Suvarnabhumi Airport: Triumph or Fiasco?

by Dr. John C. Walsh

When the shiny new Suvarnabhumi Airport opened for commercial traffic on September 28^th, 2006, it looked like a glorious success for Thailand and a golden opportunity for the military junta to show themselves as modern and progressive by becoming associated with it. Now that association looks a little rash as the airport is on the verge of closing down again and those same generals are now looking for someone to blame – and of course the one they blame is the multiply elected ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The only problem? No evidence. How did all this happen?

Plans for a new airport for Bangkok have been percolating for more than forty years. The existing airport, Don Muang, was a good and trusty servant but the Thai people – well, successive Thai governments – always fancied something little glitzier and more impressive for their country. The American War in Vietnam had helped to stimulate the growth of industrial-level entertainment and tourist resorts in and around Bangkok and the thought of profits was strong in the air. A suitable location was eventually determined: Nong Ngu Hao, the perhaps unfortunately-named Cobra Swamp, so-called because of the numerous snakes slithering about the place. Unfortunately, political instability and lack of money meant that even though purchase of land took place in the early 1970s, it was not until the mid-1990s that serious organizational preparation for the airport took place. Alas, the 1997 financial crisis then caused another delay and years more passed.

In the early years of the current century, during the Thaksin administration, serious construction of the airport began. The land had to be drained and massive levels of infrastructure put into place to make it all work. Foreign and Thai engineers worked together to try to solve the many technical problems involved. The airport, named after the fabled ‘Golden Kingdom’ that is once said to have been located in Southeast Asia, is claimed to have the world’s largest passenger terminal and impressive amounts of glass and steel and all manner of wonderful facilities. The reality has been a little different: the glass quickly becomes dirty and seems to leak; the car park is not ready and is rather dirty; there is a curious lack of toilets and some parts of the airport seem to be working at fairly close to their capacity just a few months after opening, even though it was supposed to be capacious enough to become the principal transportation hub of Southeast Asia. This is Thailand and so: Who is to blame? Certainly it appeared that the opening of the airport was rushed – anyone visiting even today will find teams of workers dashing about fixing things here and there. This is in part because of the Thai practice of finding auspicious days on which something should happen and then changing the schedule to make sure that it does happen on that day. If September 25^th, therefore, were considered a particularly lucky day for starting a new venture, then that is the day the airport must open ready or not.

This being Thailand, there have been suspicions at almost every stage that corruption has been involved, both in the construction of the airport and in the provision of its services. One particular case has been that of the bomb scanning equipment ordered from America. Stories about the alleged corruption in this deal have been swirling around for years but separate investigations both here in Thailand and in the USA have found nothing wrong. After the military coup deposed the democratically-elected government and installed a junta, ruling through the junta-appointed ‘prime minister’ General Surayud Chulanont, have started a third investigation into the same issue. The junta seized power after (but perhaps not because of) a series of street demonstrations organised by super-rich media tycoon and anti-democracy activist Sondhi Limthongkul, and used allegations of corruption against the democratically elected prime minister Thaksin as part of its justification for their act. In the months that have followed the September 19^th coup, despite many wild allegations, no meaningful evidence has yet been brought forward against the deposed prime minister. As a result, the junta and its supporters have sought to pin the blame for just about everything on the Thaksin regime (and the many millions of voters who kept on voting for it and its policies of redistribution).

One thing that is certain is that around 5% of the surface area of the runway system has shown cracks. Stories about cracks on the runway have also been circling around for some time – when the story was broken the Thaksin government used heavy-handed tactics to complain to the Bangkok Post which ran it and, rather shamefully, the newspaper folded and sacked the reporter concerned and an editor who printed it. However, there is considerable doubt about the importance or significance of these cracks. In one story, there are dangerous and require the whole airport to be closed down; in the next, they are trivial and can be ignored and are, indeed, to be expected in any airport (Fullbrook, 2007). Most stories tend now to tend towards a compromise position, although not on the basis of any particular evidence. For example, there may be infringements of building codes but these can be easily fixed (Amornrat, 2007). The military government has made things worse by its confidence-sapping dithering – one day the airport will close, the next day it will not, the third day it will close a little bit. The news today (February 22^nd, 2007) is that some flights will be moved to Don Mueang which will open again on March 25^th (although the unelected and unaccountable Transport Minister has called on the airport to hurry up and open early, on the 15^th). Which flights? More than 60 international carriers have made it clear that they will not move; some are canceling flights altogether. (MCOT, 2007) The chance of Bangkok becoming recognized as the regional hub diminish by the day. Other chances of survival diminish accordingly.

References and Further Reading

“Transport Ministry Wants Don Muang as Domestic Aviation Hub,” MCOT News (February 16^th, 2007), downloaded from: http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=27961.

Amornrat Mahitthirook, “Airport Terminal Violates Building Controls,” Bangkok Post (February 22^nd, 2007), downloaded from: http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=116973.

Fullbrook, David, “Cracks Appear in Thai Aviation-Hub Hopes,” Asia Times (February 7^th, 2007), downloaded from: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IB07Ae01.html.

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