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Suvarnabhumi » Surging traffic puts former Bangkok Airport ahead of Hong Kong and Changi

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

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The number of travellers passing through Bangkok rose to 31.46 million from January to September, a 10.76% increase from the same period in 2005, underscoring the capital’s position as a major air hub of Asia.

Air traffic through Bangkok grew robustly in the first nine months of the year as tourism rebounded from the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami and budget carriers continued to proliferate.

The increased traffic has helped Bangkok top rivals Hong Kong and Singapore in the world rankings for the busiest airport, according to the latest statistics from Airports Council International (ACI), a Geneva-based coalition of nearly 1,100 airports. Bangkok International Airport (Don Muang) was the world’s 12th busiest airport through the first five months of the year, up from 18th last year.

Hong Kong International Airport moved up two spots to 14th in the rankings, while Singapore Changi International Airport finished 24th from January to May.

Industry analysts said the traffic through Bangkok could have been higher if the congested Don Muang had more room to handle greater demand.

The 92-year-old airport, which closed on Sept 28, handled around 39 million passengers last year _ almost 10 million beyond its designed capacity.

The new Suvarnabhumi Airport can accommodate 45 million passengers, but industry groups expect that figure to be reached quickly.

The combined air traffic for this year is projected at 43.4 million passengers, an 11.5% increase on 2005, according to AOT.

That means AOT must start to expand Suvarnabhumi faster than previously anticipated to meet demand, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and aviation experts.

To relieve the expected congestion at Suvarnabhumi, AoT plans to build an 800-million-baht passenger terminal for low-budget airlines that would divert up to 15 million passengers a year from the main terminal.

The no-frills structure is expected to be operational by early 2008.

Even so, AOT has not held serious talks about the original plan to expand by building a more refined mid-field terminal, a third runway and supporting facilities that would raise the airport’s capacity to 54 million by 2011.

In the first nine months of the year, the number of international travellers moving through Don Muang rose 10.68% percent year-on-year to reach 23.16 million, while domestic passengers grew 11% to 8.30 million.

The total number of flights coming in and out of Bangkok in the first nine months of the year increased 5.16% to 208,553 compared to the same period last year, according to AoT figures. The company projects a total of 280,000 flights for the year.

The number of international flights in the first nine months rose 2.62% to 134,700, while domestic air traffic jumped 10.12% in that time to reach 13,842.
Cargo moving through Don Muang edged up 6.26% in the nine-month period to 937,306 tonnes, comprising 893,585 tonnes for international (up 6.46%) and 43,721 tonnes domestic (up 2.33%).

Domestic traffic continued to be stimulated by low-cost carriers, which have benefited the most from the tourism recovery. Budget aircraft accounted for about a third of domestic flights. (Bkk Post)

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