Don Mueang Airport To Accommodate More Low Cost Airlines

[Lite Beer]

Don Mueang Airport to accommodate more low cost airlines

BANGKOK, 1 April 2012 (NNT) – The Airports of Thailand (AoT) has been assigned to set up incentive measures to attract low cost airlines to use facilities at Don Mueang Airport as well as reconsider the airport’s commercial development plans.

According to AoT Vice President Pol. Maj. Gen. Peeraphan Prempooti, the board meeting has agreed that incentive measures, such as the exemption of take-off and landing fee, be drawn up with a view to drawing in more low cost airlines to Don Mueang Airport. Additionally, the AoT must reassure airline businesses that the current policy will remain intact for at least another six years in order to gain their confidence. It is expected that interested airlines will start using the airport's facilities in June 2012.

In order to correspond to this new strategy of accommodating low cost carriers and becoming a point-to-point connection hub, the panel also asked the AoT to revise its commercial plans covering aircraft maintenance and regional spare parts management services as well as a duty free zone, a goods distribution hub, an exhibition center and a private jet terminal.

According to the AoT Vice President, the AoT board has recently resolved to develop Suvarnabhumi Airport into a hub airport providing full-service and connecting flights while promoting it to become the center of regional aviation. Meanwhile, Don Mueang Airport acts as a reliever airport to alleviate the congestion at Suvarnabhumi Airport by providing low cost services and point-to-point flights in order to help Suvarnabhumi airport accommodate the increasing air traffic in the long run.

-- NNT 2012-04-01

[ginjag]

Are these people off their rocker??  what makes them think that people on domestic flights are NOT wanting to connect to international.  One minute news said Yingluck ordered all low cost airlines to base themselves at D.M--the next breath they can have the choice--  What is missing is a not stop high speed connection=DIRECT airport to airport, AOT get real-shake yourselves up-together with the TAT/government. Swampy was built with style-of sorts-futuristic-at inflated cost-but cheapjack materials, a Thaksin flag flier that is not geared to the traveller, and in a few short years is over it's capacity already and cannot cope, it should have been so advanced without hardly a hitch for 15 years. BUT---oh dear. Don M. now is showing it's colours again, stop interfering with these airlines switching them about like playing cards. How can a customer plan in advance-re booking if they don't know where they will land in 6 months.

[mowgus]

The only people who will benefit from this will be the taxi drivers....no rail link to DM.

[toastie]

Rail link + luggage is a real drag. (especially if crowded trains and/or multiple sets of stairs at the rail stations...) Give me a cab any day.

[livingthedream]

The majority of domestic inter-city and inter-regional flights are routed via Bangkok. I would like to see more direct inter city flights without having to go via BKK. This would also relieve some of the pressure in BKK and I'm sure that with a bit of market research a viable network could be established using smaller aircraft such as Embraer or Dash 8 - but I guess I'm being a bit too optimistic imagining that this would ever happen.

[OzMick]

The only people who will benefit from this will be the taxi drivers....no rail link to DM.

DM railway station is across the road from the airport, with a flyover. There are ramps to the platforms, and the flyway connects to mezzanine level of the airport elevators. Last time I used it, the fare to Hualampong was B7, Bang Sue B3.

[Ricardo]

The only people who will benefit from this will be the taxi drivers....no rail link to DM.

DM railway station is across the road from the airport, with a flyover. There are ramps to the platforms, and the flyway connects to mezzanine level of the airport elevators. Last time I used it, the fare to Hualampong was B7, Bang Sue B3.

Beat me to it, the real problem is that the rail-link from DMK runs only into Hualampong central-station, not to Swampy for passengers needing to connect-onwards.

Interesting that the PM included high-priced boutique-airline Bangkok Airways, as one she wanted to 'instruct' to switch. Would she also switch Thai's new low-cost subsidiary Thai-Smile ?

The real answer is of course to expand Swampy, as has been announced yet-again recently, and put-in a LCC-terminal there, as has also already been announced several times, including by her brother when still in-power. And find another use for DMK.

[tartempion]

I am NOT a Nok Air customer because they returned to Dong Mueang.

That's too bad for both of us since they have 5 flights/day to Udon Thani.

But I will not pay an additional 400 baht and 1h drive between the airports.

If you look at satellite pics of swampy you will see the third runway West of runway 1

But some money must stick to some peoples hands to keep DM going on

[edwinchester]

And find another use for DMK.

Formula 1 track?

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[ginjag]

Golf HUB, compound for the red shirt extremists, practice area for Yellow shirts, Dig out a bottomless pit ready for the next floods, use the place to store all the HUBS.   next.

[OzMick]

The only people who will benefit from this will be the taxi drivers....no rail link to DM.

DM railway station is across the road from the airport, with a flyover. There are ramps to the platforms, and the flyway connects to mezzanine level of the airport elevators. Last time I used it, the fare to Hualampong was B7, Bang Sue B3.

Beat me to it, the real problem is that the rail-link from DMK runs only into Hualampong central-station, not to Swampy for passengers needing to connect-onwards.

Interesting that the PM included high-priced boutique-airline Bangkok Airways, as one she wanted to 'instruct' to switch. Would she also switch Thai's new low-cost subsidiary Thai-Smile ?

The real answer is of course to expand Swampy, as has been announced yet-again recently, and put-in a LCC-terminal there, as has also already been announced several times, including by her brother when still in-power. And find another use for DMK.

It's a short walk from Hua or Bang Sue to the underground rail line. I assume I can connect this somewhere to the Swampy line? I actually have to do this in 10 days.

[ginjag]

I booked air asia later this year from Udon to swampy (early morning flight) airport bus to Jomptien-return afternoon to Udon--brill quick 1 day trip. NOW if air asia is to go into D.M. I will not be able to do the trip-  so I lose my paid airfare, ok I am a one off  BUT it is one of many examples, that a thoughtless government offers tourists, and it's people.

[chrisinth]

The only people who will benefit from this will be the taxi drivers....no rail link to DM.

DM railway station is across the road from the airport, with a flyover. There are ramps to the platforms, and the flyway connects to mezzanine level of the airport elevators. Last time I used it, the fare to Hualampong was B7, Bang Sue B3.

That is an OK solution for ex-pats travelling with hand baggage and knowing the rail links.

The problem comes when your average tourist family who have spent a month on say, Phuket, need to transit between airports with all the luggage they have brought with them.

Back to getting a couple of taxi's.

[BookMan]

The only people who will benefit from this will be the taxi drivers....no rail link to DM.

DM railway station is across the road from the airport, with a flyover. There are ramps to the platforms, and the flyway connects to mezzanine level of the airport elevators. Last time I used it, the fare to Hualampong was B7, Bang Sue B3.

That is an OK solution for ex-pats travelling with hand baggage and knowing the rail links.

The problem comes when your average tourist family who have spent a month on say, Phuket, need to transit between airports with all the luggage they have brought with them.

Back to getting a couple of taxi's.

There could be a bunch of shuttle buses put on to travel between the two airports.. but of course the traffic is always going to be a problem.

Whichever airlines doing domestic routes who stay at swampy will be the winners.

[harrry]

Not to mention transfer for those in wheelchairs.

[IsaanUSA]

I am NOT a Nok Air customer because they returned to Dong Mueang.

That's too bad for both of us since they have 5 flights/day to Udon Thani.

But I will not pay an additional 400 baht and 1h drive between the airports.

I'm happy Nok moved to DMK. BKK airport is too crowded.

[Jerrytheyoung]

Low Cost Airlines do not care about connecting flights. They are point to point airlines.

Regular Airlines are organised with hubs, Alliances in order to interconnect flights and give a better service to their customers.

Regular Airlines are suffering by the Low cost activity which take the best share of the business and ignore the constraints.

So why helping the Low costs by trying to interconnect with them?

[Ricardo]

As a passenger, I care about what works for people like me, not what suits the airlines. I don't own shares in them, and have a standing-instruction to my stockbroker, never to touch them !

And trying to direct a full-service airline like Bangkok Airways to switch, when they do carry interlining-passengers. while not forcing LCC point-to-point carriers like Air Asia or Thai-Smile to change to the less-convenient airport, doesn't really seem fair either.

Perhaps it should best be left to the airlines, to consider their customers' needs & the value of inter-connecting passengers, and chose which of the two places they wish to use as a hub ? Since they will make the profit or take the loss, as passengers respond to their choice, and remain loyal or switch to one of their competitors ?

[gregb]

The problem is there is too much concentration on hubs. Let Swampy continue being the hub. There are nearly 12 million people in metropolitan Bangkok. More than 50% of them would find Don Muang closer and more convenient than Swampy. That is over 9% of the population of Thailand.

The reason Don Muang as a domestic only airport doesn't work is because there is limited demand to fly from Bangkok to the provinces, except where international connections are made. The solution is to open a low cost international terminal at Don Muang, and those 9 million people suddenly have a viable choice of airports. Forget the provinces. Let them be served by Swampy. They don't really care what transit airport they use anyway. Instead, use Don Muang to service the people in the city who hate that abomination in the swamp.

Open a low cost international terminal at Don Muang, and watch how quickly people start using it.

[hellodolly]

As a passenger, I care about what works for people like me, not what suits the airlines. I don't own shares in them, and have a standing-instruction to my stockbroker, never to touch them !

And trying to direct a full-service airline like Bangkok Airways to switch, when they do carry interlining-passengers. while not forcing LCC point-to-point carriers like Air Asia or Thai-Smile to change to the less-convenient airport, doesn't really seem fair either.

Perhaps it should best be left to the airlines, to consider their customers' needs & the value of inter-connecting passengers, and chose which of the two places they wish to use as a hub ? Since they will make the profit or take the loss, as passengers respond to their choice, and remain loyal or switch to one of their competitors ?

The reason for the transfer of Bangkok air ways is to give more business to Thai air ways.

Compation is OK as longas it is not with a government owned business.

[h90]

Low Cost Airlines do not care about connecting flights. They are point to point airlines.

Regular Airlines are organised with hubs, Alliances in order to interconnect flights and give a better service to their customers.

Regular Airlines are suffering by the Low cost activity which take the best share of the business and ignore the constraints.

So why helping the Low costs by trying to interconnect with them?

Well that is very theoretical....I don't see that the regular airlines try to interconnect flights good for customer, I think it isn't possible as every customer has different interests.

When I look at the low cost airlines in Thailand, they are also organized with hubs. Bangkok is the hub, very few connections without Bangkok.

Without the low cost airlines we would still pay 1000-3000 Euro for a 500 km flight in Europe. And most customer don't care about the better service.

[ginjag]

we want a Victoria=London Gatwick.........We want a Paddington=London Heathrow service thats all.   All this BULs33it about international-budget-low cost-domestic---All boll33cks.  Just get your airlines to choose an airport, and have the Vital link between the two.

[GaiUan]

Actually AOT have the choice... Low cost airlines always moan about airport taxes, this is the only way to entice... Let them chose based on real airport fees...