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Orient Thai Rejects TAA's Demand
15th Jun 2012
The Thailand Airport authority is under pressure by many airline companies not to get persuaded by Thai AirAsia (TAA) to allow it to move its hub to Don Mueang Airport on condition that it be allowed to use the entire terminal exclusively.
One of the airlines who are staunch opponents to the demand made by Thai AirAsia to the Airports of Thailand (AoT) is Orient Thai Airlines.
The subject of contention is the passenger terminal one or T1 of the old but sprawling Don Mueang Airport. Currently, it is the only passenger terminal in use among the airport's three passenger terminals.
TAA has toughened its bargaining condition to the Airports of Thailand authority as the company itself is under pressure by the national government to move some of the budget airlines operations to the old airport to decongest the Suvarnabhumi Airport, which already handles beyond its capacity.
Udom Tan Tantiprasongchai, the Orient Thai founder, is vehemently against the turning of T1 into the exclusive use of only one carrier, specifically TAA.
He contended that the airline's traffic volume at the present and even into the immediate future doesn't warrant such move for its exclusive use.
The terminal, which is quite big for just one airline such as TAA's size, should be shared by other airlines too. If TAA will grow big enough in the future that requires a terminal all on its own and they want this terminal, then let them do so.
T1 has an annual capacity of 14.5 million passengers. At the moment, only Nok Air is using the terminal since it was reopened in March this year after its closure in October last year due to the flood. Nok Air is serving four million clients annually.
This year, TAA is confident to cater to 8 million passengers after it handled 7.2 million last year.
If AoT grants the request of TAA, other airlines, including Nok Air, will utilize the T2 instead. However, it requires extensive renovation after it sustained damage during the flood last year. Renovation will take time and therefore not ready to host all the airlines too soon.
Though AoT president admitted negotiations with TAA are ongoing, he vehemently denied the allegations that his company approved the latter's demand.
Orient Thai's Mr. Udom pointed out that the government should not employ double standard.
The government is dangling attractive incentives for airlines wanting to move to Don Mueang
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