Airports of Thailand (AoT) appears to have placed a stop on King Power Duty Free’s offer to run all of the duty free shops at Bangkok Don Muang Airport.

 

According to the Bangkok Post, Transport Minister Jarupong Ruangsuwan is said to be reviewing KPG’s offer at Bangkok’s second-largest airport, with the newspaper further suggesting that he has indicated that there may be a counter offer.

 

The newspaper claims that KPG has offered minimum monthly payments of Bht.63m ($2m), or Bht.756m ($24.2m) a year for the contract, although none of this is confirmed and unlikely to be.

 

All figures here should also be regarded as indicative rather than accurate, since they have been incorrectly reported in the Thai press before. KPG’s management is also known to be very wary of talking to the local press about its contractual arrangements with AoT, based on past experiences. This suggests that most of the information related by the newspaper will therefore come from government-controlled AoT.

 

The newspaper is quoted as saying that AoT has indicated to it that politics will not interfere with any evaluation it makes of KPG’s bid. However, KPG might be forgiven for being somewhat wary, considering its tough experiences in the past with its contract at Bangkok’s leading airport at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (shown above), where politics clearly did play a major role.

 

Meanwhile, KPG’s present bid at Don Muang obviously relates to the expansion of international services at the capital city’s second biggest airport. International services are being restored in meaningful numbers at Don Muang from October 1 to take pressure off Suvarnabhumi.