The Civil Aviation Department wants to pass on its 26 upcountry airports to their provinces to operate as they see fit.

"The airports should be managed by other agencies, either existing ones or ones established for the purpose," director-general Chaisak Angkasuwan said last week.

The department wants its role to be just the state regulator overseeing all airports in the country, ensuring that they follow rules and regulations. That would mean getting rid of its airport-management function, he said.

Most of the department's 26 commercial airports can't stay afloat, except those in tourist destinations such as Krabi, Chiang Rai and Songkhla.

The department has to go cap in hand to the government to ask for additional budget to prop them up. Those loss-making airports can't even cover their own staff and maintenance expenses, he said.

Letting local entities handle the airports is one of the department's options to be proposed to the government soon.

While the airports could come under the supervision of governors, they could also be

managed by provincial administration organisations or spe-cial service units to be set up in

the future. Another alternative is to let companies bid to run the airports on concession.

Chaisak said the airports' assets or operations could not be handed over to Airports of Thailand Plc (AOT) as the listed company's performance could suffer from taking on unprofitable businesses.

However, Kulya Pakakrong, acting president of AOT, said AOT was ready to accept all 26 airports if they were spun off by next year.

"AOT believes that it can turn around all the airports from loss to profit," she said, adding that the company was negotiating with the department on the matter.

AOT has striven hard to bag the 26 airports so they can be integrated into a nationwide network to increase the potential of its air logistics services.

AOT and Thai Airways International Plc mid-last year expressed interest in some provincial airports, with only those showing black ink being singled out.

THAI has said assuming ownership and developing the airports would take place in steps, concentrating on the North's Phitsanulok Airport, the Northeast's Udon Thani and Khon Kaen airports and the South's Krabi Airport.

Among the airports under the department's jurisdiction are those in Phrae, Tak, Lampang, Nan, Loei, Surat Thani, Trang, Chumphon, Hua Hin, Ubon Ratchathani, Nakhon Phanom, Nakhon Ratchasima and Roi Et.

Provincial airports' reassignment has been on hold so that the department can come up with ideas on it ever since caretaker deputy transport minister Phumtham Wechayachai under the Thaksin Shinawatra administration decided to seek maximum profits from the management of them. Now one more choice has been added to the plan.

Watcharapong Thongrung

The Nation