Airports of Thailand (AOT) has stepped up to the plate after Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin ordered immigration clearance to be expedited at Suvarnabhumi airport to cut long queues.
Mr Srettha, also the finance minister, issued instructions for the airport to work closely with the Immigration Bureau (IB) to provide more immigration officers so that all immigration counters are open during peak passenger hours.
The move was in response to Mr Srettha's latest policy handed to AOT for a facility upgrade and faster services across all its airports, from arrival halls to immigration checkpoints, to boost growth in the tourism sector and turn Thailand into a regional aviation hub.
To elevate services, the AOT has begun enhancement work at many parts of its airports, particularly the main international airports, including Suvarnabhumi, AOT president Kerati Kijmanawat said on Monday.
Since New Year, Mr Kerati admitted long queues and waits have been experienced by passengers, saying that on average, a passenger spent one hour and 10 minutes completing the immigration process during peak hours, as opposed to 46 minutes on average at other times.
This exceeded the AOT's target of limiting the wait to 30 minutes maximum, Mr Kerati said.
The AOT was prompted to improve airport services by Mr Srettha's recent complaint about long queues and the lengthy wait time at Suvarnabhumi's immigration control.
According to him, the AOT will provide 800 additional staff members to support ground handling duties and offer assistance to passengers within the next month. It also asked the IB to see to it that immigration booths are manned at all times during peak hours.
Immigration Division 2, which supervises airports, will deploy 400 extra officers at Suvarnabhumi within the year, starting from March 1.
By July 15, some 80 more automatic passport checkpoints will be installed with more efficient software for inbound and outbound passengers. At least 20 checkpoints will be running by June 15.
Advanced technology will be applied to screen passengers carrying power banks, following a power bank explosion on board a domestic flight from Bangkok to Nakhon Si Thammarat at the weekend. No one was hurt in the incident.
The airports will also end the requirement for passengers to take off their shoes at security screening.
The AOT has installed the Common Use Passenger Processing System (CUPPS) for passengers to self-check in and load luggage and asked 24 airlines to open check-in services four hours before flight departures.
The AOT has projects in the pipeline at Suvarnabhumi, including the construction of a third runway to push the handling capacity of incoming and outgoing flights from 68 to 94 per hour.
In addition, the agency plans to expand the eastern side of the main passenger terminal by 2027, which is expected to create more room for an extra 15 million passengers per year.
The AOT is in talks with airlines to increase flight services at its newly opened Satellite 1 (SAT-1), which has lifted Suvarnabhumi's handling capacity from 45 million passengers to 60 million per year.