Monporn’ prepares to open Runway 3 ‘Suvarnabhumi’ to increase the potential of air traffic services, stepping towards being a regional aviation hub, ready to support tourism and stimulate the economy. It is expected that in 2024, the overall number of flights nationwide will grow by 16% from the previous year, totaling 830,000 flights. The goal for 2025 is to support more than 1 million flights. The ‘Aeronautical Radio of Thailand’ is confident that it is ready to open after preparing for more than 5 years.
Mrs. Manop Jareonsri, Deputy Minister of Transport, revealed that from the inspection of Aeronautical Radio of Thailand Co., Ltd. (AEROTHAI), the focus was on readiness to provide air traffic services in terms of systems, equipment, related facilities, and personnel to fully support the opening of the third runway of Suvarnabhumi Airport, which will allow Thailand to accommodate more flights. In fiscal year 2024, there were 836,513 flights nationwide, an increase of 16% from 2023, while Suvarnabhumi Airpo
rt, the country’s main airport, had a total of 348,980 flights, or an average of 950 flights per day. The overall number of flights is similar to the pre-COVID-19 situation and tends to increase continuously, with a target of 1 million flights in 2025. Therefore, increasing the capacity to accommodate flights is an important mission to drive Thailand towards becoming a regional aviation hub, as well as to accommodate tourism from around the world to stimulate the economy in accordance with government policy.
Mr. Noppasit Chakrapitak, CEO of AOT, said that AOT’s preparations began with the preparation of the operational concept, preparation of data for environmental impact assessment, preparation of air traffic control procedures (ATC Procedures), training of air traffic controllers, preparation of air navigation facilities system (Air Navigation System), preparation of air traffic control equipment system (Air Traffic Management System), design of flight procedures (Instrument Flight Procedure Design), safet
y risk assessment (Safety Risk Assessment) and preparation of the manual of standard operations (Manual of Standard Operations). All of these preparations took more than 5 years in advance. At present, AOT is ready to provide air traffic services to support the use of all 3 runways of Suvarnabhumi Airport.’
The opening of the third runway will increase Suvarnabhumi Airport’s capacity from 68 flights per hour to 94 flights per hour. Meanwhile, air traffic management in the form of Simultaneous Parallel Operations will make air traffic more flexible. In addition, runway management will be more efficient. The runway for take-off and landing will be used as close to the parking bay as possible to reduce the distance and taxiing time of aircraft, resulting in faster and more fuel efficient operations. In addition, AOT has been working closely with airports and airlines to increase the country’s aviation potential.
Source: Thai News Agency
