Leading low-cost carrier Air Asia has announced they will be moving all of their Bangkok flights away from Suvarnabhumi airport in favour of Don Mueang. The change will be implemented by October 1, 2012. The announcement by Thai Air Asia follows a financial incentives package on offer from Airports of Thailand (AoT). The AoT package encourages low-cost carriers to move to Don Mueang in order to ease flight congestion at Bangkok’s main gateway airport, Suvarnabhumi.
The CEO of Thai Air Asia, Tassapon Bijleveld, said the move will enable Air Asia to manage costs more effectively and provide an improved service to passengers. Tassapon said, “The uncongested Don Mueang Airport is sure to prove a benefit to Air Asia when it boosts its fleet of Airbus A320s to a total of 48 and welcomes more customers. The airport’s location also makes it conducive to further travel. Prospective travellers should have confidence in what Don Mueang has to offer.”
Air Asia estimate that the move to Don Mueang will save them almost 1 million Baht a day in fuel costs alone. The airline says this is because of the congestion at Suvarnabhumi which often requires their flights to circle the airport for 10 minutes or more until a landing slot is available. Air Asia expects all of their Bangkok flights to be operating to and from Don Mueang from October 1 onward. Air Asia flights will retain their FD airline code and original schedules. The airport code for Bangkok Don Mueang is DMK (Suvarnabhumi is BKK).
There is an option for passengers affected by the change of airports to make changes to their travel plans, but this only applies to Air Asia passengers who booked their flights before June 26, 2012 and who are travelling from October 1 onwards. For full details, questions and contact information see the Air Asia website.
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