Thai Airports Served 74 Million Flyers in 2012

14th Jan 2013

Last year, Thailand's six major airports handled more than 74 million passengers or a hefty 12 percent increase over the previous year, this according to Airports of Thailand (AoT) report.

According to its Senior Executive Vice President for Engineering and Construction, Somchai Sawasdeepon, there were a total of 496,749 incoming flights passed through the six airports, 275,422 of which originated from outside Thailand carrying 46 million foreign visitors into the country.

The six facilities include Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang Airport, Chiang Mai Airport, Hat Yai Airport, Phuket Airport and Chiang Rai Airport.

Suvarnabhumi Airport alone handled roughly 70 percent of the total number or 51.462 million passengers on 312,493 flights.

The official also disclosed that the second phase of the current expansion plan of the Suvarnabhumi Airport is now under the development budget for the 2011-2017. He also revealed that a consultancy firm, EPM Consortium, has been tapped to map out conditions for the bidding process on the design works. A winning bidder shall be known by April this year.

The design works include three major components of the project namely: passenger buildings, public utilities system and construction. The design works is expected to last up to 10 months, from May this year to February 2014. Shortly after that, the contractors and construction inspectors shall be hired, sometime in August of that same year.

The ongoing expansion project of Phuket Airport, meanwhile, involves the building of a new passenger terminal which is designed to handle 12.5 million passengers when completed towards the end of 2014. The airport's current single terminal is designed only to handle 6.5 million passengers which is already bursting at the seams.

He also disclosed that the Terminal 2 building of the old Don Mueang Airport will undergo renovation. Other improvement works at the old airport include the 7-story parking building, concourse building 5, public utilities system as well as communication system.

When expansion is completed, Don Mueang will boost its capacity to 27.5 million passengers which is seen as adequate to sustain until 2026.

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