Airports of Thailand (AOT) has confirmed to TRBusiness that it has received three proposals for the operation of duty free concessions at Phuket International Airport, Chiang Mai Airport and Hat Yai International Airport.

The three proposals have been submitted from the same private companies which bid for the recent Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport duty free tender.

They comprise the following: incumbent, King Power Duty Free; secondly, Bangkok Lotte Duty Free, which is a joint venture comprising Bangkok Aviation, Hotel Lotte and Bangkok Airways Holdings and thirdly the Royal Orchid Hotel (Thailand), which has submitted a proposal for a joint venture, consisting of Royal Orchid Hotel (Thailand), Empire Asia Group and WDFG UK.

This morning AOT confirmed the names of the companies involved and revealed that 80% of the bid will focus on the technical and business plan, whilst the remaining 20% will be based on the financial return to AOT.

Wichai Bunyoo, AOT’s Senior Executive Vice President (Business Development and Marketing) said that AOT distributed submission documents between 5 – 25 April 2019, at which time four companies registered their interest.

One of the bidders, King Power International (Thailand) operates this downtown duty free store in Phuket.

THREE OF FOUR SUBMIT PROPOSALS

These included the three entities mentioned above plus one other; the Central Department Store Company Limited.

However, it was only three out of the four which went on to actually submit proposals, which will all be presented on 5 June.

The highest bidder will be revealed on 10 June.

The Central Department Store Company also registered its interest in the Suvarnabhumi bid, however it did not actually go on to submit a proposal on that occasion either.

Meanwhile, King Power Duty Free, which was revealed as the highest bidder in the duty free tender for Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport, must wait for approval from AOT’s Revenue Review Committee and the AoT Board of Directors. Results for this tender are expected on 19 June.

As reported, AoT split the original tender for duty free concessions (which previously combined all four Thai airports under just one contract) into two separate tenders, after it received strong criticism from organisations such as the Thai Retailers Association (TRA) and Thai Duty Free Shop Trade Association, which believed the master concession model to be monopolistic.