Three airlines move back to old airport to make Suvarnabhumi less crowded

Bangkok’s new Suvarnabhumi Airport has caused a few more headaches for the government, airlines and passengers with overcrowding resulting in long check-in queues, long waits for baggage, long walks to boarding gates and airlines being subject to flight delays due to poor traffic management and congestion. As a result, three airlines have put up their hands to move their non-connecting domestic operations back to Don Muang Airport.

The older airport was closed on September 28 when Suvarnabhumi was opened. Now THAI, One-Two Go and Nok Air have are reopening the airport and bringing their non-connecting domestic operations back.

“We are ready to go back to Don Muang on 30 days’ notice,” said Nok Air CEO Patee Sarasin. This is convenient for Nok Air seeing as their current flights fly domestically, point-to-point.

This is different from Thai AirAsia and Bangkok Airways saying that all their operations were based around Suvarnabhumi and the high costs of operating two sites would not be a feasible option. The airlines also considered the factor of not wanting to lose international flight connections. As Thai AirAsia CEO Tassapon Bijeveld said: “We cannot afford to split our operations at two sites. It doesn’t make economic sense.”

One-Two-Go vice chairman Kajit Habanananda has said that the airline was also willing to absorb the costs that would arise from the move and would not incur an increase on their passengers. It is predicted that flights will recommence out of Don Muang on March 15.

It is not certain whether the move of only three airlines will take affect on the draining effect that overcrowding has been taking on Suvarnabhumi, but aviation analysts have estimated that the reopening of Don Muang would see between 15 to 30% reduction.