Published on Aug 28, 2005

Many wealthy people say they’ve been kept in dark over take-offs and landings

Cocktail parties at the homes of some of Bangkok’s rich and famous may soon receive a steady stream of unwelcome guests – jumbo jets.

Information obtained by The Nation reveals that noise levels exceeding some international standards for residential developments are expected to hit wealthy housing estates just south of the runways at Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

Not wishing to “cause panic’ within the neighbourhoods, Suvarnabhumi Airport public-relations strategists have done little outreach and sought limited community input into how the airport’s noise can be managed and abated.

As a result of The Nation’s investigation, many people are just now learning for the first time that their homes are in the proposed flight paths and that the New Bangkok International Airport (NBIA) Co is working to avoid public discussion on mitigation.

“We did not want to distribute a detailed map of the affected areas, or to list communities by name on our website to avoid public panic,” said an NBIA public-relations officer.

“We are just taking phone calls on an individual basis and telling the callers if their homes are in the affected zones.”

No communication frustrates Suchada Nanthapanichsakul, president of the Green Valley Homeowners’ Association, whose residents include Kanok Abhiradee, president of Thai Airways International; Thai Rak Thai key member Prayuth Mahagitsiri and members of Thailand’s top business clans such as the Lamsams, Srivikorns and Prasartthong-osoths.

The compound covers 1,200 rai about 10 kilometres south of Suvarnabhumi Airport.

“I was under the impression that we would not be affected because most of the landings and take-offs would be in the Lad Krabang area [north of the airport],” said Suchada.

“But now it appears that we are directly underneath [the eastern runway’s flight path]. Why were we not informed, and more importantly, why are we being forced to bear most of the impact while the communities to the Southwest get peace and quiet?”

The NBIA originally studied six runway-management scenarios and recently advertised the one that concentrates take-offs on the southern end of the east-ern runway and landings on the northern end of the western runway.

This scenario leaves the northern end of the eastern runway with little airport traffic and the southern end of the western runway virtually idle.

“We want to avoid disturbing two big communities at those ends, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang [in the north-east] and Thana City [in the south-west],” Somchai Sawasdeepon, NBIA’s project-director, explained.

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) submitted to the Office of Environmental Policy and Planning (OEPP) in June revealed that overall impact on residential communities would be lower if both ends of the runways were allowed to be fully utilised, with 2,376 instead of 3,029 residential units affected by airport noise.

As prevailing winds will force 80 to 90 per cent of the airport’s take-offs to be to the south, communities on this side of the airport will receive the majority of the noise. Take-offs require engines to run at near full capacity, generating far more noise than when throttled back for landings.

On Thursday the NBIA will be holding a meeting on the environmental impact with an OEPP expert committee and some representatives of Tambol Administration Organisations in the airport neighbourhood. The meeting is now likely to generate far more interest.

“We have no invitation, but we may have to just show up,” Suchada said, adding that the compound had already formed a working group to study the noise impact upon it.

NBIA environmental engineer Jaroonsit Chantrathada stated, contrary to public information to date, that no final decision on a runway management scenario had actually been made and that the scenario on the NBIA website was simply a model imitating what happened at Don Muang Airport, whereas the final decision would have to be made by a group of experts led by the Aviation Department.

But when it was pointed out that the available information was limited and only addressed one scenario, thus potentially misleading developers and home-owners if another scenario was chosen, he acknowledged that that could be a problem.

One major stakeholder who should be happy with the public-relations stance at present is the King Mongkul Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMIT).

The college has been the only body involved to address the noise issue, but if the present scenario were put into effect, the college would hardly be affected at all: only 5 per cent of the airport’s traffic would be routed over the 800-rai campus. While KMIT Assistant Professor Amnouy Panitsakulpong, who chaired the college committee looking at the airport’s impact on the campus, told The Nation he was unaware that the NBIA was not planning to direct much traffic his way, Somchai said he personally had met with college executives about the matter.

This potential limited impact raises questions regarding the Bt2 billion KMIT is seeking from the government to soundproof buildings for its 15,000 student facility. “We must plan for the worst,” Amnouy stressed.

Suchada of Green Valley pointed out that the atmosphere in which this was now unfolding might cause stakeholders to appear as enemies bickering over peace and quiet.

“The NBIA could have got us all together from the beginning and asked how we should work together to manage it. Instead, it could now appear to the public that we are fighting against one anther,” she said.

So next month, when Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra takes the first jumbo jet into and out of Suvarnabhumi, many people will be paying more attention to what happens outside the airport than to whether the baggage-handling or immigration counters are functioning.

Green Valley resident Piengjai Abhiradee, wife of Thai Airways’ president Kanok Abhiradee, told The Nation she was not sure if her husband would be on board the 260-seat Airbus with the prime minister but she herself would be staying home from work, standing in her back garden sizing up the noise.

Nantiya Tangwisutijit, Pennapa Hongthong

The Nation