BANGKOK, Nov 27 (TNA) – The Department of Airports assured the management of its provincial airports had effective measures to cope with air traffic congestion during the New Year festival as it expected the number of air passengers to rise by 5-10%.
Wittawat Pakdeesantisakul, deputy director-general of the department, said the number of passengers at its 28 airports would rise by 30,000 during the New Year holiday compared with normal traffic. The four main airports of the department in Khon Kaen, Krabi, Surat Thani and Udon Thani provinces would be operating at their full capacities during the period when their passengers would increase by 5-10%, he said.
The department would deploy 2-3 shifts of officials on duty at the airports as airlines already informed it of their plan to increase flights. Mr Wittawat said that the number of flights would rise by 2-4 a day at the four main airports.
He assured that travellers would not experience any flight delay because the department had a good plan for New Year traffic which would not be much different from travel demand in the same period last year.
Mr Wittawat said the 28 airports of his department were capable of serving 20 million passengers a year. The number of their passengers this year would be the same as the traffic last year but the figure for next year should rise by 3% because of expansion at many airports including those in Krabi, Trang, Narathiwat, Khon Kaen and Buri Ram provinces, the director-general said. (TNA)
