Airports of Thailand focuses on expanding infrastructure

Airports of Thailand's (AOT's) recently elected president has underlined infrastructure expansion plans.

Speaking at a seminar to mark AOT's 30th anniversary, Serirat Prasutanond recognised that the past two years have been extremely challenging. "We have been confronted [by] a combination of unfavourable factors such as the tumbling of the world economy, a new flu pandemic and Thailand's own domestic political instability," he explained. "It has, of course, affected our results and our forecasts."

AOT manages six airports in Thailand, including Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi in Bangkok, as well as Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Hat Yai and Phuket international airports.

For Prasutanond, AOT priorities remain safety and quality of service with the ambition of getting Bangkok Suvarnabhumi into the top five airports in the world. Improvements for 2010 will include the installation of self-service check-in kiosks. Tests are being conducted with mobile phone operator AIS to offer an SMS service with all details on flight schedules, gates and time of departure.