Thai travelers, foreign diplomats and BOI investors will be among the first to use the automatic passport inspection system to be installed at Thailand’s largest international airport this year.

Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport has invested more than 76 million baht on an automatic “E-Pass” passport inspection system to address the problems of overcrowding at the immigration checkpoints and requirement of hundreds of extra officers. The new system will expedite processing the growing number of visitors as Thailand tourism arrivals are projected to reach 17 million this year.

The Airport Organization of Thailand (AOT) has been working with Thai Immigration officials with the automated system for trial runs with electronic turnstiles borrowed from the Thailand Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

-TN