Suvarnabhumi Airport Traffic Declines

1st Apr 2014

For the first time since 2010, Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport saw a sharp decline in passenger traffic as many airlines either reduced frequency or ceased services to the Thai capital due to the political crisis that plagues the country for almost five months now.

The political unrest began in October 31 last year following the passage of an amnesty bill by lawmakers who are allied to the present government and currently dominate the House of Representatives, in terms of numbers. This angered anti-government groups who quickly assembled sporadic mass actions across the capital.

As a result, foreign governments issued travel advisories to its citizens against unnecessary travel to Thailand, prompting many airlines from those countries to either reduce frequency or downsize capacity or temporarily cease operations to and from Thailand.

Suvarnabhumi Airport reported about 10% decline in passenger traffic during the month of February alone, from 4.3 million in February 2013 down to 3.8 million in February 2014.

Based on the data released by Airport of Thailand (AoT), the country's six major international gateways recorded a combined total of 15.38 million passengers for the first two months this year. Suvarnabhumi Airport handled more than half of the total with 8.27 million passengers while Don Mueang, also in Bangkok, handled 3 million.

AoT data showed that, overall, the six airports posted a 9.28% increase in terms of aircraft movement for the month of February which proportionately increased the number of flights to more than 50,000 from 47,770 during the same period last year. The entire system, however, saw a decline in passenger movement down to 7.2 million from 7.3 million it recorded over the same period last year.

Suvarnabhumi Airport posted a 3% and 5.7% increase in international and domestic aircraft movements, respectively, during the one-month period.

The growth in aircraft movement though didn't translate to passenger traffic growth as the country's premier airport saw a 10.11% decline in passenger traffic during the period with only international traffic contributed the negative growth at 12.7%. The slight improvement in domestic traffic at 1.8% tempered the decrease somehow.

During the period, international passenger traffic dropped to 3.08 million from 3.5 million over the same period. The airport posted a positive growth in domestic passenger traffic with 789,800, a slight increase from the previous year's 775,222.

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