AoT president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn today (May 25) the board approved the plans in principle for fiscal years 2019-2023, with each project allocated B60bn, reported the Bangkok Post. (See story here.)
Phuket’s “second airport” is planned to be located in the Khok Kloi subdistrict, just north of Phuket, a senior official at the AoT office at Phuket International Airport confirmed to The Phuket News this afternoon (May 25).
“The planned site covers 4,700 rai, but at this stage the project is still in its policy development stage,” the official said.
Meanwhile, Ban Thi district in neighbouring Lamphun province has been earmarked as the site for Chiang Mai’s second airport.
The two sites are each about 20-30km away from the existing airports, said reports.
Construction is expected to begin in 2019 and be completed no later than 2025, with each facility built to accommodate about 10 million passengers a year, Mr Nitinai said.
AoT board chairman Prasong Phunthanet was cited as saying that the planned second airports would cater to the rising number of visitors to these destinations and ease overcrowding at the existing airports.