E-MAIL
After announcing their plans to fully electrify Bangkok’s public transportation bus fleet and inspecting the first pure electric bus – the BYD K9 – assembled in Thailand, the country’s Ministry of Transport, along with the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) held a ceremony to mark the beginning of the electric bus trial operation at Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport.
After the trial operation, BMTA will start the process of replacing the current 3,183 conventional buses with a tender for 200 pure electric buses. The Department of Transport will work in tandem with the BMTA board to accelerate the purchasing process.
The A1 bus line trial operation, connecting Don Mueang International Airport to Mo Chit Skytrain Station, will provide convenient, comfortable and clean transportation for airport travelers. As one of the pillar industries in Thailand, tourism responds for a huge demand for transportation in the country, being Don Mueang International Airport one of the world’s oldest international airports. In 2015, its passenger traffic reached around 30.3 million passengers, a 40.7% increase as compared to the previous year, thus presenting an excellent opportunity for the BYD K9 to prove its potential.
This is not the first time BYD’s electric buses are deployed to run airport services: since 2011, BYD’s pure electric buses have been providing both shuttle and airside services chiefly to Los Angeles International Airport and Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. The Don Mueang Airport service is just the beginning of transport electrification in Thailand, with Bangkok now joining the other 190 cities in 43 countries worldwide to benefit from the economic and environmental benefits of BYD’s electrified public transportation solutions.