While speaking in Vancouver, the IATA chief placed London and Paris on par with the exploitive Bangkok airport.
“Combined they grabbed US$1.4bn in increases from the industry in 2006. This is outrageous and I will continue to embarrass them with figures and facts,” said Bisignani.
IATA’s head honcho pointed to a stream of airports with margins of more than 40% including Sydney, Auckland, Hong Kong, Seoul and Johannesburg.
IATA has endlessly fought with the Airport Authority of Thailand (AoT) to end an “unjustified” 15% rise in landing and parking charges, which took effect in April.
Thailand’s Transport Ministry and the AoT continue to flick off IATA’s repeated calls for action by arguing that even with the increase, landing and parking fees at the Thai airport are lower than other leading Asia airports.
AoT recently took another punch, this time from King Power International. The duty-free giant filed a pair of civil suits against the bumbling AoT for axing its exclusive contracts to run Suvarnabhumi’s duty-free shops and commercial strip.
AoT yanked King Power’s concessions at Bangkok’s new airport as well as those in the international airports in Hat Yai and Phuket on 5 April. It justified the move stating King Power breached the Public/Private Joint Venture Act.
AoT is also accusing King Power of damaging the Bangkok airport with its extension of the commercial area, claiming it presents a security risk and has ordered the structure removed.
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