AoT project under scrutiny

Airports of Thailand has postponed its expansion of Suvarnabhumi Airport as the project comes under National Council for Peace and Order scrutiny.
Committee head, Lt Gen Anantaporn Kanchanarat, announced last week that the panel would re-examine the planned second phase of Suvarnabhumi Airport’s expansion proposed by AoT at a cost of THB62.5 billion claiming it was too expensive.
AoT president, Makin Petplai, said the NCPO committee’s on government spending told AoT to review the cost forcing the agency to postpone the project even though it was in the process of selecting a construction supervisor and was about to open the project to bids.
AoT is a public-listed company but still requires tax payers money to fund expansion. Critics suggest more government investment should go to education and public health and that airports should be totally funded by the private sector, except for air traffic control, security and navigation aids.
AoT in contrast argues that the second-phase project is necessary because the airport handles 51 million passengers annually, well above its original capacity of 45 million a year.
AoT hoped to start the phase two expansion, this December and have it ready by 2016 or early 2017 offering a combined capacity of 60 million passengers per year.
The project includes a concourse with 216,000 square metres of workable space and 28 adjacent aircraft parking bays, an additional aircraft parking area of 960,000 square metres, an underground passenger transport system and passenger terminal and airline office expansion.
However, the president insisted plans to improve Don Mueang Airport would move forward.
“For the time being, AoT is still moving ahead with improvements to Don Mueang Airport’s capacity to accommodate a surge in the number of passengers there.”
The upgrade to Don Mueang airport’s Terminal 2 is expected to be completed by October this year. This will allow the airport to handle 30 million passengers a year, up from 18 million at present.
It will take considerable pressure off Suvarnabhumi Airport as more low-cost airlines base their operations there and use Don Mueang Airport as a hub for regional connecting services.

Sourced: ttrweekly