may now not really be needed, but it was a relatively new facility that was quite capable of handling the same traffic as Swampy if they would have simply relocated the adjoining RTAF base. And as the price of oil continues its inexorable trend upwards, expect to see fewer international arrivals.

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... same as Haneda Airport in Tokyo.

Haneda is a completely different setup and Japan's demand for Air Travel is much higher than for the rest of SE Asia, incl. Singapore. In a few months time we will see the first Low Budget Carrier in Japan.

Also from Haneda I can fly to Bangkok but also to Los Angeles etc. , so not really a domestic setup at all. Rather a 2nd Gatwick or Newark.

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Don Meung ... Hub of Empty Un-needed Airports ?

It may be empty and it may now not really be needed, but it was a relatively new facility that was quite capable of handling the same traffic as Swampy if they would have simply relocated the adjoining RTAF base. And as the price of oil continues its inexorable trend upwards, expect to see fewer international arrivals.

Have to agree with you, Don Muang could have been expanded, and the cost (and brown-envelopes) of the new airport put-off for many more years, and perhaps forever if/when the oil starts to run-out & increased-cost cuts demand for aviation.

The new International-Terminal should have been built on the RTAF-side, then the old International-Terminals turned into the new Domestic & Low-Cost-International Terminals, lastly the old Domestic-Terminal turned into the cut-price low-service Low-Cost-Carrier Domestic-Terminal, all done in steps with minimum-disruption to existing operations & at much less cost than a brand-new airport & transport-links.

I believe there was a slight technical-problem though, the runways at D.M. being slightly-closer together than modern international-standards require. And the famous golf-course would have had to have gone ! :rolleyes:

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  • 5 weeks later...

I wonder what will happen to the Domestic Terminal now. Nothing, I guess. Don Muang should have become Bangkok's domestic airport, same as Haneda Airport in Tokyo. The reason why it hasn't become so is because the powers-to-be "forgot" to build a connecting skytrain between Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi. Amazing Thailand.

There is no need for Don Muang to continue operating. Tokyo sees about twice the air traffic annually as Thailand including more 60 million domestic passengers. Comparing Tokyo's airport needs to Bangkok's is ridiculous. Furthermore, Narita Airport is constrained by local opposition to expansion and has poor links with the centre of Tokyo (more than an hour by train). This makes Haneda a welcome Domestic airport for the largest metropolis in the world.

While Bangkok is a large city and a hub for South-East Asia, Suvarnabhumi has plenty of space to expand and room for four runways. With a separate domestic terminal, Suvarnabhumi could handle all the air traffic for Bangkok on its two runways. Further expansion through construction of new runways would be fairly straightforward since the space for these runways has already been cleared. Building a new runway and domestic terminal would be a much better investment than building an express transport link to Don Muang (unless this was part of a bigger mass transit system).

Having Don Muang stay open is a waste and causes confusion for foreign travellers. The good transport links, existing infrastructure and room for expansion all suggest that a one airport policy makes financial and logistic sense.

Well, I'm with you because there'll be other questions if to run a second airport:

- what about the luggage and other goods to be transported? Linking the passengers is only on side of the story.

- what about the other connections (Rail, Bus) to non-air-destinations?

- what about the connecting times between SUV and DM?

I mind about if I'll arrive in BKK and have to spend some hours until i could go on!

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