Thailand's tourist boom puts a strain on its airports

Thailand’s tourism bounty comes with a big challenge for the head of Airports of Thailand: expanding passenger capacity in Bangkok by about the size of South Korea’s population. The company is planning for 90m passengers annually at the city’s main Suvarnabhumi Airport by 2022 and 40m at Bangkok’s low-cost hub Don Mueang International, up from the present combined capacity of 75m, president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn said. The firm operates 4 other airports, including in tourism hot-spot Phuket. "We’re about to invest in 10 years about US$6b for our 6 airports," Nitinai said. The plan for Suvarnabhumi includes adding a concourse to the existing terminal complex by 2020, a third runway the following year and a new international terminal in 2022, he said. <br/>