Thailand's Suvarnabhumi Airport ready for high tourist season

BANGKOK, October 31 (TNA) - Thailand's main Suvarnabhumi International Airport has been well-prepared for serving a surge of global visitors during the current high tourist season, set from October 28, 2012-March 30, 2013. When announcing the readiness, new Thai Permanent Secretary for Transport Wichean Potephosree told reporters that the Suvarnabhumi International Airport is expected to cater up to 23 million global travellers during the five-month high tourism season, or 150,000 global visitors daily on average via some 800 flights a day. Wichean acknowledged that the relocation of AirAsia, a fast-growing low-cost airline in the region, to Bangkok's Don Muang Airport since October 1, 2012 has resulted in less congestion at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport, where international flights have now dropped by more than 134 daily and the number of passengers has fallen by 20,000 a day or by about eight million annually. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), meanwhile, has also prepared for the growing number of global tourist arrivals at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport during the ongoing high season, by moving check-points to a wider space, installing more body scanning machines and setting up 16 additional automatic passport checking systems, to reduce the international passengers' check-in time from 45 to 20 seconds each, enabling the airport to serve some 7,200 passengers per hour from 2,800. The Suvarnabhumi International Airport is now foreseen to cater up to some 44.45 million international passengers in the present 2013 fiscal year, from October 1, 2012-September 30, 2013. (TNA)