Thai AirAsia wants to revert ops to old airport

From Zaidi Isham Ismail

[email protected]

November 2 2006

BANGKOK: Thai AirAsia Co Ltd, an associate carrier of budget airline AirAsia Bhd, wants to move back to the old Don Muang Airport, barely a month after it shifted to the new Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Suvarnabhumi Airport opened on September 28.

Thai AirAsia chief executive officer Tassapon Bijleveld said the new airport is too congested and three times more expensive to operate than Don Muang Airport.

He said the airline has written to the Thai airport authorities and feedback has been positive.

"We expect to receive a reply within the next two weeks," Tassapon told 10 visiting journalists here yesterday.

He said the new airport cannot handle seven million budget travellers ferried by Thai AirAsia, Nok Air and One-Two-Go.

"It is better to let us go back to the old airport than build a new low-cost carrier (LCC) terminal, which requires huge investment," he said, adding that Suvarnabhumi Airport should emulate Malaysia and Singapore, which separates the operations of the LCCs from full service carriers.

Don Muang Airport has three terminals while Suvarnabhumi has only one very large terminal that handles all international and domestic flights.

Thai AirAsia is 49 per cent owned by Malaysia's AirAsia. It has been operating at Don Muang Airport since February 2003.

http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BT/T...49.txt/Article/

maybe they should move the entire operation back to DM then we can all have a ching-chong in peace and quiet !

maybe they could move the latrines from DM to the new airport in lieu of a Move back to DM .

Flew into and out of both international and domestic terminals recently including flight on AirAsia. Didn't see any problems but then again I don't directly see AirAsia's costs for operating out of the new airport. It would seem to me that they would lose business if a traveler has to land in one airport then transfer to another for a connecting flight. I for one would trade the convenience for the money savings and just fly Thai air.

Flew into and out of both international and domestic terminals recently including flight on AirAsia. Didn't see any problems but then again I don't directly see AirAsia's costs for operating out of the new airport. It would seem to me that they would lose business if a traveler has to land in one airport then transfer to another for a connecting flight. I for one would trade the convenience for the money savings and just fly Thai air.

I don't think this is a big deal since AirAsia doesn't support connecting flights (even if you land to the same airport, you need to receive your luggage and make another checkin). In addition, there is direct 35B bus route between two airports.

Wouldnt be a bad idea and would give the sunshine boys/girls at Suwanna a bit of breathing space and time (without losing face) to get a move on with the proposed airport expansion plans and /or new domestic terminal.

Also take the pressure OFF the toilets.

Flew into and out of both international and domestic terminals recently including flight on AirAsia. Didn't see any problems but then again I don't directly see AirAsia's costs for operating out of the new airport. It would seem to me that they would lose business if a traveler has to land in one airport then transfer to another for a connecting flight. I for one would trade the convenience for the money savings and just fly Thai air.

I don't think this is a big deal since AirAsia doesn't support connecting flights (even if you land to the same airport, you need to receive your luggage and make another checkin). In addition, there is direct 35B bus route between two airports.

Misphrased with "connecting flights". What I mean is it is nice to put luggage on a cart and go check in as opposed to hop a bus. Thats an extra pain I would pass on. The price difference isn't huge from my perspective so its a no brainer.

But the airlines listed such as AirAsia don't really target convenience they target budget so I am sure that many travelers won't be put off by this.