Thai airports buck low season trend

21 Jun 2013 2038 | Business & Trade Fairs

BANGKOK : Airports of Thailand reports an increase in both aircraft movements and passenger traffic, in May, at six airports under its management.

AoT released details, Tuesday, showing improvements in aircraft movements of 17.27%. Flights increased from 39,985 to 46,890. The entire system handled 6,761,369 passengers in May improving 20.54% from 5,609,089 during the same month last year.

Suvarnabhumi Airport registered a slight increase in international aircraft movements of 2.07 from 18,940 to 19,332, while domestic movements dropped 33.24% from 7,467 to 4,985 movements.

International passenger traffic grew 3.61% from 3,151,238 to 3,264,991. Due to the switch in services to Don Mueang, domestic passengers declined 30.15% from 985,281 to 688,241.

Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport continues to register massive increases in both aircraft movements and passenger traffic due to the airline migration late last year.

International aircraft movements increased 1,223.46% from 260 to 3,441, while domestic movements recorded a growth of 104.39% from 3,939 to 8,051. The comparisons are being made against months when the airport was used for just private flights.

International passengers at Don Mueang also posted a growth of 8,938.38% from 4,872 to 440,350 and domestic passengers increased 204.41% from 284,165 to 865,014.

Don Mueang is now officially an international airport with AirAsia serving all of its regional points. All Thailand’s domestic airlines are now based at Don Mueang. Only THAI and Bangkok Airways continue to serve their domestic networks from Suvarnabhumi, due to the need to provide connecting services for their international flights.

The northern gateway, Chiang Mai International Airport, continued to show growth in May. Both international and domestic aircraft movements registered double-digit increases of 73.05% (371 to 642) and 9.30% (2,473 to 2,703).

International passenger traffic grew 66.22% (33,221 to 55,221), while domestic traffic grew 23.20% (273,532 to 336,993).

The southern gateway, Phuket International Airport also registered growth in all sectors. International aircraft movements gained 30.49% from 2,345 to 3,060. Domestic movements grew 10.74% from 2,420 to 2,680.

Both international and domestic passenger traffic grew 28.14% (630,440 to 807,830).

Chiang Rai International Airport reported a decline in aircraft movements of 6.84% (570 to 531), while passenger traffic grew 10.14% (73,672 to 81,145). Orient Thai stopped its operations to the far north town. It served the airport three times daily.

Hat Yai International Airport reported a decline of 5.97% in international aircraft movements (134 to 126), while passenger traffic grew 25.61% (1,066 to 1,339) in May. Meanwhile, overall passenger traffic registered a 28.33% growth from 172,668 to 221,584 passengers.