CityNews – Chiang Mai Airport will be revamped and expanded so it can handle an increasing number of passengers, it was announced this week.
Plans for the airport are presented at Wednesday’s meeting.
Airports of Thailand held a meeting with the project’s advisory team and representatives of government agencies, state enterprises, the private sector and the local community at the Shangri-La Hotel on Wednesday.
The team noted that Chiang Mai is an important gateway to northern Thailand, and that 80 percent of tourists visiting the country travel by air.
It is forecast that just under 6.8 million passengers will use Chiang Mai Airport this year, and that figure will increase to 13.2 million in 2034.
Chiang Mai Airport is located on 1,650-rai of land, making it the third-largest of Thailand’s regional airports. The expansion will take place in three phases.
The first phase, from 2014 to 2019, will see the expansion of passenger buildings in order to support the increasing number of travellers forecast.
From around 2025, five new airport aprons – where aircraft are parked and boarded – will be added, along with new passenger buildings and a parking lot.
By 2034, the team said, Chiang Mai Airport must be able to support 34 flights per hour and have the capacity to support 20 million people per year, while the warehouse must be able to support 18,500 tons of cargo per year. The airport will also plan routes to solve overcrowding.
The next meeting of the project’s advisory team will be held in November.