Zero-dollar crackdown hits U-tapao airport

Zero-dollar crackdown hits U-tapao airport

Rayong facility sees steep drop in arrivals

Chinese tourists pose in front of Khao Chi Chan, Chon Buri province. The government's zero-dollar tour clampdown has slowed arrivals of Chinese visitors. SEKSAN ROJJANAMETAKUL
Chinese tourists pose in front of Khao Chi Chan, Chon Buri province. The government's zero-dollar tour clampdown has slowed arrivals of Chinese visitors. SEKSAN ROJJANAMETAKUL

The slowdown in Chinese arrivals caused by the clampdown on zero-dollar inbound tour scams has reduced passenger traffic through U-tapao airport.

Over the past few months, the Royal Thai Navy-operated airport in Rayong saw its passenger throughput drop by as much as 40% compared with previous months.

The slowdown in Chinese arrivals is causing the airport to miss its million-plus target for total passenger handling in the fiscal year ending Sept this year. Instead, around 800,000 passengers are expected, U-tapao director Worapol Tongpricha told the Bangkok Post.

For last fiscal year, U-tapao, the main airport serving Pattaya, processed 710,000 passengers, six times more than the previous year, due to influx of Chinese tourists.

"We have seen some return in Chinese arrivals this month but frankly it is difficult to say how long it will take to rebound to the normal rate," he said.

Chinese travellers constitute the bulk of international arrivals at U-tapao on charter flights and scheduled services operated by low-cost carrier AirAsia group.

The Thai and Malaysia AirAsia airlines handle 50,000-60,000 passengers a month through U-tapao on eight routes, two of them linking with Nanning and Nachang on the Mainland.

Rear Adm Worapol also noted that some Russian tourists, who over the years have faithfully travelled to Pattaya for the holidays, are diverting to Phuket and Krabi because of reduced package tour prices.

That diversion is trimming some Russian traffic, mostly on charter flights, to U-tapao.

But the slowdown in passenger throughput has reduced the pressure for U-tapao to fully open its new passenger terminal.

The existing passenger terminal has the capacity to process 800,000 passengers, meaning it can cope with expected demand in 2017.

Rear Adm Worapol said the full-scale opening of the new terminal has been put off until around July or August of this year, from February, mainly due to the delay in bidding for certain equipment, including two sets of aerobridges.

The terminal forms part of an upgrade, costing 1.7 billion baht, to turn U-tapao into a fully fledged commercial international airport.

Its annual passenger capacity will rise to 3 million a year.

The full-scale operational launch of U-tapao is expected to attract the attention of many airlines to get serious about making the airport their new port of call.

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