Special: Abhisit govt faces tough choice on airport policy

The decision will be tough, but it will set the policy-making benchmark for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's three-month-old administration.

In theory, Bangkok will be best served

by the one-airport policy, meaning Suvarnabhumi should be used as the only aviation gateway with key domestic connections. Don Mueang should be kept as a secondary airport or centre for aviation-related facilities.

However, the airport hub policy has not played out like it should have ever since the US$3.5 billion-plus (Bt124 billion) Suvarnabhumi opened in late 2006 - just after the September 19 military coup that overthrew the Thaksin Shinawatra government.

The old Don Mueang Airport was then mothballed after functioning as Bangkok's international gateway for decades.

After running Suvarnabhumi as the sole commercial airport for less than six months, the Surayud Chulanont government decided to revive Don Mueang on grounds that the new airport was plagued with problems, making a dual-airport policy unavoidable.

"The reopening of Don Mueang was a victory for interest groups that used to benefit from the old airport, so many problems at Suvarnabhumi such as the shortage of toilets and taxiway cracks were put in the spotlight," said a source.

"Some taxiways were closed for repair, resulting in congestion, prompting the government to ask Thai Airways International and other domestic carriers to move part or all of their operations to Don Mueang," said a senior transport source.

The policy was later blamed for contributing to the flag carrier's mounting losses as THAI had to fly from both Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang.

Besides THAI, two other domestic carriers - Nok Air and One-To-Go - also moved to Don Mueang.

Proponents of the dual-airport policy also argued that the government was lagging behind its schedule for starting the second-phase expansion of Suvarnabhumi.

As a result, the new airport would be jammed up soon after opening, making it necessary to resurrect Don Mueang anyway.

Now, a similar logic is being employed by Transport Minister Sophon Saram, a key figure in the Newin Chidchob faction, to pressure Abhisit on the airport use policy.

The minister launched his offensive by ordering state-run THAI to shift all its 46 domestic flights from Don Mueang back to Suvarnabhumi.

That will cause more traffic at the new airport, which has been operating near its full capacity of 45 million passengers per year.

Then, the Newin group will soon push for the Cabinet's green light to invest Bt70 billion in the second-phase expansion of Suvarnabhumi in which the third runway and related facilities will have to be built.

The clique is known to be backed by the King Power Group of Companies, which holds the lucrative duty-free shop and commercial concessions inside Suvarnabhumi. King Power stands to gain enormously from the one-hub policy.

Abhisit has been reluctant to back THAI's plan to leave Don Mueang, but it seems he may not have a better choice than going for the one-airport policy.