Thailand aims to double cargo handling income
Bangkok (VNA) – The Airports of Thailand (AoT) plans to set up a sister company to operate its centre for pre-export agricultural product inspection, in an effort to attract more customers in China, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam to help double its annual income from cargo handling services.
The establishment of the new company will be completed in two months, while the
product certifying centre at Suvarnabhumi airport will be open for service in
six months after a new cold-storage facility is built for perishable food
products, Nitinai Sirismatthakarn, President of the AoT, was cited by local
media.
Potential customers in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) have
expressed strong interest in switching from Singapore to Thailand where they
will be offered a premium version of the export goods-certifying service, which
is more or less a VIP channel, he said.
These products will be exported first to Dubai and then Belgium before they
will be distributed onward to other destinations in Europe, he said.
The new centre will also benefit Thai producers of agricultural products as
they will find it more convenient to export their products with the assistance offered
by the centre, he said.
Currently, Suvarnabhumi airport handles 1.5 million tonnes of cargo per year,
the 15th largest amount in the world. Of this amount, 150,000 tonnes are
perishable goods.
And with the new centre set up, the airport expects to earn up to 1 billion baht (32.37 million USD) per year in income from cargo-handling services compared with the current 300-500 million baht a year, Nitinai said.-VNA