BANGKOK, Sept 28 (TNA) – The Airports of Thailand (AoT) will continue to improve and expand the country’s showcase Suvarnabhumi Airport with a new budget of 800 billion baht (US$23 million), AoT president Serirat Prasutanond said on the third anniversary of the airport’s opening.

A Buddhist religious ceremony was conducted at the airport on Monday to celebrate the event.

AoT will proceed with long-standing plans to increase the airport’s capacity by investing in construction of a new domestic terminal to accommodate 20 million additional passengers, a midfield concourse and a third runway.

Expanding Suvarnabhumi’s capacity to 80 million passengers from 45 million at present is expected to be completed in 2015 or 2016, said Mr Serirat.

A budget of 80 billion baht has been planned for the project, with about half coming from AoT’s investment budget while the other half will be sought through foreign loans or by bond issues, he said.

(MCOT)