Social Policy Bonds blog: Bangkok's new airport

25 October 2005

Bangkok's new airport

Bangkok’s new airport, at Suvarnabhumi, is scheduled to open next year. The around the airport will be designated Thailand’s 77th province. The current Thai Government intends it to rival Singapore as an Asian air hub.

Bangkok though already has a perfectly good airport at Don Muang, with two runways and a highly developed infrastructure. Surely there are more pressing priorities for this developing country than building a massive new airport, much further away from the city?

The new airport’s province will be called Suvarnabhumi Maha Nakhon: Suvarnabhumi the Great City. It will become ‘a modern economic centre’. Local landowners can expect a huge rise in the value of their land.

Actually the names of major land owners in the vicinity of the airport were revealed recently by the press. Most of the owners are known to have close relations with the ruling Thai Rak Thai party.

Source: How will Thailand compete with Singapore? ThaiDay, published with today’s ‘International Herald Tribune’.

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