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Suvarnabhumi » Thailand’s airport imbroglio grows

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

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Reports of damage to runways and tarmacs at Bangkok’s new airport have been significantly overblown, a government panel of engineers set up to investigate the problems said Friday.

New Bangkok Airport Exaggerated Crack Photo

“There are no cracks,” Suchatvee Suwansawat, the secretary of the panel, said as he stood over a section of asphalt cut up as part of the investigation. The main problem was ruts, not cracks in the asphalt, Suchatvee and other experts said, contradicting several weeks of reports in local media here.

“The cement base is fine. The problem can be fixed.”

While good news for the more than 40 million passengers expected to use Suvarnabhumi Airport this year, the findings may complicate efforts by Thailand’s military- appointed government to use shoddy construction at the airport as one of the justifications for the coup that ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who pushed the construction project through during his five years in power.

Plagued by delays and allegations of corruption during four decades of planning and construction, Suvarnabhumi was touted as a regional hub that would take business away from airports in Hong Kong and Singapore.

But since opening in September, the airport has been criticized by travel agents and travelers for its overcrowded arrival and departure halls, lack of signage, long lines at immigration and lengthy walks to gates. The facility has been the focus of a fierce political firestorm, with the government accusing Thaksin of rampant corruption in the building of the airport.

An ally of Thaksin, Chotisak Asapaviriya, resigned Thursday as president of Airports of Thailand, the government-controlled company that manages Suvarnabhumi. Asapaviriya said the imbroglio over the airport had been so stressful that he needed to resign to maintain his health.

The panel of engineers said it was unusual for tarmacs at Suvarnabhumi airport to be damaged only four months after opening, but played down the magnitude of the problem. Reporters who accompanied officials Friday to what were described as the worst-affected areas saw ruts a few centimeters deep but only a small area with hairline cracks.

“This is a common type of damage. You see it in airports all over the United States,” said Noppodol Phien- Wej, a representative from the Consulting Engineers Association of Thailand and a member of the committee investigating the problems.

“What is unusual here is the scale of the problem and the speed it is happening.” About 70,000 square meters, or 84,000 square yards, amounting to 2.3 percent of the airport’s total pavement, is damaged, said Noppodol, noting that damage to the runways is “minute.”

The finding dovetails with comments from airlines that use the airport. “Everything is normal,” said James Ward, a spokesperson for British Airways. “So far we haven’t had any reported problems. Takeoffs and landing are normal. We haven’t heard any complaints from the staff.”

Thaksin was both credited for speeding up a project that had stalled and criticized for rushing it into completion.

“To say that all the corruption was confined to the Thaksin regime is exaggerated,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a former consultant to Airports of Thailand who helped prepare the company for its listing on the stock market. “But most of the construction was done under Thaksin.”

Thitinan predicted that future investigations would reveal further problems and malfeasance. “What we are seeing today is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Every aspect of the project, Thitinan said, “the duty free concessions, the parking lost construction, the baggage system — has got something hidden underneath.”

“This airport is really the embodiment of all that was wrong with Thaksin: the corruption, cronyism, the hubris,” Thitinan said. “It’s reached a point where it’s not just a national embarrassment. It could collapse the aviation industry and the Thai economy could really take a hit.”

Initial plans for the airport date back four decades but the bulk of the construction was carried out during the administration of Thaksin, who was prime minister from 2001 until he was deposed in a coup last September.

With Suvarnabhumi running close to its capacity of 45 million passengers a year, the government will decide Tuesday whether to transfer some flights to the old airport, Don Muang, which today handles only charter flights. Proposals range from allowing low-fare airlines to use the old facility to reserving Don Muang for domestic flights. ( Uamdao Noikorn/Thomas Fuller – International Herald Tribune)

Asphalt have been excavated

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