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Thailand's seven major airports including Suvarnabhumi showed steady growth last year, with a 7.7% rise in passenger throughput over the previous year to 57.15 million and a 11.42% surge in aircraft movements to 399,034.
Combined international passenger volume increased at the traditional growth pace of 6.5% to 35.94 million, while domestic passenger throughput leaped 9.9% to 21.20 million, largely driven by low-cost carrier (LCC) traffic.
Total international take-offs and landings climbed 6.95% to 218,604, while domestic aircraft movements soared 17.36% to 180,394, again due to increased LCC flights, according to figures obtained from Airports of Thailand Plc (AoT).
Freight handling rose 1.8% over last year to 1.34 million tonnes, with 1.24 million tonnes being international shipments (up 3%) and 102,000 tonnes domestic, which fell 0.3%.
The bulk of the traffic was through Bangkok's main Suvarnabhumi and its sister airport Don Muaeng, which together dealt with 46.01 million passengers last year, up 6.7%. Aircraft traffic through the two Bangkok airports rose 9.3% to 312,687.
Passenger traffic through the two Bangkok airports accounted for 80.5% of total passenger throughput and 78.36% of total aircraft movements.
The figures underlined the fact that if Don Mueang airport had not been reopened for non-connecting domestic flights in March 2007, congestion at Suvarnabhumi - already one of the world's busiest airports - would be worse as traffic volume would exceed its designed capacity of 45 million passengers a year.
Phuket International Airport continued to ride on the island resort's recovery from the December 2004 tsunami, with a 21% jump in total passenger traffic to 5.7 million. International passenger traffic through Phuket grew much faster than domestic, surging 30.6% to 2.19 million, while domestic traffic showed robust growth of 15.7% to 3.51 million.
Hat Yai International Airport continued its poor performance as security concerns drove foreign tourists away and all carriers cancelled international flights to the city. However, passenger traffic through Hat Yai still increased 8.8% last year to 1.39 million, with 1.31 million domestic passengers (up 13.4%) and 80,000 international (up 34.6%).
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