The chairman of Airports of Thailand (AoT) Plc, Sita Divari, has announced that he had discussed with the Immigration Bureau and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the use of such technology to replace passports at the airport.
With a smart card, he said, it will take a Thai passenger less than 10 seconds at the immigration checkpoint. He added that the use of immigration documents for departure and arrival will also be phased out, which would help save printing costs of around B20-30 million a year.
Mr Sita said the number of passengers going through ther airport is expected to reach over 50 million this year, fgive million more than the airport's design capacity. However, he added, passenger turnover is currently manageable.
In the long run, AoT plans to expand the airport in a second phase costing B65 billion. This is now in the design stage, which will take about 10 months. Construction will begin next March and finish by 2016.