SAMUT PRAKAN – Keerati Kitmanawat, President of Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AoT), has unveiled plans to improve the quality of Suvarnabhumi Airport. Since the New Year vacation, the airport has seen a peak of 5,000–6,000 passengers per hour during peak hours.
This has resulted in passengers queuing for up to 1 hour and 10 minutes at the combined check-in and immigration checkpoints, with an average waiting time of 46 minutes. This still exceeds AoT’s target of achieving a total waiting time of no more than 30 minutes.
Urgent policies to improve quality and speed up service include:
- Hiring 800 support staff for the screening process and airport assistance staff to provide convenience to passengers 24 hours a day, every day, by March 30, 2024. Coordinating with Immigration Bureau 2 (IB2) to have officers manning all immigration counters before peak hours and increasing the number of officers.
IB2 has already recruited 200 new officers who are currently undergoing theoretical training. They are expected to be able to start working from March 1, 2024 onwards. There is also a plan to request an additional 400 positions, bringing the total to 600 positions this year.
- Installation of 80 additional automatic passport control channels for both arrivals and departures and updating of the system software to improve efficiency. The first 20 devices will be installed by June 15, 2024, and the entire installation will be completed by July 15, 2024.
- Coordinating with the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) to improve the efficiency of screening to match current travel patterns, such as screening power banks and reducing the need for passengers to remove their shoes.
- To facilitate and speed up airline processing, AoT has introduced the Common Use Passenger Processing System (CUPPS) in the departure hall on level 4 of the passenger terminal, which includes several automated services. The system emphasizes self-service to reduce queues, such as the Common Use Self-Service Kiosk (CUSS) and the Common Use Baggage Drop (CUBD).
AoT has also partnered with 24 airlines to allow passengers to check in 4 hours before their flight, which will help reduce congestion in the departure hall.
Keerati said that in line with the government’s Aviation Hub policy, AoT is also pushing for major projects to expand its service capacity. These include the construction of a third runway to increase capacity from 68 flights per hour to 94 flights per hour, which is expected to be completed and operational by mid-2024.
The project is currently being redesigned and is scheduled to start construction in 2024 and be completed in 2027. Once completed, it will increase AoT’s capacity by a further 15 million passengers per year.
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