Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport to open its 3rd runway on Nov 1
New runway to expand airport’s capacity to 94 flights per hour, as AOT considers a fourth runway and new terminal in the near future
Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport will open its third runway on November 1, allowing the airport to handle many more flights, the director of the Airports of Thailand (AOT) said.
Kirati Kijmanawat, AOT director, said on Wednesday that the runway is complete and test runs on landing and take-offs have been conducted under the endorsement of the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand and the Aeronautical Radio of Thailand.
He said the contractor is now in the process of installing field lighting around the runway and the airport will test a few related systems.
Once the new runway is open, the airport will be able to handle 94 flights per hour, compared to the current rate of 68 flights.
The third runway, located to the west of the airport, is 60-metres wide and 4,000-metres long and runs parallel to the first runway.
Kirati explained that the use of the third runway will be increased gradually, allowing the airport to slowly raise its capacity to 75 flights per hour next year, 85 flights per hour in 2026 and 94 flights per hour in 2027. The airport’s revenue is projected to rise to 4.72 billion baht next year, 8.65 billion baht in 2026 and 9.09 billion baht in 2027.
He said AOT is also planning to build a fourth runway on the eastern side of the airport. He added that it will take some 10 months to design the runway, with bids for a contractor to be held in early 2027.
Kirati said the fourth runway is expected to cost 20 billion baht and the construction will take about three years.
The bidding for the fourth runway will be held at around the same time as the bidding for the new passenger terminal called the South Terminal.
He said 120 billion baht has been allocated for the construction of the South Terminal and it should be able to handle some 70 million passengers per year.
