Don Mueang Three Phase Upgrade Plan
With Don Mueang Airport now firmly back on the radar as Bangkok's second gateway the AoT (Airports of Thailand) are pursing a 10-year redevelopment plan.
According to details published in The Nation, the first phase is the renovation of Terminal 1 which will be done this year and provide annual passenger handling for 16.5 million.
Going in the second phase starting next year for 48 months Terminal 2 will be upgrade and capacity pumped up to 22.5 million
Last will be the third step and over a 5 year period the domestic passenger terminal undergoing large scale modernizing. Passenger capacity will push up to 27.5 million per year.
As in all things Thailand, warning signs are already out that the expected pace of redevelopment will be caught up and surpassed by growing numbers of low-cost airline passengers from carriers such as AirAsia.
Will this be another case of dead on arrival? One missing link remains the transport link to the city via a similar component as the airport express railway used between the city and Suvarnabhumi.