BANGKOK TWO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS, DON MEUANG AND SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORTS: NON CONNECTING FLIGHTS WILL FLY TO DON MEUANG

AOT, which manages all the airports of Thailand has decided to open again former Bangkok international airports Don Muang for international flights.

This former international airport had first been closed to all public flights since September 2006 when the new Bangkok airport opened, then re-opened to domestic flights, and now Don Muang airport will also be used for non-connecting international flights to relieve congestion at the new airport.

The new Bangkok airport Suvarnabhumi (pronounce Su-wa-na-poom) airport was designed to serve up to 45 million passengers annually but one year after its grand opening its traffic is expected to rise to 46.7 million passengers, its full capacity.

The first step to treat traffic congestion has been to reopen the former Don Muang international airport to domestic flights from most of the airlines, as Thai Airways International, Nok Air and One-Two-Go (low cost airline that lately had a crashed plane in Phuket resort island) airlines in March 2007, but as this was not enough the board of AOT has decided to reopen Don Muang airport also to international flights.

AoT will invite more than twenty airlines including some low cost airlines to move their non-connecting international flights back to Don Meuang on a voluntary basis as non-connecting international services of these airlines account for more than 20% of Suvarnabhumi international airport.

Some airlines already are interested as the maintenance cost at Don Muang airport is lower than at the new Suvarnabhumi airport, and if all these international flights return to the former airport, the passenger volume at Suvarnabhumi airport will drop to about 37.2 million passengers a year, and then allow to the new airport not to reach its saturation point before 5 years at least and also allow AoT to delay expansion of Suvarnabhumi airport, which is already too small.

But one of the main problem is that there is no subway or any rail link to reach Don Meuang international airport, and also no rail link between the two Bangkok airports. Only one rail link will start service next year, from Suvarnabhumi airport to downtown (with links to Bangkok BTS (subway) and MRT (skytrain)).