Transport Ministry eyes making Suvarnabhumi one of 20 best airports

The Transport Ministry will implement various measures including cooperation with Singapore's international airport to make Suvarnabhumi one of the world’s 20 best airports in five years, a top official said on Sunday.

Chayatan Phromsorn, permanent secretary for the Transport Ministry, said it planned to develop Suvarnabhumi to make it one of the 20 best international airports in the world in three stages.

In the priority stage, the ministry would strive to make it more convenient for passengers to use the airport and reduce their waiting times.

He said Airports of Thailand had introduced several technologies to improve services at Suvarnabhumi, including the use of auto-gates or automatic kiosks for entry and exit immigration clearances, and has introduced a biometric system for faster immigration clearance.

In the mid-term stage, Suvarnabhumi would have more passenger terminals built, and in the long term, the government would push for aviation and maintenance industries in the country that would supplement Suvarnabhumi’s services, Chayatan said.

He said he has visited Singapore Changi Airport to discuss cooperation between the Suvarnabhumi and Changi.

Meanwhile, AOT president Kerati Kijmanawat said his agency had a development plan to increase passenger capacity of the two Bangkok airports to 200 million passengers per year within five years. This plan would supplement the ministry’s policy of pushing Suvarnabhumi on to the list of the 20 best world airports, he added.

He said Suvarnabhumi would expand its eastern passenger terminal and the project would be done in three years, after which it would be able to accommodate 15 million more passengers per year.

At the same time, Suvarnabhumi would build a southern terminal that would allow the airport to handle 70 million more passengers per year.

The southern terminal would become a mega terminal with 200,000 square metres of commercial area and it would be modelled after Changi Airport, he said.

Once the southern terminal is completed, Suvarnabhumi would have  the capacity to handle 150 million passengers per year, while Don Mueang International Airport could handle 50 million per year, Kerati said.

To implement the Transport Ministry’s policy of putting Suvarnabhumi on the list of the 20 best airports, AOT has installed 250 self-check-in kiosks, 40 common-use bag-drop machines, and 80 auto-gates for immigration clearance for entry and exit. AOT plans to install 120 more auto-gates at Suvarnabhumi Airport in the future, Kerati said.

He said the auto-gates allowed cutting immigration clearance times from 30-40 minutes to only two minutes, so AOT plans to turn all the immigration counters into auto-gate systems in the future.

Moreover, Suvarnabhumi plans to use a 24-hour early-check-in system for all airlines to reduce congestion by February next year, he said.

He said AOT would also launch a co-working space inside Suvarnabhumi Airport by December to give passengers more space for waiting for their flights.

Suvarnabhumi also plans a child playground area inside the airport by February next year, he said.