Thai airports to charge higher departure fees

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Departure fees from all commercial airports in Thailand will be increased by Bt100, the Airports of Thailand (AoT) announced today.

AoT chairman Sita Divari said the passenger service charge will be adjusted from Bt100 to Bt200 for domestic flights and Bt700 to Bt800 for international flights.

The new rates will be submitted to the Civil Aviation Committee for endorsement before final approval by the Transport Ministry.

Mr Sita said AoT will earn an extra Bt400 million from domestic passengers and Bt2.4 billion from international passengers. AoT’s current departure fee revenue is Bt16 billion annually.

He said that the airports authority has been shouldering losses from the collection of departure fees at lower than cost.

The actual cost is Bt335 per domestic passenger but AoT charges only Bt100 per person or Bt236 below cost, he said.

“In addition to insurance for passengers, AoT will in the future issue a new ticket to passengers who are stranded at the airport for over three hours, entitling the passenger to a free flight in compensation,” he said.