The Airports of Thailand (AoT) is poised to unveil the new SAT-1 satellite passenger terminal at Suvarnabhumi Airport this coming September.
AoT’s President, Kerati Kijmanawat, stated that the new terminal would accommodate an extra 15 million passengers annually, thereby escalating the airport’s total yearly passenger capacity to 60 million.
The terminal, sprawling across 216,000m², boasts of 28 contact gates and a designated area for children’s entertainment. It is presently pending the installation of seating equipped with “USB power sockets.”
The airport experienced a surge in passenger traffic by 230.8%, with a count of 31.6 million passengers — 23.46 million from international flights and 8.14 million from domestic ones — from October through May, contrasting with the equivalent period in the prior year.
The airport reported a daily average of around 140,000–150,000 passengers for this year.
Mr. Kerati announced that the AoT is set to address the issue of congestion at the airport’s passport control section by deploying “Auto Channel” machines for incoming passengers from Singapore and Hong Kong the following year.
The initiative will eventually extend to outgoing passengers possessing e-passports from 90 nations, he disclosed.
With the enhancements, Suvarnabhumi Airport will have the ability to serve roughly 8,800 outbound passengers hourly, a significant leap from the existing 6,200, he expressed.
Additionally, it will be able to process approximately 13,300 inbound passengers per hour, a rise from the current 11,000.
The AoT plans to roll out an “Automated Biometric Identification System” featuring facial recognition technology to identify passengers at check-in counters around the middle of next year, he further revealed.
