Passenger volume at Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi Airport reached 47 million this year, a 12 per cent increase from 2010, according to airport spokesperson Wilaiwan Natwilai.

Marking the fifth anniversary of Suvarnabhumi Airport’s opening in 2006, Ms Wilaiwan said that since the start of the 2011 fiscal year (Oct 1, 2010) until present, the airport handled 47 million passengers, a 12 per cent increase from the previous year.

Among the 47 million passengers, she said, 10.28 million were domestic travellers while 36.90 million were international passengers.

Suvarnabhumi Airport reached 47 million this year

Thai nationals comprised the largest group of passengers, followed by Chinese, Japanese and Russian nationals respectively, she said.

Ms Wilaiwan said at the moment, over 120,000 passengers used Suvarnabhumi airport on daily average and it was expected that during the last quarter of this year (Oct-Dec) and the volume of the passengers was expected to increase as the last quarter is the high season for tourism in Thailand.

She said that during Thailand’s high season countries in the northern hemispehere, including Europe, United States and Russia were entering winter, so more tourists would travel to the kingdom.

As for air freight, the airport spokesperson said Suvarnabhumi has handled 1.24 million tonnes of cargoes, a 4.42 per cent higher amount when compared to the previous year.

Domestic cargoes registered 48,686 tonnes, while 1.19 million tonnes were international cargoes.

In response to the increasing annual number of passengers, she said, Suvarnabhumi Airport has improved its facilities including expansion of area for passenger inspections, automatic check-in machines, implementation of body scans for transit passengers, installation of information kiosks, and adding Chinese language at information and direction signs to accommodate the increasing number of Chinese tourists.

Information brochures for free distribution are printed in four languages — Thai, Chinese, English, and Japanese. Additionally, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian interpreters will be provided to help passengers .

(MCOT online news)