SET-listed Triple I Logistics plans to invest 50 million baht to expand its express cargo facility in Don Mueang airport by more than 1,000 square metres by the fourth quarter this year to serve growing air freight demand in the region.
Asia Ground Service is a unit of Triple I Logistics that operates warehouse and ground handling services in airports.
The company owns a 5,000 sq m cargo facility at Don Mueang airport, where major customers are Thai AirAsia and Thai AirAsia X. The company expects partners to increase their transport cargo businesses moving forward.
Group chief executive Tipp Dalal said the company is in talks with the government and expects to conclude the project in the final quarter of 2018. The facility is scheduled to start operations in the first half of 2019.
Triple I Logistics is also seeking to expand its cargo facility in high-growth provinces like Chiang Mai and Phuket. The air freight business continues to grow, aided by a global economic recovery and a robust aviation industry in China, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
"Don Mueang, Chiang Mai and Phuket airports are key parts of our plan, and we are looking for other urban airports with high-growth potential," he said.
Mr Tipp said the company is interested in U-tapao airport, where AirAsia plans to invest in a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility, as well as in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).
Triple I expects the EEC to boost demand for sea, air and land transport, following the expansion of investment in the region's manufacturing base.
The company projects the global economy to expand more rapidly in the second half of the year than it did in the first, as the economies of several key nations recover. The second half of the year is also high season for the country's transport and logistics business.
Triple I has four core businesses: air freight; sea freight and inland transport; logistics management and chemicals; and speciality logistics.
"The company considers chemical and speciality logistics, sea freight and air freight to have the highest potential to be lucrative revenue sources," Mr Tipp said.
The company is expecting to merge or acquire another company this year, after acquiring a 50% stake of Singapore's DG Packaging Pte [DGP], a dangerous good, packaging and freight business, worth S$11 million or 266 million baht in June 2018.
DGP operates in 18 countries including Britain, the US, Taiwan, China, Australia and Bahrain.
Triple I expects its revenue for 2018 to increase by 20% from 2.3 billion baht last year. In the first quarter ending in March of this year, the company reported 610 million baht in revenue and 25.9 million baht in profit.