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AoT Airports Suffer from Congestion in Fiscal 2016
5th Jun 2017
Five out six airports in Thailand under the supervision of the Airports of Thailand (AoT) operated above their designed passenger handling capacity in fiscal 2016 to 30th September. According to AoT data, a total of 120 passengers were processed in the FY 2016, which is well beyond the combined capacity of 96.6 passengers per year for the six airports.
The worst situation could be seen at Thailand’s main gateway, Suvarnabhumi Airport. The largest Thai airport, originally designed to handled 45 million passengers per year, processed 55.5 million last year. In this fiscal year, till 30th September, projections say, the number could very well reach 59 million, further bringing up the need for airport expansion.
The expansion, which should increase Suvarnabhumi’s handling capacity to 90 million passengers per year and will include the construction of a new passenger terminal and a third runway, won’t be completed until 2021 and will cost 110+ billion baht.
The situation at Suvarnabhumi has even come to a point where Thai Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith required “swift action” regarding the expansion, calling the work so far “very slow”.
The second-largest airport in Thailand and SE Asia’s largest LCC hub Don Muang also operated beyond its designed capacity of 30 million as it handled 34.7 million passengers in fiscal 2016.
Although the situation is not as alarming as with Suvarnabhumi, there’s a clear need for expansion at Don Muang as well and by 2022 it should be able to handle 40 million passengers per year.
When it comes to the other four AoT-supervised airports, Phuket was the second most-crowded after Suvarnabhumi. While the airport’s official capacity is 8 million per year, a total of 14.7 passengers went through it last year.
Chiang Mai handled 9.2 million passengers in 2016, compared to its capacity of 8 million and Hat Yai went beyond its designed capacity of 2.5 million to 3.87 million passengers in fiscal 2016.
The only airport to operate under its designed capacity and without the accompanying overcrowding was Chiang Rai. The airport handled 1.96 million passengers last year, while its capacity is 3 million.
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