Thai Change From Don Meaung to Suvarnabhumi

1st Apr 2009

Thai Airways International's moving of its domestic flight operations from Don Meaung back to Suvarnabhumi Airport on 29 March, 2009 is good news for Phuket tourism.

Many more international transit passengers will be able to make smoother connections off flights to Phuket. The splitting of domestic flights between Suvarnabhumi and Don Meaung two years ago was very costly to THAI as it caused problems for transit passengers coming through Don Meaung having to cross busy and congested Bangkok to get an international flight.

Suvaranabhumi Airport, despite the size of its one terminal, which makes walking from the gate to immigration longer, is well equipped to handle transit passengers off international flights to Phuket, certainly a lot better than getting a bus or taxi across Bangkok for anywhere from 40 minutes to over an hour.

This is particularly important as international traffic to Thailand, and particularly Phuket, continues to be strong, despite all of the problems facing the airline industry and individuals gripped by the world recession.

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For example last year, despite high oil prices, the closure of three Thailand airports, including PIA and the global recession, international passenger numbers to Phuket actually increased by 9.99 percent to 2,409,172. Even the number of flights was up by 1.72 percent.

Overall passenger numbers, including domestic, at PIA for 2008 remained almost the same as the previous year, which was considered a better year, at 5.7 million. The airport had anticipated 6 million passengers in December but not having a significant decrease underscored Phuket's continued strength as a top tourist destination.

The disturbing figure for PIA was a big drop in the number of flights in and out of the airport, from 40,799 in 2007 to 37,991 in 2008. This means airlines would have pulled Phuket off their route structure for financial reasons and also it reflects the grounding of One-Two-Go and Nok Air, the two low cost carriers, for some months.

In this regard the upcoming international summer schedule promises some good, and not so good, prospects for Phuket. Thai Air Asia has signaled it wants to fly more international flights into Phuket, including the tempting possibility of a direct flight from Hong Kong. At present Dragonair, the Cathay Pacific owned carrier, has a strong grip on this lucrative route.

Many Hong Kong Chinese and expats have property investments in Phuket, including high quality time-shares. In addition to Dragonair's direct flights, six other airlines service Phuket via Hong Kong.

THAI will come off the Bangkok-Phuket-Taipei, Taiwan route this summer but the airline has expanded its overall international regional schedule by increasing frequencies between Bangkok and Lahore in India; Kumming, Chengdu, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou in China; Fukuoka and Osaka in Japan; Seoul in South Korea and Taipei in Taiwan.

All of this increased traffic through Suvarnabhumi, plus up to 4500 a day extra passengers from the previous Don Meuang operation will put considerable pressure on the major Bangkok airport and increase the urgency of expanding its 45 million a year capacity to the originally planned for 100 million passengers a year.

Also encouraging is a survey by the Pacific Asia Travel Association [PATA] and Visa, the credit card company which set out to determine travel preferences in 2009 and beyond. The survey of 5554 people found 36 percent did not expect to make any changes to their travel plans in the near future, while 64 percent were reviewing their plans in light of economic uncertainty.

Among those reviewing their plans, 57 percent said they would look for cheaper alternatives while 38 percent said they would travel within their own country.

A break down of nationalities is a mixed bag. It shows that Australians, British, Singaporeans, Indians, French and Americans are less likely to let economic conditions affect their plans while Chinese Taipei, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and China are more likely to change their plans.

While the first group may be high spenders, the reality is that the most visitors to places like Phuket come from the second group in total numbers. Visitor arrival numbers and nationalities over the next year will bear very close watching to see if a trend emerges that Phuket is back on track.

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