More passengers, more flights leads AoT to expand Thai airport capacity

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BANGKOK, July 1 —  On its 35th anniversary today, Airports of Thailand (AoT), operator of the country’s six largest airports reported that from October 2013 to May this year its served 60,342,046 passengers, a 4.2 per cent rise, and 419,363 flights, a 13.2 per cent year-on-year increase. 

Airports of Thailand (AoT) is about to implement projects to expand the capacity of the country’s airports.

AoT board of directors chairman Prasong Poontaneat said the National Council for Peace and Order’s committee scrutinizing government spending is examining the second-phase of the Suvarnabhumi airport project and AoT advance passenger screening service project.

After examination to ensure their transparency, AOT will implement the projects directly because it needed to boost the capacity of international airports countrywide, he said.

The AoT chairman said one priority of the agency is to relieve congestion at Phuket airport, originally designed to serve 6.5 million passengers annually but now with actual annual traffic amounting to nearly twice that number with 11 million passengers every year.

AoT operates the six airports in Thailand: Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang International Airports, both serving Bangkok, Phuket International Airport, Chiang Mai International Airport, Hat Yai International Airport, and Mae Fah Luang–Chiang Rai International Airport.