Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) has signed an agreement with Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited to co-operate and share information.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will cover the exchange of information, joint marketing and promotion, and joint work activities, between OR Tambo International Airport and Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

“Exchange of information will include statistics on traffic and financial data, and best practices in airport development, operation and management. The Memorandum of Understanding also provides for the two airports to exchange staff to facilitate the mutual learning of best practices,” says Acting CEO of Acsa, Bongiwe Mbomvu.

Marketing activities will focus primarily on the the respective airports, says Mbomvu, “but strategically linking that to marketing our respective countries as potential holiday destinations for our respective citizens – marketing our airport activities and the offers in the respective cities and countries. It’s about opening up our markets. Additionally, we aim to bring travel agencies and tourism authorities on board on both sides to link them to our airport operations, to ensure that our marketing activities involve them and that they work with us.”

The MOU was signed in late December by Mbomvu, and Dr. Nitinai Sirismatthakarn, President of Airports of Thailand.

“The airports business worldwide is undergoing rapid transformation to cope not only with growing passenger numbers but also with demands for extremely high levels of digitisation and automation of services. We believe that this agreement will benefit both parties in striving to stay ahead of market trends,” said Mbomvu.

“There will be regular meetings between the two airport authorities to monitor progress,” she concludes.

Acsa owns and operates nine airports in South Africa, and Airports of Thailand runs six airports.