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U-Tapao To Be Upgraded Into Civil Airport
29th Aug 2014
The country's junta government has instructed the Airports of Thailand (AoT) to fast-track the conversion of the U-Tapao-Pattaya International Airport into a full civil aviation facility.
The airport hosts the U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield, home of the Royal Thai Navy First Air Wing. It is currently used for both civilian and military purposes. However, if the conversion pushes through, the military could no longer use the facility and has to vacate the area immediately to give way to the full development of the airport.
The navy, however, is reluctant to give up the facility as it considers the airport as its flagship installation, vital to their operations in securing the country from external threat.
The military junta wants the airport to be fully operational as a civil airport that would handle commercial flights only. It aims to become a major aviation hub in the Eastern Seaboard and help the country's effort to develop further its tourism industry, especially the region around Pattaya.
U-Tapao is located approximately 90 miles or 140 kilometers southeast of Bangkok, which is currently served by two airports'Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang. The government wants the airport as an alternate to Suvarnabhumi Airport, which is already operating above its capacity.
The original plan is to expand the capacity of the airport's passenger terminal which currently handles a little more than one million passengers annually. With the planned expansion, it will be upgraded to handle 2.5 million passengers per annum.
The initial cost of the planned upgrade is pegged at THB100 million, but it could go up to as much as THB4 billion if full rehabilitation is implemented.
The airport has not been fully utilized for commercial operations as majority of the flights operating at the airport are mostly charter flights from Russia, and a few from East Asia.
So far, only Bangkok Airways operates scheduled but limited services at the airport with flights to Koh Samui and Phuket.
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