BANGKOK, March 10 – Airports of Thailand (AoT) is considering building a monorail to Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok as part of its fourth phrase development plan to cope with its increasing passenger flow.
Airport director Jaturongkapol Sodmanee said Monday that AoT had begun the second and third phases of refurbishing Bangkok’s second airport, with a budget of Bt3 billion, covering Terminals 1 and 2 as well as the runways and taxi ways. He emphasised the possibility that a monorail will be built to facilitate the airport’s passengers.
Mr Jaturongkapol said the monorail will link the airport’s two terminals, depot and with both red and dark green commuter rail system lines.
AoT alone can provide budget for the monorail construction. The project will be included in the fourth phrase of the airport’s development plan.
Second and third phase refurbishment includes both Terminals 1&2, a building at the southern part of the airport, the airport’s 5th concourse and its seven-story parking building.
Mr Jaturongkapol said the renovation, due to be completed this year, will help increase the airport capacity to handle up to 30 million passengers a year. The projects will also help facilitate expanding domestic and regional routes to China, Japan and Korea.
AoT aims to offer less than an hour service to domestic flight passengers and less than two hours service for international flight passengers as about 9 million more passengers are expected to travel through the airport in the near future.
The current refurbishment at both Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi airports will soon begin to help the country cope with the constant rise in number of air travellers, up to 90 million a year.
As of now, seven airlines operate at Don Mueang, offering 23 domestic routes and 24 international routes.
