And then there were two airports
THE NATION
The move to reopen Don Muang to serve domestic as well as international airlines underscores the magnitude of the problems at Suvarnabhumi.
Time was not on the government's side.
And that is the main reason why Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont was pressured into quickly deciding the fate of Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports.
Gen Surayud surprised the Transport Ministry on Tuesday when he decided to table the agenda regarding the future of the two airports at the cabinet meeting. Originally, the ministry wanted one more week to thoroughly assess damages at Suvarnabhumi Airport before asking cabinet to officially endorse a relocation plan.
However, after listening to reports from his team of advisers, the PM realised that his government did not have the luxury of time. He wanted to make it clear what the government intends to do with Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports so that officials at both airports and airlines would have more time to prepare for the move, map out what needs to be done and settle everything before the long weekend during the Songkran festival.
"He wants to make clear the direction so that every agency involved has sufficient time to come up with its plans of operation," said Transport Minister Theera Haocharoen.
Under the original plan favoured by the minister and the Airports of Thailand Plc, Don Muang would be used for domestic flights with no connections to overseas destinations. However, the PM decided that the old airport must service international routes, too.
Having two airports would not be unusual. Many big cities also have more than one airport to service fliers. Tokyo has its flagship airport at Narita and another airport at Haneda; London has Heathrow and Gatwick, while Berlin has as many as three airports at Tegel, Tempelhof and Schoenfeld.
The government's decision, however, can be read as underlining the magnitude of problems at Suvarnabhumi. For now, the main problems plaguing the new airport in Samut Prakan's Bang Phli district are cracks on its runways and taxiways, damages to passenger boarding bridges, and other facilities at the terminal. A source involved with the issue estimated that repair work would take longer than previously expected - somewhere between less than one year to about two years - in a worst-case scenario.
While closing down the whole airport to fix its many problems might expedite the work, it is not an option preferred by anyone. That means the authorities will have to close one or two sections each time to enable repair and maintenance work.
Another big worry for people involved with the airport's operation is its emergency plan and readiness to cope with such a situation if it arises.
Suvarnabhumi did not have an integrated test run of all its systems before the Sept 28 opening. Even now, its emergency manual remains unclear and its systems inadequately tested.
These problems are, indeed, pressing, which has prompted the government to act quickly.
Indeed, reopening the 92-year-old Don Muang is not a new idea. It has been an option for the ministry and AoT to ponder over, when the less than five-month-old Suvarnabhumi reaches its capacity load - set at 45 million users a year - which is expected to be soon, as it is now handling close to 40 million passengers in the first year.
While the previous regime under Thaksin Shinawatra did not have a one-airport policy, he tried to make it public that Suvarnabhumi would be the only airport for the capital, to end the reluctance of some airlines which preferred to stay at Don Muang when Suvarnabhumi was ready for operation.
The situation now is quite the opposite.
The Surayud government is concerned that if it failed to clarify on the policy of having two international airports, no one would be willing to move back to Don Muang.
Initially, the ministry and AoT believed that relocating only point-to-point domestic flights back to Don Muang would be enough to alleviate the traffic at Suvarnabhumi to pave way for repair work.
But sources at the ministry and AoT who are involved in the problems at Suvarnabhumi said that it would not. More flights had to be diverted to the old airport so that the repair work at Suvarnabhumi could be carried out smoothly, they said.
Some concourses might have to be temporarily closed down while repairmen started working on fixing the problems, they added.
Now that the government has made its decision, the burden falls on the Transport Ministry, particularly the Civil Aviation Department, to translate it into action.
Thai Airways International will have no choice but to stay put at Suvarnabhumi, using the new airport as its main base to maintain the objective of the government to use Suvarnabhumi as the country's main airport, with some flights to be diverted to Don Muang.
Thai AirAsia and other budget airlines will be happy about the possibility of coming back to Don Muang to reduce their operation costs.
A source at the ministry said they are working out details on the relocation, but the principle is clear.
"Not all airlines will be allowed to return," the source close to the issue said.
An airline source, however, warned that cargo services should not be allowed to move to Don Muang because it could jeopardise long-term investment plans at Suvarnabhumi and hamper the country's plan to use the new airport as a hub for cargo in the region.
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