28 airports set to remain in DCA's grip | Bangkok Post: business

The 28 state-owned provincial airports, mostly inactive and costing taxpayers' money to run, are expected to remain in the hands of Department of Civil Aviation (DCA).

Keeping those airports under the DCA is high among the recommendations officials are putting forward for Transport Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat to settle the long-standing question of whether the facilities should be taken over by the private sector.Another suggestion was for the two state enterprises _ Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT) and Thai Airways International _ to operate the airports with the government providing them with subsidies in the form of management fees.

Despite Bangkok Airways' repeated expressions of interest, officials described the private sector's takeover of the management of these airports as "of low probability", as many of them may be commercially viable.