BANGKOK – Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin announced on Friday that Suvarnabhumi will become an Asian aviation hub, returning to the world’s top 50 airports within a year and reaching the top 20 in five years.
The airport is presently ranked number 68. Srettha stated that Suvarnabhumi was ranked 13 a decade ago.
The PM held a press conference at the Government House on March 1, saying that the Aviation Hub is part of the “IGNITE THAILAND” vision of his government. Mr. Suriya Jungrungruangkit, Minister of Transport, Mrs. Monporn Charoensri, Deputy Minister of Transport, as well as executives of Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited, or AOT, and many airline executives participated in this conference.
Plans to upgrade Suvarnabhumi include better service culture, constructing SAT-2 building to accommodate more passengers, offering better range of products at the airport and reducing the long queue faced by passengers, the last will take 6 months to be resolved.
At present, only one percent of the air traffic involved connecting flight while in Singapore it’s 30 percent at Changi and Thailand lost a lot of opportunities as a result as transit passengers could choose Thailandas their future destination if they were impressed by their experience at the airport, he stresses.
Srettha adds Don Mueang Airport will also be improved, turning it into a point to point airport with a new international hall to be built, expanding carpark limits by five fold to 7,600 vehicles in expectation of an overall increase of tourists arrival to Thailand from 30 to 50 millions annually.
“During my visit to Europe next week, I’ll tell people there all about the positive aspects of Thailand. It’s only hors d’oeuvres to promote what we’ll have next year, which I’m confident they’ll enjoy and be satisfied with, leading to increased travel to Thailand,” the Prime Minister stated.
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