Airports of Thailand

  • Bangkok News

    Cost to repair Don Mueang damage estimated at 20 million baht

    Thailand’s Transport Ministry has given an initial estimate of 20 million baht to repair the damaged passenger hall at Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport. The area sustained severe damage when a violent storm earlier this week caused the partial collapse of its roof and walls. Transport ministry spokesman Pisak Jitviriyavasin has stressed that the 20-million-baht figure is only an initial estimate,…

  • Bangkok News

    Investigation launched into Don Mueang passenger building collapse

    The Ministry of Transport has begun an investigation into the partial collapse of a new passenger building at Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport, the home of most of the international discount airlines and some of the domestic budget carriers. According to the initial damage assessments, a heavy storm on Sunday evening led to a build-up of rainfall that the building’s guttering…

  • Thailand News

    Nok Air requests operational fee waivers to help restart Betong flights

    I just need a little help from my friends. That’s the song Thailand budget airline Nok Air is singing, as it calls for additional support to cover its operational costs, in order to continue servicing its Betong and Nakhom Ratchasima flights. The news comes just days after the beleaguered airline signed a memorandum of understanding with local tourism agencies to…

  • Thailand News

    Thailand predicts a million passengers to catch flights during Songkran festival

    Airports of Thailand, or AoT, expects about a million air travellers to transit through its 6 airports during Songkran this week. The estimate includes both international and domestic passengers who will catch flights to, from and around Thailand. Since the government scrapped the pre-travel PCR test requirement on April 1, the AoT says that’s the reason the number of travellers entering…

  • Tourism News

    International flights into Thailand up 24% from last month

    While the tourism industry is still a long way from recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, the high season is getting underway, and international flights to Thailand have increased more than 20%. Airports of Thailand reported the increase last night. AoT reported 9,483 of the flights scheduled in landing slots into Thailand were originating from international cities this month, which is…

  • Tourism News

    Airports of Thailand expects 726,000 passengers in November, mostly domestic

    The president of Airports of Thailand says the country’s airports can expect around 726,000 passengers this month, following Thailand’s re-opening. However, Nitinai Sirismatthakarn says most of those will be domestic travellers, with around 270,529 expected from overseas. The Bangkok Post reports that 31 flights, carrying around 2,600 passengers, landed at Suvarnabhumi yesterday. Around 1,500 were international arrivals. Meanwhile, Anucha Nakasai…

  • Tourism News

    Reopening Monday: AoT ready for 30k at Suvarnabhumi Airport

    With the November 1 reopening just around the corner, Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport is gearing up and expects to see 30,000 passenger arrivals on Monday for the first day of reopening. The Airports of Thailand say that they are ready at all 6 of their international airports for the arrival of international tourists again. Current Suvarnabhumi air traffic data shows a…

  • Tourism News

    Foreign airlines give up 80% of their slots at Thailand’s airports amid uncertainty of next 5 months

    The managing director of Airports of Thailand says international carriers have returned around 80% of their slots at Thailand’s airports. Nitinai Sirisamatthakarn says around 80% of slots between October 31 and March 26 next year have been returned, indicating that airlines are uncertain about any imminent recovery in the aviation sector. Airport slots are the landing and take-off permissions that…

  • World News

    Suvarnabhumi’s ranking plummets in World’s Best Airports index

    The results of this year’s World’s Best Airports awards are in, and in the last 10 years, Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi has taken a nosedive from number 13 to 66. The awards, voted for by passengers, are run annually by UK consultancy, Skytrax. This year’s results were decided by an online survey that ran for a 12-month period between August 2020 and…

  • Thailand News

    “Dark red” interprovincial transport ban lifted, flights and bus services resume Wednesday

    The ban on public transportation out of “dark red” zones has been lifted. Following the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration’s decision to ease the restrictions, both the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand and the state-run Transport Company announced domestic flights and interprovincial bus services will resume on Wednesday. While domestic travel from the “high risk” provinces, like Bangkok, there are…

  • Tourism News

    Betong Airport in Yala is almost ready to be southernmost Airport

    Thailand’s southernmost province is set to open Thailand’s southernmost airport as the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand is nearing completion of safety inspections for Betong International Airport in Yala province. The CAAT is doing safety and security inspections now, which will be followed by a license and certification that will allow commercial flights to operate in and out of the…

  • Transport News

    Phuket taxi meeting: 20% fare cut, but doesn’t address gouging

    The Phuket Office of the Public Relations Department has tried to paint a win for a meeting regarding overcharging taxis in the Phuket Sandbox, though the resolutions seem unrelated to the problem. During the meeting, taxi drivers agreed to a 20% discount for all fares until the end of the Covid-19 pandemic but did not address the problem of complaints…

  • Tourism News

    Airports of Thailand president says tourism won’t pick back up until October

    While Phuket’s “Sandbox” travel scheme is poised to reopen the island to foreign tourists on July 1, Airports of Thailand doesn’t expect arrivals to really pick up until October, which is the start of Thailand’s “high season” for tourism. The Tourism Authority of Thailand expects 600,000 tourists to arrive between July and September, but AoT president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn says the…

  • Covid-19 News

    303 staff under Thailand’s Transport Ministry contract Covid-19 in recent wave

    Over the past 2 months, 303 staff under the Transport Ministry, including minister Saksayam Chidchob, have contracted Covid-19. While infected staff just make up around 0.27% of the total staff under the ministry, more than 1,600 staff had to quarantine after coming in contact with an infected person. The agency under the Transport Ministry with the most Covid-19 infections is…

  • Bangkok News

    North expansion project at Suvarnabhumi will go ahead – Transport Minister

    The Transport Minister says expansion plans at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport will go ahead and will include the contentious North expansion project. Saksayam Chidchob’s announcement appears to disregard a recommendation from the National Anti-Corruption Commission, who have previously stated that any expansion should be in line with a proposal from the National Economic and Social Development Council. That proposal suggested the…

  • Business News

    Suvarnabhumi expansion being reviewed in line with “new normal” expectations

    The 44 billion baht northern expansion of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport is being revised, to meet “new normal” requirements, according to Airports of Thailand. AOT president, Nitinai Sirismatthakarn, says the process will take 1 or 2 months to complete. Nation Thailand reports that the airport’s new northern terminal will have the capacity to handle 30 million passengers a year, with Nitinai…

  • Bangkok News

    Airports of Thailand approves Don Mueang expansion

    Yesterday, the Airports of Thailand (AoT) board gave tacit approval of a master plan for the third-phase development of Don Mueang International airport costing an estimated of 39 billion baht. The expansion arrangements includes, increase of the airport’s capacity to 40 million passengers a year (currently 30 million a year), a 3.4 kilometre automated people mover system (APM), new car…

  • Economy News

    Airlines offered drop in landing fees and fuel excise at Thai airports

    Airlines, international and domestic, have been hit hard with the impact on travel following the Coronavirus outbreak. Over the past month there’s been daily announcements of cancellations of flights and rescheduling to cope with border closures and daily changes in the coronavirus evolution. The Thai Cabinet yesterday approved a relief package which had been proposed by the Transport Ministry for…

  • Covid-19 News

    Mandatory sim and app used to track down movement

    A free sim card valued at 49 baht is being provided by The National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC) to every foreigner as well as Thais who had have travelled from countries that have have been designated as ‘high risk’ of Covid-19 infections. These countries include China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Italy, and Macau (as of the time of publishing).…

  • Transport News

    AoT green lights new terminal for Suvarnabhumi to double capacity

    PHOTO: Artists impression of the original Suvarnabhumi terminal – Royal Thai Embassy The Airports of Thailand has approved a plan to establish a second terminal on the northern part of Suvarnabhumi Airport. The board has also agreed to discount landing fees for international charter flights at six airports under AoT control for the next five months. The AoT controlled airports are…

  • Bangkok News

    Meeting planned between Central developer and AoT to resolve luxury outlet row

    PHOTO: Central Pattana Plc Central Pattana Plc (CPN) and Airports of Thailand (AoT) are being asked to sit down and thrash out their differences in a face to face meeting today. The meeting is being arranged by Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob, and comes in the wake of AoT expressing safety concerns over the location of the as yet unopened Central…

  • Bangkok News

    Central Village developer vows to plough ahead with Suvarnabhumi opening

    PHOTO: Bangkok Post The developer of the luxury outlet near Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport is vowing to continue with the opening of Central Village as planned. Airports of Thailand (AoT) is blocking the entrance to the 5-billion-baht development, scheduled to open this Saturday. Central Pattana Plc (CPN) is petitioning the Administrative Court for an injunction against AoT, with CPN President Preecha…

  • Bangkok News

    Plans to ease Arrivals congestion at Bangkok’s airports

    PHOTO: Bangkok.com The government has ordered an increase in the number of check-in counters and officials at Bangkok’s Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi airports from next month. It’s understood that the move is a result of severe overcrowding, as both airports struggle to cope with the growing number of tourists in need of visas on arrival. A government spokesperson says the…

  • Business News

    Minister calls for probe on legality of the new Central Village luxury mall at BKK

    PHOTO: Under construction at the time and now ready to open, but… It’s bright and shiny, it’s new, it promises discounts on luxury goods, it’s next to the airport, it was set to open this Saturday, but is it legal? The Department of Provincial Administration Department has been asked to investigate the legality of the new Central Village ‘Bangkok Outlet…

  • Thailand News

    No more smoking in airports, and no more cheap Thai cigarettes

    Thai smokers are under fire. As of Sunday, February 3, all airports operated by Airports of Thailand (AoT) have been declared no-smoking zones with fines up to 5,000 baht for any violators. AoT has now abolished all smoking rooms in both the offices and passenger buildings in all six airports which they manage. This comes in accordance with the 2017…