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Don Muang to Undergo Expansion
8th Oct 2013
Pongsak Semson, the vice chairman of Airports of Thailand (AoT), has recently announced the plans for the expansion of Don Mueang into a full service airport that can rival Suvarnabhumi.
The expansion plan is targeted to be finished by 2015. At present, AoT is working on terminals 1 and 2 and the runways. Renovations are being made to increase the handling capacity of the airport to 30 million passengers a year, versus the current 16 million.
Don Mueang uses only the terminal 1 for all its domestic and international flights. It operates on a point-to-point basis only, primarily to help ease crowding on Suvarnabhumi, which handles passengers way beyond its original capacity of 45 million per year.
AoT still needs to obtain approval from the government regarding its plans to upgrade Dong Mueang. It will also seeks relax the rules and regulations that would allow any airline to use the airport, especially those that propose to utilize it for connecting flights.
Suvarnabhumi is the only major airport of Bangkok, and Don Mueang was reopened only as a supplement to it. Don Mueang, nevertheless, can also compete with Suvarnabhumi, given its advantage of being situated closer to the capital city.
Don Mueang was originally used for chartered flights following the opening of Suvarnabhumi. It was then reopened in 2011 to accommodate budget airlines after Suvarnabhumi became crowded.
The expansion of Don Mueang has gained support from AoT Chairman Divari, and the opposite from Transport Minister Suttipunt. Suttipunt clarifies that he does not oppose the plan to upgrade Don Mueang's status; he's only suggesting that a thorough study must be made before doing so. He even added that the relocation must be done voluntarily by the airlines, should the plan be approved. At present, Don Mueang serves Nok Air, Orient Thai, and Thai AirAsia.
Thai AirAsia CEO Tassapon Bijlevld, expressed support to the plan and suggested for the government to be clear about its requests, so that the airlines will know what to do. He further commented that Suvarnabhumi couldn't catch up with the fast-progressing aviation industry.
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