Airport capacity at Suvarnabhumi to increase with new terminal and tech upgrades

Influential airport operator, Airports of Thailand (AoT), is set to inaugurate a new satellite passenger terminal at the famed Suvarnabhumi Airport come this September. This addition is expected to bolster the airport’s passenger handling capacity significantly, managing an impressive 15 million extra passengers annually, which effectively raises the total capacity to a staggering 60 million per annum, revealed AoT’s president.

The soon-to-be-launched, massive terminal – reported to cover an area of over 216,000 square metres boasts 28 contact gates and a playful zone exclusively for children. The only remaining responsibility is to undergo the installation of seating equipped with USB power outlets – a noteworthy modern convenience for today’s tech-savvy traveller.

Astonishingly, the airport has witnessed an exceptionally high surge in passenger footfall – the figures skyrocketing by 230.8%. This increase in numbers, observed from October through May, is in comparison to the count from the identical monthly span the previous year. Contextualising the numbers reveals over 31.6 million passengers, with international visitors making for over 74% of this figure. The daily count hovers around somewhere between 140,000 and 150,000 passengers, as stated by the airport.

The president divulged the organisation’s plans as well, indicating attempts to combat the burgeoning overcrowding issue at the airport’s passport control section. The plan includes the installation of Auto Channel machines for incoming passengers from Singapore and Hong Kong as of next year, reported Bangkok Post.

Interestingly, future provision has plans to extend this innovative service towards outgoing travellers holding e-passports from as many as 90 nations, as per the president’s words. Once these developments come into full swing, Suvarnabhumi Airport should observe a substantial enhancement of its servicing capacity, going from currently assisting 6,200 outbound passengers hourly to a remarkable 8,800. Similarly, inbound processing is to rise from 11,000 to an impressive 13,300 passengers per hour.

Augmenting the drastic improvement in process efficiency, the AoT plans on rolling out an Automated Biometric Identification System, embedded with high-tech facial recognition functionality, sometime around the middle of the upcoming year, as the president enthusiastically added. This move aligns the airport with the modern wave of digital transformation, embracing the intricate interplay of data analysis and technology, very much prevalent in successful businesses today.