Third airport proposed

[reader]

From Coconuts Bangkok

Seven years from now, Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi may not be the only airports welcoming passengers in Bangkok with word that construction of a third is being considered to alleviate overcrowding.

Presented as the antidote to painful congestion at Bangkok’s two major airports, plans for a new airport in western metro Bangkok’s Nakhon Pathom province, the capital’s third air travel hub, were announced Saturday by government aviation officials.

Deputy director-general of the Airport Department, Jarun Meesomboon, said a proposal for the 560-hectare (3,500-rai) airport was being rushed for approval by the Transport Ministry. It would straddle Nakhon Pathom’s Bang Len and Nakhon Chaisi districts. He very optimistically predicted it would cost THB20 billion (US$65 million) and take four years to complete.

Under best-case circumstances, the department would begin construction in 2023 and open the airport by 2026. Jarun predicted that more than 1 million passengers would use the new airport in its first year and that could become a key regional gateway such as those in Kohn Kean or Surat Thani. 

Officials are proposing the new airport could be geared toward international travel from South Asia and Southeast Asia. Travel from the Indian subcontinent has spiked in the past year, offsetting losses in arrivals from China.

https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/third-bangkok-airport-proposed-to-ease-overcrowding-pain/

 

[macaroni21]

20 billion baht is closer to USD 650 million, but it still feels wildly optimistic. Compare that figure with Heathrow's Terminal 2's cost -- over GBP 2.3 billion, for a terminal with a capacity of 30 million passengers a year. Sydney's been proposing a Terminal 4 but I can't find any cost estimate. Singapore's 2-year-old Terminal 4 cost over USD1 billion for a facility with a capacity of 17 million. None of these projects involve(d) extra runways, or all the radar and signalling equipment runways need, or extra hangars -- stuff which will be required for an entirely new airport such as Nakhon Pathom.

Bangkok Post (https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1715903/third-bangkok-airport-proposed ) is saying that the Nakhon Pathom airport is planned for 25 million passengers a year -- somewhere  between Singapore's Terminal 4 and Heathrow's Terminal 2.

The same Bangkok Post story has something else that should dispel any illusions. It says: "A revised plan to build a 42-billion-baht second terminal was recently shelved as authorities said it deviated too much from the original master plan. Discussions are under way on a new approach." 

See the 42 billion baht figure for a just a terminal? More importantly, see the word "shelved"? Welcome to Thailand. 

http://shamelessmacktwo.travel.blog/

[reader]

A agree that this proposal seems far-fetched when you consider that there is still no agreement on the much needed additional terminal at Swampy.

Nakhon Pathom (one of five provinces that comprise the greater Bangkok region) is a two-hour drive from downtown Bangkok and prone to traffic delays. It doesn't seem that it would be an attractive destination for travelers bound for the city.

The topic of the new Swampy terminal was initially covered in a post DivineMadman started and provides good background information.

 

[PeterRS]

Have we all forgotten that it was not much more than 12 years ago that the Thai government egged on by IATA wanted to close down Don Mueang and push all air traffic through Suvarnabhumi? Don Mueang was even closed for a few months before it was decided to tart it up and reopen it for low cost carriers. Last year DMK handled almost 41 million passengers and BKK remains massively overcrowded. Can you imagine what BKK would be like now if DMK had actually been demolished?

I cannot believe a third airport will open in the lifetimes of most of us. When you take into account all the corruption that will be involved with politicians and their cronies buying up all the land for the airport and its approach expressways and then reselling to the government at vastly inflated prices, the corruption surrounding the bids for runway and terminal construction, the usual delays as committee after committee investigates this, that and the next thing, but especially the vast cost overruns,  changes in government which in turn mandate design changes and so on, it just is not going to happen.  After all, it took 33 years from the purchase of the first piece of land for a new Bangkok airport until BKK finally opened.  Thailand is so predictable!