Mr Chadchart visited Phuket International Airport to see for himself the congestion; the airport’s designed capacity is 6.5 million passengers in and out per year but it is currently handling an annual flow of 9.1 million.
Airports of Thailand (AoT) began construction in October with a budget of B5.7 billion, with the work scheduled to be finished in February next year.
Apparently construction is already behind schedule, hence the minister’s speed-up order.
When completed, the expansion will allow the airport to handle 12.5 million passenger movements a year.
Further into the future an additional runway is being planned but no date has been announced when this will become reality.