Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport eyes 150m passengers by 2033
Airports of Thailand (AoT) has plans to expand Suvarnabhumi airport to accommodate 150 million passengers by 2033.
AoT president Kerati Kijmanawat recently revealed the 142 billion baht plan to upgrade Thailand’s flagship airport and raise it from among the top 30 to a place in the top 10 airports in the world.
The airport currently handles around 65 million passengers a year.
Several construction plans were laid out, including a 12-billion-baht East Expansion project, which will see passenger capacity increased by 15 million per year, bringing the total to 80 million.
The bidding process for this project will start in May, with the contractor expected to be selected by July. Construction is scheduled to begin in November, with completion expected by 2028. The expansion will increase the airport’s area to 480,000 square metres.
AoT will also build the South Terminal, which will further increase the airport’s capacity by another 70 million passengers annually.
The construction and bidding process is expected in 2027 before the slated completion in 2033.
The South Terminal project will require a budget of 130 billion baht, and once completed, Suvarnabhumi airport will be able to accommodate up to 150 million passengers annually.
An earlier plan to build a second satellite terminal (SAT-2) was cancelled as, according to Mr Kerati, the South Terminal would provide the higher capacity instead, doing away with possible future complications including baggage handling and transfer processes that SAT-2 may have prompted.
Plans for west and north expansions have also been scrapped for similar reasons.
AoT has acknowledged traffic bottlenecks in passenger processing, particularly during the process of check-in, security screening and immigration.
To alleviate congestion, the airport has installed more self-check-in kiosks, self-bag drop systems, e-gates and biometric identification to speed up the process.
The company said it had improved immigration processing capacity from 5,500 passengers per hour to 7,200 passengers. AoT has plans to install more check-in and immigration systems in the future.
The number of passengers at Suvarnabhumi airport is expected to reach nearly 65 million this year, up from 60 million passengers last year.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2975466/suvarnabhumi-eyes-150m-passengers
