Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT) management are scratching their heads as to why Suvarnabhumi Airport failed to secure a top spot as one of the world’s best in the latest polling. It will seek external expert advice to determine what went wrong and vows to work even harder to ensure that Suvarnabhumi climbs the customer satisfaction survey conducted by the Genevabased Airports Council International (ACI). Suvarnabhumi ranked 24th in the 2009 ACI polling, up from 38th in 2008 and 48th in 2007, its first full year of operation.

The 10 largest passenger airlines at Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday signed an agreement with Airports of Thailand Plc that entitles them to landing-fee rebates for carrying more international passengers. Signatories of the agreement include Thai Airways International, Thai AirAsia, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, Emirates and Singapore Airlines.

Tourism figures rebounded in January, but the industry’s outlook remains shaky after six foreign countries issued travel advisories for Thailand. Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silpa-archa said 1.579m visitors arrived in Thailand in January, a 24.35%increase over the same month last year. Mr Chumpol said arrivals in the next few months looked promising as long as there is no political violence.

The Finance Ministry is considering allowing its majority shareholding in Thai Airways International to fall in order to change its current status as a state enterprise. The SET-listed national carrier is currently 50.1% held by the ministry, and as such must comply with state enterprise regulations. The carrier also has the right to ask the ministry to guarantee its loans, helping THAI reduce its funding costs by leveraging the credit of the government.

Thailand’s tourism sector will not join the Asean Free Trade Agreement (Afta) until 2015 due to opposition from operators and shortage of capital. “Among the 10 Asean countries, only Thailand is not ready to join the AFTA [tourism] scheme as many operators feel the measure would not help their business at this time,” said Prakit Chinamorphong, president of the Thai Hotels Association (THA). (The Nation)

Thai Airways International aims to become one of the world’s most exclusive airlines within the next two years. THAI president Piyasvasti Amranand said he was confident that the flag carrier could attain a five-star rating from Skytrax, a UK-based research firmwhich polls passengers worldwide on the quality of airlines.

The Revenue Department yesterday promised to provide more tax breaks for tourism. Director-general Vinai Vittavasgarnvej said: “We’ll extend existing measures and introduce new ones to help the industry.” The tourism stimulus package will be submitted to the Cabinet within a month, Deputy Finance Minister Pradit Pataraprasit said after meeting with re-presentatives from travel firms to discuss tax and other measures. (The Nation)

The Tourism Authority of Thailand has raised its year-end forecast for foreign arrivals to 14.1m due to an unexpected surge in tourists last month. Foreign visitors to Thailand rose by 24.91% year-on-year to 1.34m in November, according to TAT figures. The percentage rise, however, is from a period last year when arrivals were affected by the blockading of Bangkok’s airports by yellow-shirted protesters.

Thai Airways International is aiming for a 20% revenue increase and a pretax profit of Bt4.3b next year. THAI’s board and management adopted the new target as part of its five-year strategic plan to end the flag carrier’s financial woes and put it back on track as a leading global airline. Next year, the airline targets revenues of Bt193b, a 20.7% rise over this year’s expected total of Bt153b. A target of Bt32b was set for next year’s pre-tax earnings.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand has revised downward its projected tourist arrivals for this year form 14 million to 13.7 million due to the economic crisis and the Kingdom’s political problems, newly elected governor Surapol Svetasreni said yesterday. (The Nation)