Airports: Thailand to create a national logistics ‘hub’ – more likely focused on the Bangkok area

Thailand - and Bangkok especially - is in tough competition for international air passenger traffic in Southeast Asia, with highly established airports and others where there is a large amount of investment and infrastructure investment ongoing to ensure that they are also in the race for regional dominance.

Airports of Thailand (AoT) has already set out its stall with heavy investments at the two Bangkok airports that it controls, as well as new or 'almost new' refurbished airports across the provinces, and especially in tourist areas.

But that international competition demands innovation, and the way the Transport Ministry has chosen to do that is by laying out a pathway towards coordinated development of air, surface and marine transport, the latter including both commercial shipping and leisure cruises.

Although it is a national scheme to cement the notion of Thailand as a logistics hub, the reality (as CAPA - Centre for Aviation sees it) is that the main thrust, at least to begin with, will be in building up a smaller focused hub between Bangkok and Utapao-Rayong-Pattaya. One that will embrace the two AoT Bangkok airports, a major container and growing cruise port at Laem Chabang, the long established tourist resort at Pattaya and the small and (slowly post-pandemic recovering) airport at Utapao, which with a 3,500m x 60m runway is suitable for long haul charter operations.

All of those places will eventually be connected by one of five high speed rail lines planned for Thailand, at a length of 200km (125 miles), but probably not for another decade yet, unless this scheme speeds up its implementation.