Suvarnabhumi Bangkok Airport – The Hub of South East Asia

Thailand Airports Flight Status:

Exchange Rates:

Airport Codes:

Airport Maps:

Airport Tax:

Airport News:

Suvarnabhumi Airports of Thailand


Custom Search


Airports of Thailand offering big discounts on aircraft landing fees to airlines

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

Airports of Thailand Plc (AOT) is adopting an incentive scheme to attract scheduled international air traffic to its four airports outside Bangkok through hefty reductions in aircraft landing fees, effective today.

The cuts, by as much as 95% of its normal fees, are essentiality aimed at luring newAirport Landing Fee carriers to operate through the four airports and encouraging those already operating to step up frequencies, said officials of the majority-state-owned firm.

The ‘aviation marketing incentive programme’ is applied to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket and Hat Yai where traffic volumes have been growing slowly.

It is also aimed at spurring tourism to those provinces where local industries have been urging Airports of Thailand to help attract airlines to their locations.

The concessions do not cover Airports of Thailand‘s two Bangkok airports, the flagship Suvarnabhumi and the 93-year-old Don Muang serving non-connecting domestic flights.

But airlines have been critical of airport service charges that were increased earlier this year, including a 15% jump in landing and parking fees and concession fees levied by Airports of Thailand against ground-handling companies that are passed on to the airlines.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said that the higher charges have made turnaround costs at Bangkok higher than at Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Singapore Changi Airport.

Airports of Thailand‘s newly introduced scheme is similar to what has been practised by Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and Singapore Changi airport in their bid to attract carriers.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) offers new foreign airlines and existing airlines that add new destinations or frequencies to KLIA a three-year waiver on landing fees and then 75% and 50% discounts, respectively, for the next two years.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has introduced a similar scheme to attract traffic to Changi, under the Air Hub Development Fund. Early last year, it rolled out its second fund worth S$300 million.

Airports of Thailand‘s landing fee discounts vary in accordance with different criteria.

The reduced fees are only applied to the incremental flights in the last two cases. Based on the same conditions, a 30% discount is given for domestic flights.

While the discounts are given throughout the year at the Chiang Mai, Hat Yai and Chiang Rai airports, the concession is only applied for the summer flight schedule (April-October) for the Phuket airport, Airports of Thailand‘s busiest provincial port.

The landing and parking fees for a Boeing 747-400 at Airports of Thailand airports total US$ 1,892 based on an exchange rate of 34 baht to the dollar.

For the year to September 30, 2007, passengers through Chiang Mai airport increased 9.5% year-on-year to 3.37 million; Hat Yai was up 3.28% to 1.33 million; Phuket up 22.61% to 5.47 million and Chiang Rai up 2.18% to 711,662, according to Airports of Thailand figures.  (BkkPost)



Airports of Thailand told to buy land and buildings within 10km around airport

Friday, October 26th, 2007

Airports of Thailand (AOT) has been told to acquire land and structures within a 10-kilometre radius of Suvarnabhumi airport, to solve all problems with residential communities nearby. The acquired land would be developed commercially to raise money that would reimburse all acquisition expenses, Deputy Transport Minister Sansern Wongcha-um said.

He had already informed Airports of Thailand president-designate AM Chana U.Sathaporn of the policy.

“The policy has existed since the time I took office. I have repeatedly told Airports of Thailand executives the problem needs a long-term solution. That is, the land must be acquired and then developed to generate income to reimburse (the land acquisition cost). Many private parties are interested in the possibility,” he said.

The National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) had suggested that residential communities should no longer be allowed to exist in the areas surrounding  Suvarnabhumi airport that are affected by airplane noise pollution.

The NESDB recommended that the Airports of Thailand acquire all the land surrounding the airport and use the money raised from interested developers to fund the acquisition.

Mr Sansern advised Airports of Thailand to hire a consultancy to study how best to develop the land. Representatives of freight forwarders have suggested that cargo yards or facilities for manufacturing goods for export be developed in the vicinity of the airport.

Mr Sansern also said he had ordered Airports of Thailand to speed up the process of compensating property owners who have been affected by over 70 decibels of aircraft noise pollution.

So far only six out of a total of 773 property owners that fit the criteria have been compensated since Suvarnabhumi started operating in September last year.

Compensation has been too slow, he said, and he wants all the owners to be compensated by early next month.  (BkkPost)



State Railway given one month to finish Airport Rail Link plan

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

The state railway has been given one more month to complete its plan for the operation of the Bangkok Airport Rail Link so it can begin running on schedule. Deputy Transport Minister Sansern Wongcha-um said the railway linking Suvarnabhumi airport and Makkasan in the inner city was due to open late next year.

However, the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) still did not have a concrete plan for its operation or for establishing the entity to run the system.

Setting up the operating body and training staff to run the service would all take time, and there was not much time remaining, he said.

The SRT must complete the plan within a month and he would forward it to the cabinet for approval right away.

The state railway has talked about setting up a subsidiary to run the Bangkok Airport Rail Link.

It says that as a state enterprise, the SRT is not flexible enough for the task. The subsidiary may also operate other electric railways being built from Bang Sue to Rangsit and Bang Sue to Taling Chan.

In the same one month time frame, Mr Sansern also wants the SRT to come up with a plan to expand the Bangkok Airport Rail Link to the Bang Sue railway station, which will be developed as a new railway terminus for Bangkok in the future.

The SRT must plan a new railway to link Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports.

Mr Sansern said the 29 billion baht, 28km Airport Rail Link project was riddled with unresolved problems. For example, the official construction period affected the financing.

The original contract gave the consortium of Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction 990 days to complete building the railway. The deadline is, Nov 5, 2007, less than two weeks away.

Because the SRT was too slow handing the land for the route over to the contractor, and because of flooding, the deadline was missed, he said.

The SRT had yet to fix an exact extension date for the contract, he said. The official construction time was important because the financing was timed to the completion of construction. Cost of construction to Nov 5 was estimated at 19 billion baht, with additional financing of about 9.9 billion baht needed for the rest of the job.

The SRT must also reach an agreement with Airports of Thailand (AOT), which had completed the terminal section of the rail link. The 3.8 billon baht section was inside Suvarnabhumi airport and consisted of an underground tunnel and a station.

If the SRT could not afford to pay Airports of Thailand (AOT) the construction price, it might be able to rent it, Mr Sansern said.

The Assets Scrutiny Committee was still investigating why the SRT management agreed to pay the lending fee for the airport link‘s financing, instead of the contractor.

Despite these problems, Mr Sansern said the Transport Ministry would take action to ensure the continuation of the project’s construction because Suvarnabhumi airport needed the new railway.

The Airport Rail Link will feature two systems running electric trains. One is an express train which will stop at only a few stations between the inner city and Suvarnabhumi airport. The other is a commuter train stopping at every station. (BkkPost)



« Previous Suvarnabhumi News — Next Suvarnabhumi News »


Related Topics


Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel