Mr. Saksiam Chidchob, Minister of Transport, revealed that according to the government’s policy of opening the country on November 1, 2021, together with many countries having measures to open the country, such as Australia. Complete 2 doses of vaccination and travel without quarantine. It is believed that the recovery of air passengers will return (Turnaround) rapidly by leaps and bounds. From the original study that the number of passengers will recover to the same as in 2019 (before Covid-19) within 2 years, it may return faster or by 2022. Passengers may return to almost as much as 2019 due to the In the past 2 years, there has been a slowdown for both investors. traveler, tourists So when it’s open to travel It is believed that the travel acceleration rate will be very high.
In addition, in order to support the opening of the country Must prepare various transport logistics systems that is systematically connected to all airports To allow the travel of tourists who come to Thailand can depart from the airport to go to the destination and tourist attractions conveniently All parts must have a common integrated plan.
In principle, AOT will operate 3 projects, namely the North Passenger Terminal. Main Terminal Expansion 1, East Expansion and West Expansion and earlier The secretary-general of the NESDB has stated that there is no problem with the construction of the north extension building.
which AOT had previously clarified that the main passenger terminal Has a capacity to support 45 million people / year, the first secondary concourse 1 (SAT-1) can support 15 million people / year, bringing the total capacity to 60 million people / year, but now Suvarnabhumi Airport is. During the extension of the 3rd runway, the capacity of the runway to support 90 million people / year is not balanced with the capacity of the terminal. And today has not done the extension on the north, east, and west side, as well as having to adjust the service to be New Normal, there will be more problems.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) or CAT has reported the number of air passengers that during the year 2020-2021 the epidemic of COVID-19 This makes flights and travel by planes reduced. Severely in the past 10 years by 2020, there are 58.25 million passengers, or a decrease of 64.7%, with international passengers dropping by 81%. However, the policy of opening pilot countries “Phuket Sandbox” resulted in an increase in foreign tourists entering the country. International passenger numbers have recovered in the hundreds of thousands in months.
In addition, it is predicted that Thailand will be the ninth largest aviation size in the world by 2031. There will be a total of 213 million air passengers, which EXAT will have a study and planning work with relevant agencies to prepare, especially airspace management. Because Thailand is 2 times bigger than England, but England can support 3 million flights / year. Germany is two-thirds the size of Thailand, which can handle almost 4 million flights / year, while Thailand in 2019 has 1.05 million air traffic volumes. And there is still a problem of congestion, delayed flights.
As for the policy for AOT to manage Airports of the Department of Airports (T.O.) 3 locations, including Krabi, which has high potential, Udon Thani Airport will be developed to be a passenger transport hub in the northeast, Buriram Airport developed as a gateway to the southeastern region and neighboring countries It is expected to be imported to the Cabinet in December 2021.
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