Full SAT-1 opening due early next year
Satellite Airport Terminal 1 (SAT-1) at Suvarnabhumi airport is scheduled to soft launch in September before a full opening early next year.
Kerati Kijmanawat, Airports of Thailand (AoT) president, said the new 216,000-square-metre facility, with space capable of housing 28 aircraft parking bays, will address pain points at the airport.
SAT-1, which can take 15 million passengers per year, will bring Suvarnabhumi’s annual passenger handling capacity to 60 million, he said, adding AoT’s board will be informed of the planned soft opening this month.
AoT will speed up work on the 40-billion-baht North Expansion project which will operate as a domestic terminal, separate from the main terminal. The project is expected to take five years.
As for the airport’s East Expansion project, Mr Kirati said work is expected to begin early next year and be complete in 2027.
The East Expansion project, worth 7.8 billion baht, can take another 15 million passengers.
He said each phase of the Suvarnabhumi airport upgrade is in line with an assessment by the International Air Transport Association which predicts the airport will receive no less than 65 million passengers per year in 2024 and at least 95 million per year in 2028.
The AoT is also gearing up for commercial development of a 723-rai plot of land in the airport compound in line with the Airport City development plan. A market sounding activity is under way with a bidding contest tentatively to be held next year. Construction is likely to begin in 2025 and be complete in 2027-2028.
AoT also plans to improve airport services with some concessions to be reviewed to ensure passengers are offered more alternatives when requiring services such as airport transfer, said Mr Kirati.
The Suvarnabhumi airport upgrade project worth nearly 60 billion baht to support the post-Covid-19 air industry recovery was approved by a panel in 2021. Before the pandemic, the airport had become overloaded, exceeding its annual capacity of 45 million passengers.
Under the plan, three terminals, known as the East Expansion, the West Expansion and the North Expansion, are being developed to increase the airport’s passenger handling capacity by another 60 million.